The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
'Elegance' is a word we've rarely applied to any film we've reviewed over the years.....maybe to some of the Hitchcock thrillers like "Vertigo" and "North By Northwest" and a few others.
You can call it elegance, call it class or something similar.....what we mean is the application of precision, restraint and craft. Add those things to a film, along with artistic inspiration and you've got yourself a classic that will stand the test of time.
Watching "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" again after who knows how many other previous viewings. we're still awed by its sheer state of perfection.....in its acting, production design, sumptuous music score, script and direction. 79 years later, it still casts an emotional spell over us.....(but only if you surrender fully to the story and the world it creates....)
We're back to the kinder, gentler turn of the 20th century in England, where determined widow Lucy Muir, (Gene Tierney) declares her independence from her shrewish, controlling in-laws. With her young daughter Anna (Natalie Wood) and housekeeper Martha (Edna Best), Lucy boldly rents a seaside cottage, even though it's haunted by the spirit of the roguish, boisterous sea captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison).
The reserved but inwardly fearless Mrs. Muir and the brusque, imposing Gregg make an impossibly odd but strangely lovable match that to the subdued melancholy of both, can never be consummated. As their friendship and affection for each other grow over the years, Capt. Gregg chooses to vanish from Mrs. Muir's life, knowing he must let her experience the adventure of living in the real world and finding genuine corporeal romance.
But Lucy's only attempt at giving her heart away ends in such crushing hurt and betrayal that she remains an unmarried recluse for the rest of her life, waiting in hope to be reunited with the dashing Captain Gregg. (The rotten heartbreaking cad by the way, is well played by George Sanders, who'd come specialize in such roles.....)
You can scoff all you like at that plot description but the film presents this paranormal romance with full believability and commitment. Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison's pure and chaste love has wit, charm and a star-crossed aura of inevitable destiny surrounding it. Their story exists in its own self-contained snow globe universe.... and in the midst this mad cruel age we now live in, it's a soothing balm to revisit Mrs. Muir and Capt. Gregg every so often.
The combination of Tierney's exquisite porcelain beauty and Harrison's suave sexuality make them a one-of-a-kind coupling.....they never so much as touch, but you won't have any trouble feeling the longing and desire between them.
And let's now mention another of the film 's primary MVPs.....legendary composer Bernard Herrmann, who drapes the entire film with one of his richest, most achingly romantic scores ever....a score that even the famously cantankerous, irascible Herrmann thought of as his best work.
Which brings us back to that description of ....elegance. You can hear it in Philip Dunne's literate screenplay (taken from a novel by Josephine Leslie) and see it in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's expert, sure handed direction in bringing the best out of his cast.
That, BQ visitors, is what make classic cinema and makes us give this film nothing less than the 5 stars (*****) it deserves.
(And you can get when it hits its 80th anniversary next year, we'll be watching it yet again.)
No comments:
Post a Comment