The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Starring:Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best, Vanessa Brown, Anna Lee, Robert Coote, Natalie Wood, Isobel Elsom, Victoria Horne, Heather Wilde, Houseley Stevenson, Stuart Holmes, William Stelling, Buster Slaven, David Thursby, Helen Freeman, Whitford Kane
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

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Joseph Mankiewicz's moody classic is less ghost story than romantic fantasy, a handsome 1947 drama of impossible love set on the picturesque turn-of-the-century New England coast. Independent young widow Lucy Muir (the luminous Gene Tierney), desperate to escape her uptight in-laws, falls in love with a grand seaside house and moves in, only to discover the cantankerous ghost of the hot-tempered Captain Gregg (a histrionically flamboyant performance by Rex Harrison). Lucy refuses to let the bombastic captain frighten her away, earning his respect, his friendship, and later his love. They team up to turn the captain's salty memoirs into a bestseller, but as his affection grows he fades away, leaving Lucy free to undertake a more worldly suitor, notably a charismatic children's author (George Sanders at his smarmy smoothest) with his own guarded secret. Charles Lang's melancholy black-and-white photography and Bernard Herrmann's haunting score set the tone for this sublime adult drama, and Tierney delivers one of her most understated performances as the resolute Mrs. Muir. Mankiewicz turns this ghost story into a refreshingly mature and down-to-earth romance. --Sean Axmaker

Description

A romance between a young widow and a sea captain's ghost weaves a magical tale of immortal love. Determined to live her life the way she wants, newly widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) declines her straitlaced in-laws demand that she live with them and moves with her daughter (a young Natalie Wood) to the seaside into a cottage haunted by the handsome, blustering Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison). A deal is struck between the two in the wee hours of the morning allowing Lucy to stay in the house and the captain to materalize only in the master bedroom. As they gradually get to know each other better, Lucy's spunk and stubborness gains first the captain's grudging respect, then his heart. But when another man woos Lucy, both must face that her future lies with the living, not in the spirit world.

Customer Reviews:

Deeper, Richer, and More Complex Than Its High Concept Romance Suggests .......2007-06-30

THIS REVIEW REVEALS SPOILERS ABOUT THE PLOT. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW THE PLOT DEVELOPS, DON'T READ THIS REVIEW

I saw "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" years ago on television. I was just a kid and I noticed, mostly, the high concept romance: A spunky, living, twentieth-century woman is in love with a pre-feminist, sea captain ghost. I enjoyed the film's wit and romance, but then I filed it and forgot about it, thinking of it as a clever concept, but not a classic.

Because my own reaction to the film was rather shallow and cliched, I thought that the film itself was rather shallow and cliched, that it was just about its obvious wit and romance, with nothing deeper there.

I recently rewatched the film. I saw the same amusing, stylish, witty, clever, high-concept romance -- living woman loves ghost -- that I had seen for the first time as a child. But there is a whole 'nother movie here beneath the surface style, a movie of great depth.

As soon as the score began, while the Fox logo was still onscreen, I was all atremble, as if bewitched, with goosebumps and near tears. That score brought home to me the story and its attendant feelings of profound yearning and mystery.

Perhaps I had registered all this when I had seen it as a child, but not consciously.

Ken Geist, who offers commentary on the DVD version, said this about the score:

"I can't really say enough about it ... it's haunting; it's the most haunting thing about this ghost picture and he brings to it the same quality of his haunting movie with Hitchcock, 'Vertigo.' I think that Bernard Hermann is a great film composer, from 'Citizen Kane' right through to 'Taxi Driver' and this may be his finest...it's wildly romantic."

There is the feminist subtext. Significantly, the film is set in early twentieth century England, the place and time of sufragettes. Women were breaking new ground. Lucy Muir, the lead here, breaks new ground by leaving her in-laws, living alone, and making her own living.

Charles Lang's black and white cinematography is perfection, and it serves the story's various elements: its spookiness, romance, and humor, in turn -- perfectly.

Rex Harrison is a revelation. Yes, this is a romance; it's not great literature. And yet, like great literature, it takes on big, universal themes: the passage of time, mortality, yearning, the complexities of love, the limitations of the legendary loves.

Harrison's performance serves these themes in this frame perfectly. His Captain Daniel Gregg is a bit of a cartoon, but beneath the cartoon's exaggerations, you sense a real living, breathing, man, a boy who ran away from home and went to sea; his adopted mother yearning for him as his living lover would yearn for him once he died.

I can't think of any other actor who could have performed this role with the utter perfection, the combination of intelligence, conviction, generosity, focus and flair that Harrison gave it.

Gene Tierney is incredibly beautiful and that makes her believable as the target of the captain's yearning. she doesn't work 100% for me, though. She is perfect in "Laura" as the beautiful blank screen on which men project their fantasies; she's also perfect in "Razor's Edge" as a schemer.

I never see Tierney connect with the women in her audience, though. I don't sense that she's up there doing what she's doing for *me,* and the rest of the women in the audience, as I do with other female stars, from Garbo to Jane Fonda.

