Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The (1947)
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Honors:
This supernatural love story adapts the 1945 novel of R.A.
Dick (the pseudonym of Josephine Leslie), transporting audiences to the English
seaside in a tale where love transcends the bounds of the physical world.
Despite the English setting and a predominantly English cast, the film was shot
entirely within California, within the Fox studio lot or along the Pacific coastline,
but effective retaining the depiction of the British feel to the feature. It’s
unique tale of relations surpassing the supernatural realm would be not only a
well received love story for its time, but inspire future tales of
human-paranormal interaction spawning into a loosely inspire television series
decades later.
The Ghost and Mrs.
Muir is a fantasy romance about a young widow who finds herself falling in
love with the ghost of the sea captain who haunts her seaside cottage. Set at
the dawn of the 20th century, while attempting to distance herself
from the troubles of her past, the young widow Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) relocates
herself and her daughter Anna (Natalie Wood) to a distant and affordable seafront
cottage, affordable due to its supernatural activity. The mysterious apparition
is that of an old sea captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), who chooses to only reveal
himself to her, forming a unique bond between the two. With time they grow
found of each other with Gregg helping Lucy to afford the money to purchase the
cottage with proceeds from ghost writing him memoirs.
Despite the two growing close, Gregg feels he can only hold
Lucy from the happiness life can give her, encouraging her to find a living
male companion, leading her to meeting and falling in love with writer Miles
Fairley (George Sanders). Gregg’s initial disapproves of Miles, but decides to
leave the cottage and Lucy’s life for the sake of her happiness, erasing
memories of himself from her mind upon departure. However, Lucy is heartbroken
to discover Miles is in fact married with children, leading a second life as a serial
adulterer. Lucy lives out her days in the cottage and in time is briefly reminded
of Gregg when an adult Anna (Venessa Brown) shares her previously unshared
encounters with his ghost. Decades later in her advanced age Lucy passes away
in her beloved cottage, at which point Gregg returns to her, inviting Lucy to
join him as they pass together into the misty afterlife hand in hand.
The film is a rather slow and somewhat lackluster ghost
story turned romance with moments of playfulness and romantic jealousy that does
not pay off until the final ten minutes when the plot significantly picks up
the pace and concludes with a heartwarming ending. It was difficult to to get
into for most of the picture with the slow, meandering plot. The feature consists
of a respectable runtime of 1:45, but takes most of it to simply build characters
with relatively little drama. One can easily piece together the idea that the
movie ultimately is a love story between Lucy and Gregg by way of the title and
observing the first act, but is difficult to become attached to the love story
between woman and ghost. Of coarse this is all to build up emotion separation
and return of the two in the end. The movie’s ending is overall, but the movie feels
lopsided as it takes 1:35 to set up Lucy and Gregg’s year long relationship and
the remaining 10 minutes hurtling through Lucy’s next 45+ years of life. Some
may want to know how these years were spent by Lucy, but the plot comes together
in the speedy conclusion.
Initial rumors placed the picture to be a vehicle for a
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, but Tracy deciding to decline Hepburn soon
followed thereafter. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz helming only his forth
picture was reunited with star actress Gene Tierney, with whom he worked with
in his directorial debut Drangonwyck,
cast opposite of the respected Rex Harrison. Tierney’s performance as the lead
character leaves a bit of wanting in a rather flat delivery. However, this was due
in part to altering her initial portrayal of Lucy which she represented more
playfully. After seeing the dailies studio and director decided they did not
like this depiction, to the reshoots of Lucy as a more melancholy character we
see here. Harrison coming off his performance in Anna and the King of Siam was on a signifigant rise in his career, on
his way to becoming one of the better known dignified actors of his day.
The balked love story between Lucy and Miles brought
together best by the performance of George Sanders as the suave author of
children’s books under the pen name of “Uncle Neddy.” His character has all the
perfect hints of being the manipulative man, but with his distinct air that
leaves you questioning how true he is. Of coarse, he turns out to be a terribly
womanizer, but at the onset of this discovery Sanders does not reappear during
the remainder of the picture, only mentioned off screen as becoming an
unattractive drunk whose life crumble years after Lucy distances herself from
him. Sanders continues to be a wonderful actor for villains, even in this
subtle role.
Sanders’ performance in a way overshadows the two stars of
the feature, becoming the most memorable in the feature. Not much can be said
about the rest of the supporting cast, as they tend to come and go in snippets
as the plot focuses on Lucy. Veteran actress Edna Best features strongly as
Lucy’s housekeeper and best companion, a role that represents how the
unconditional care for Lucy, who falls into a world of selfishness within the
plot. Lucy’s daughter Anna is portrayed by up and coming child actress Natalie
Wood for much of the feature, giving way to Venessa Brown as Anna ten years
older and on the brink of marriage. Wood is not given any material to shine in
this picture, compared to Miracle on 34th
Street, and Brown’s performance can be likened to a poor man’s Teresa
Wright.
The picture would open to generally positive reviews with
hints of negativity to Tierney’s unremarkable performance. The feature would be
praised for its beautifully simple cinematography and clever use of portraying
Rex Harrison as a ghost with minimal camera tricks. In the 1960s the film would
inspire a television series of the same name under a similar premise, but
utilized the ghostly character for its humor, lacking the romance. Of coarse
the story idea of a person with a ghostly friend that only he/she can see selectively
scaring others is a premise that would play out many times in movies and
television for years to come. Today The
Ghost and Mrs. Muir is film remembered for its unique romance and
heartwarming ending, making it one of the better known romances of its day.
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