Blithe Spirit (1945) on Netflix
Charles Condomine, researching an occult novel, has Madame Arcati hold a séance at his home. The ritual returns Elvira, his first wife, audible only to him, while his wife Ruth doubts him.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.0/109,455 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes78%
Trailer
Plot summary
Charles Condomine is at work on a novel about the occult, and to gather material he asks Madame Arcati, who calls herself a medium, to hold a séance at his house in Kent. Ruth, his wife, and the Bradmans, George and Violet, struggle not to laugh while Madame Arcati performs her rituals and goes into a trance. Charles then hears Elvira, the first wife he lost, though nobody else can. He passes the moment off as a joke. Once the guests have gone, Ruth will not believe he was serious; Elvira appears in the room and only Charles sees her. He is troubled and amused at once. When Charles insists that Elvira is present, Ruth takes it as mockery and goes to bed. Elvira comes back the next evening.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Blithe Spirit (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Noël Coward advised David Lean to "just photograph" his hit play, but Lean added exterior scenes and a new ending in which Charles dies and joins his two wives as spirits; Coward charged Cineguild with ruining the best play he ever wrote.- Margaret Rutherford said the shoot "seemed to go on for ever": Blithe Spirit took six months instead of the planned twelve weeks because of difficulties involving the color stock.
- In the film, Charles's risqué line to Ruth, a warning that she has omitted episodes from an inventory of his sex life, was considered extreme by censors and deleted from the US release.
- Associate producer Anthony Havelock-Allan blamed the film's failure on casting Coward insisted on: Rex Harrison was not middle-aged enough, and Kay Hammond, brilliant on stage, did not photograph well and was outshone by Constance Cummings.
- Noël Coward turned down Hollywood's offers for the film rights, saying that previous American versions of his plays had been "vulgarized, distorted and ruined".
