Few motion pictures can boast a love story that echoes through an eternity, but here is a film that certainly can. In the earlier years of American cinema, the role of ghosts and supernatural apparitions was traditionally not to frighten, but rather to aid and educate their earth-bound contemporaries. For at least the first few minutes of the film, 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)' seems as though it might be treading dark and menacing territory. An independent but lonely widow, Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney), still grieving one year after the death of her husband, rents an old and isolated cottage by the coast, where she can live peacefully with her young daughter, Anna (Natalie Wood), and her housekeeper, Martha (Edna Best). From the moment of her first visit, Lucy senses a supernatural presence in the house, but her tendency towards common sense proves dominant. The haunting manifestation turns out to be the home's previous owner, Capt. Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), a gruff and roguish seaman, whose accidental death was misattributed to suicide.
After Capt. Gregg's first appearance, an absolutely stunning entrance from the darkened corner of the room, we find it difficult to keep our eyes off him, a man of rugged looks and personality. Despite his salty and often-crude disposition, the ghost soon comes to respect Lucy's independence and conviction, the two striking up an intimate relationship that inevitability sprouts into love. However, after Capt. Gregg dictates his bawdy memoirs to be published, Lucy attracts the attention of a suave suitor, Miles Fairley (George Sanders). Not wishing to interfere with her romantic desires, Capt. Gregg nobly retreats for an entire lifetime, leaving Lucy to discover that her all-time love may not actually be flesh-and-blood at all. It is this protracted ending that gives 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' the bulk of its emotional power, offering a sense of resolution that surpasses that of almost every other romance ever made. Though Lucy Muir lives the remainder of her life alone and isolated, her memories of Capt. Gregg reduced to a vague inkling of a dream once had, she can never overcome the fact that he is her one and only love. For Lucy, death is not an occasion to be feared, but rather the moment in which her youth is reinvigorated and she is reunited with Capt. Gregg, with whom she can now spend an eternity.
Contributing to the success of 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' is how director Joseph L. Mankiewicz {who also directed the fantastic 'Sleuth (1976)'} triumphantly blends so many cinematic genres. The film contains noticeable elements of fantasy, horror, drama and comedy, but never loses sight of its main role, which is that of a touching romantic fairy-tale. Both Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison dominate the film with their strong performances, sharing an intense, but always enjoyable, chemistry. Additional praise must also go to cinematographer Charles Lang, for his excellent use of shadows and light to evoke mood, and who fittingly received an Oscar nomination for his work. The film is accompanied by a haunting musical score from none other than the great Bernard Herrmann, and the set decoration of the sea-side cottage (by Thomas Little and Stuart A. Reiss) is also notable. 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' is a film that I enjoyed substantially more than I had initially anticipated, and it truly is a triumph of inspired film-making. The combination of clashing genres might easily have resulted in disaster, but somehow Mankiewicz made it all work, and very well at that.
After Capt. Gregg's first appearance, an absolutely stunning entrance from the darkened corner of the room, we find it difficult to keep our eyes off him, a man of rugged looks and personality. Despite his salty and often-crude disposition, the ghost soon comes to respect Lucy's independence and conviction, the two striking up an intimate relationship that inevitability sprouts into love. However, after Capt. Gregg dictates his bawdy memoirs to be published, Lucy attracts the attention of a suave suitor, Miles Fairley (George Sanders). Not wishing to interfere with her romantic desires, Capt. Gregg nobly retreats for an entire lifetime, leaving Lucy to discover that her all-time love may not actually be flesh-and-blood at all. It is this protracted ending that gives 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' the bulk of its emotional power, offering a sense of resolution that surpasses that of almost every other romance ever made. Though Lucy Muir lives the remainder of her life alone and isolated, her memories of Capt. Gregg reduced to a vague inkling of a dream once had, she can never overcome the fact that he is her one and only love. For Lucy, death is not an occasion to be feared, but rather the moment in which her youth is reinvigorated and she is reunited with Capt. Gregg, with whom she can now spend an eternity.
Contributing to the success of 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' is how director Joseph L. Mankiewicz {who also directed the fantastic 'Sleuth (1976)'} triumphantly blends so many cinematic genres. The film contains noticeable elements of fantasy, horror, drama and comedy, but never loses sight of its main role, which is that of a touching romantic fairy-tale. Both Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison dominate the film with their strong performances, sharing an intense, but always enjoyable, chemistry. Additional praise must also go to cinematographer Charles Lang, for his excellent use of shadows and light to evoke mood, and who fittingly received an Oscar nomination for his work. The film is accompanied by a haunting musical score from none other than the great Bernard Herrmann, and the set decoration of the sea-side cottage (by Thomas Little and Stuart A. Reiss) is also notable. 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir' is a film that I enjoyed substantially more than I had initially anticipated, and it truly is a triumph of inspired film-making. The combination of clashing genres might easily have resulted in disaster, but somehow Mankiewicz made it all work, and very well at that.