Finding love in the afterlife

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A lonely English cottage by the sea, its only occupants being a widow who needs a new lease on life, her honest maid, and the widow's daughter who sees more than she lets on. This could be a movie with Maureen O'Hara and set in Ireland and not make much difference at all, but instead we got marvelous Gene Tierney as Lucy Muir and witty, highly frank and unpretentious Rex Harrison as a ghost who had been an adventurous sailor back in the day. Nope, unlike the TV series, this is not an uproarious comedy but a fairly straightforward, seemingly elegiac romance between two electrifying leads who make this sing with all the glory and escapism we expect.

Apparently, the cottage is haunted and the clumsy real-estate agent (Robert Coote) tries to convince Lucy Muir not to buy the lovely home, facing the sea in a village named Whitecliff. Still, despite the relatively muted hauntings that never seem to bother the maid  (Edna Best) nor Lucy's daughter (Natalie Wood), Lucy loves the new house though she has reservations about the painting of a sailor, Daniel Clegg (Harrison). Of course, the hauntings are courtesy of Daniel who is as blunt as a whistle about everything and makes his presence known to Lucy. She is about to lose the cottage due to limited funds so Daniel pledges to her that everything will be fine as long as she writes a book about his exploits, a yarn without any compromises and with all rough language intact ("blasted" is a curse word in the early 1900's).

"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" is stirring entertainment with truly astounding, dreamlike black-and-white cinematography lensed by Charles Lang. Every shot on the countryside by the cliffs is strikingly photographed and mesmerizing - you get a real feel for the environment such as the little dirt road leading to cottage, the vast rolling hills, etc. Interior shots are also well-designed as we feel we live in the cottage with Mrs. Muir. Added to the visual tableau is the always sublime presence of George Sanders as a charming though deceitful children's author who has romantic inclinations with Lucy. The jealousy shines through and adds tension when Daniel disapproves but he is only a ghost and knows no actualized romance could exist.

Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz with the finesse towards actors he always showed, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" also delves deeply into Lucy's resonating love for Daniel and the disapproval by her maid of other men in her life such as the deceitful Sanders, as if Mrs. Muir was destined to be alone till death. It is a sad, slightly ambiguous picture of a woman who would rather see love in death than in life.

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