I would have liked to have seen Olivia de Havilland in the Lucy Muir part. She has that impossible combination of incredible, Fairy Queen beauty, plus human warmth and spunk so necessary in a romantic heroine.

Too, Natalie Wood as Anna Muir is woefully underused. Did director Joseph Mankiewicz not realize what a goldmine of charm and talent Wood was? A scene where Lucy and Anna perform their mother-daughter bond would have added depth to the film.

When i saw the film the first time, I had found George Sanders as Uncle Neddy / Miles Fairley to be a shallow snake in the grass and operator.

Viewing it this time, though, I see that Miles is as human as Lucy and Daniel, with his own tragic incapabilities. Daniel can't be a real -- flesh and blood -- man; Miles can't be a real -- stand up -- man. Sanders' eloquent face, half supercilious, half tragic -- renders Miles' failed manhood poignant and tragic.

Just as Daniel and Lucy yearn for what they can't have -- a flesh and blood romance -- Miles yearns for some impossible romance he can't have, and so he chases women by moonlight, and abandons them in the day.

"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" highlights gender differences in love. Lucy Muir yearns for a man most women would love to meet -- a manly, strong, competent leader of men who is also dedicated to her, hangs on her every word, helps her around the house -- he even helps her with her in-laws.

In helping Lucy, Daniel is not belittling her; he leads her to become her best self. He rescues her financially, but, in that rescue, he reinforces her own strengths, strengths she had not been aware of before him. Finally, he sacrifices himself utterly for her, going so far as to remove her memory of him in order that she can live a happy life without him.

What a man. Does he exist? If he did, he'd have a very long waiting list of women trying to get to him. This man may not be just a fantasy in the movie; this man may be a fantasy in life, as well.

This film poses the question: Is there such a thing as a soulmate? Someone you are destined to meet, no matter what intervenes between you and that person? Does love transcend death?

Girls Night In.......2007-06-29

I love this film. I always have. From the opening credits with that sweeping Bernard Herrmann score you know you're in for a treat; the duel delights of a "real" ghost and love story in one film. Rex Harrison is completely cantankerous and sexy at the same time and Gene Tierney is as always "exquisite" even in black and white.

I have been a fan of the talents of Bernard Herrmann ever since I first became aware that he was responsible for providing the perfect backdrop for suspense in Alfred Hitchcock films. He does a beautiful job here continually reminding the audience with the plaintive strain of strings that these two lovers are "star-crossed" by death itself.

Then, of course, the best part is that Death intervenes again and gives them a second chance at love.

I recommend this to anyone who loves Love and happy endings with a "twist".

Gift was broken.......2007-06-27

The DVD froze on scene 15 and it was a gift so I had to get it from a different source-I was not happy at all.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.......2007-06-25

The ever-talented Mankiewicz's deeply romantic "Mrs. Muir" is pure Hollywood fantasy, driven by the entrancing presence of its two fabulous co-stars. While a love story between a gruff dead seaman given to salty turns of phrase and a gorgeous grieving mother might sound a bit hokey, the chemistry between Tierney (radiant as ever) and Harrison (quite dashing as an unapologetic man's man) is not only credible but winning. Worlds better than its `70s TV spinoff and heartier than latter-day imitations like 1990's "Ghost," this is one cinematic haunted house you should be sure to visit.

bewitching romance.......2007-05-29

THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR is a top-flight romantic story...where the leads don't even kiss. But more about that later.

Young widow Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) packs up her little daughter (Natalie Wood) and moves to the windswept English coast. There she falls in love, first with an abandoned mansion overlooking the sea; and again with it's mysterious occupant, Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison)...a ghost.

Despite their obvious differences, Daniel trusts Lucy enough to help him write his memoirs. The money will help Lucy stay in the mansion without having to bother her tiresome in-laws. Along the way, their special friendship blossoms into love, but could a ghost and a mortal ever find a common ground for happiness?

Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison deliver gentle performances in this very singular love story, based on the bestselling novel by R.A. Dick. Tierney is especially grand here, in a rare departure from the noir dramas that had catapulted her to super-stardom.

THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR was filmed in 1947, a period in Gene Tierney's private life when she was under much emotional strain. Her marriage to fashion designer Oleg Cassini was beginning to unravel, and her young daughter Daria was institutionalised due to severe physical and mental disabilities (sustained during pregnancy when Tierney came into contact with a fan who was sick with German Measles). Despite what must have been happening in her private life, her performance as Lucy Muir is so delicate and nuanced, and simply perfection. Everyone falls in love with her, including the audience (and Tierney's costumes here were designed by Cassini).

The film also features an early performance from child star Natalie Wood (her role is relatively minor and she only features in a handful of scenes). The supporting cast includes George Sanders, Edna Best, Vanessa Brown, Anna Lee, Isobel Elsom, and Robert Coote.

(Single-sided, dual-layer disc).

Average customer rating:

Deeper, Richer, and More Complex Than Its High Concept Romance Suggests
Girls Night In
Gift was broken
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
bewitching romance

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir [Region 2]
Starring: Gene Tierney , Rex Harrison , George Sanders , Edna Best , and Vanessa Brown
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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