Written by Philip Dunne and R.A. Dick
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

I’m usually not someone overly fond of dramatic tear-jerker films that often fall into the chick-flick category.  Every now and then, though, one comes along that manages to surprise me.  I’d seen the comedic television series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in reruns during my youth, but had never viewed the original film it was based on until recently.  In many ways, it’s that sort of an emotionally charged, heart-tugging chick-flick.  I cried at the end, and watched it a second time.

In turn of the 20th century London, a widow must push on from the life she knew with her late husband. Lucy Muir (portrayed by Gene Tierney) has lived with her in-laws for some time and is feeling the need to live her own life.

She rents a seaside cottage for herself and her daughter, Anna (portrayed as a child by Natalie Wood).  When Lucy learns the cottage is haunted by the former owner, a sea captain who reportedly committed suicide, she is only more intrigued rather than being chased away.  She soon encounters the spirit of Captain Gregg (portrayed by Rex Harrison) for herself and the two forge an uneasy agreement about her inhabiting the house along with him.

When Lucy’s source of income dries up, her in-laws return, urging her to reconsider living with them. Captain Gregg tells her to stay in the house, and he will come up with some way to help her. He comes up with the idea of Lucy writing a book about him.  They spend a good deal of time together, with the ghostly Captain dictating tales to the woman he calls “Lucia” as she pounds away on the typewriter.

Their truce has grown to friendship and even seems destined to lead to romance, if only the Captain weren’t deceased.  Lucy longs for companionship of the kind the ghost cannot give her.  When she meets the author of children’s books at her newfound publisher, it would seem she is ready to remarry the suave Miles Fairley (portrayed by George Sanders).  Realizing that his presence can only prevent Lucy from actually living a life, Captain Gregg plants a suggestion that all of their interaction was simply a dream and leaves her to live her life without interference from him.

The acting here is first-rate, and although Rex Harrison would gain the most accolades for his later work in My Fair Lady and Dr. Doolittle, I really believe this was one of his finest performances.  Harrison is great as a crusty sea captain who really resents Lucy’s intrusion into his home but is fairly powerless to do anything to chase her out.  To him, it is still his own house. He manages to create a character that’s convincing in how he could frighten so many people away from the cottage while also displaying an underlying warmth which endears him not only to Lucy, but as we will later learn, to Anna as well.  He is quite handsome and dashing, and considering the scene at the end, I found myself wondering if, following his death, he just returned to an age where he was happiest.  I cannot imagine a sea captain of 40-ish retiring to a seaside cottage he had designed and built himself.  These details, and a few others, are never quite explained.

Gene Tierney is quite stunning in the role of Lucy.  She is trying to find herself at a time when women did not do this, in general.  Lucy lived in a marriage that was loveless.  Although her husband wasn’t a bad man, he was unremarkable, and Lucy had married him young.  Women at the time moved away from their own families when they married and were thought to find their own fulfillment as an accessory in their husband’s life.  Lucy expressing to her in-laws the desire to have her own life and the rejection of staying with them was quite radical in this era.  Tierney pulls it off, both the inner strength she draws on as well as the timidity she exhibits in the face of her oppressive in-laws.  Her outfits are stunning and set the tone for both Lucy’s strength and beauty.  These were designed for her by Tierney’s husband, designer Oleg Cassini.  I’m not one to usually notice the costuming, but here it’s quite striking.

I enjoyed the dialogue and how the face-to-face conversations between Lucy and Captain Gregg were handled.  Lucy is determined, for the first time, to do what she wants to do and not be pushed around by everyone else.  The captain has met his match when he runs up against this.

Edna Best portrays Martha, Lucy’s servant and faithful friend.  Right from the beginning, Martha is there cheering Lucy on.  It’s likely that Martha’s social status prevented her from doing much else in life, but the two women eventually seem to be more like companions than servant and employer.  The only time Martha seems to step over the line to Lucy is when Mr. Fairley is in the picture.

Filmed in black and white, it’s still beautiful.  The California seashore doubles for the English seashore throughout the film, although it won’t be noticeable to most of the viewers of today.  Likewise, there are few British accents in the picture, and there’s not much of an explanation for that as well.  Once I was caught up in the romantic tale and seeing how it ended, I really didn’t care.  Tierney is so good in the role that I really didn’t care about whether she spoke with an accent or not.

The DVD is excellent.  The picture is very clean and the sound is good.  That’s good since the soundtrack that goes along with this is quite an accessory to the story.  The commentaries on the DVD are good.  Although in the first one, the two participants weren’t involved with the film, they know a lot about it and provide a lot of the historical background of the era.  It’s interesting to hear the studio notes about what they wanted cut and how they interpreted certain key scenes that were ultimately left in.  I was also surprised at how well done the Rex Harrison biography is, which is also included on the DVD.  I was expecting one of those slide shows that seemed to be something slapped together quickly, and instead it’s a comprehensive biography that includes many interviews, including with his sons.

I definitely want to add The Ghost and Mrs. Muir to my DVD collection.  It might be a “chick flick” but it’s so well done.  I would put it ahead of both Beaches and Steel Magnolias, which are the only other top chick-flicks I really like.  The acting is superb, the story rather simple but inspiring, and it was a nice film to look at.  There are a few moments when it slows down, particularly when it’s showing the passage of time, but otherwise I can’t find fault with it.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary by Gregg Kimble and Christopher Husted
• Commentary with Jeanine Bassinger and Kenneth Geist
• Biography “Rex Harrison: The Man Who Would Be King”
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery