Better to get the British version and import it while using a non-regional DVD then sit through the affront to the eyes that the American company is trying to sell us. David Lean's Technicolor is always exquisite, and never more so than in the complicated color designs of BLITHE SPIRIT, in which Charles and Ruth Condomine (Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings) sail through a variety of tweedy outfits that are so brilliantly detailed you can "read" every tooth in the houndstooth. (And Cummings has some wonderful period evening gowns that still look exquisite--she has a lovely figure here and always looks great, even when you're struggling to learn to like her.)

And then there's Elvira (Kay Hammond), summoned back from the dead by whom? (I won't say here, because that's the central mystery of the film, but it's a shocking solution.) Elvira, once Charles's first wife, was a serial flirt and cheater but she had life to her--more so than Ruth, and at first when she returns you tend to like her and her sodden attitude towards everything romantic and divine. In comparison, Ruth suddenly seems ultra middleclass. Hammond, not often seen on screen, makes an indelible impression--she's sort of squat and round, but sexy, she's like Joan Blondell gone rotten--and her wardrobe and makeup add to the impression, for her skin is painted a pale yellowy green and her blonde curls seem waterlogged, squishy, and yet her scarlet nails and mouth are still vibrant and "jungle red," like Kylie Minogue's in her video for her new single "2 Hearts." I wonder if the brainstorming design team always buzzing around Kylie caught a glimpse of Kay Hammond in BLITHE SPIRIT and decided that was the look they want to recreate. Anyhow it's almost like a miasma of death that surrounds Elvira, who is also lit in white, blue and yellow lights so she possesses an altogether different reality than the living mortals she goes around smirking at. It's not horrible but it plays close to it, closer than one ordinarily thinks wartime UK film capable of.

Margaret Rutherford meanwhile is in her own dimension as Madame Arcati, half Girl Guide, half elemental herself, always swinging two or three sets of beads around her neck, always in motion, her tufts of hair swirling all points of the compass as she's always on the lookout for the otherworldly. When Elvira obliges Charles by blowing air onto Margaret Rutherford's cheek, then her bare elbow, and Rutherford explodes into a near carnal ecstasy, it's the most obviously sexual moment in all of Lean's film work.

The story if not the film has held up well over the years. Rex Harrison and Kay Hammond have a fun time rekindling their old love. The only probably is that Charles' dear wife, Elvyra, is dead, and he has to try to convince his new wife, Ruth, that this is a spirit, with a delightfully malevolent quality as it turns out, haunting his life. Unfortunately, the film quality has deteriorated and the technicolor no longer seems so bright. Elvyra is a miserable green, one assumes from envy, to see her husband has a new love in his life, for in her mind nothing could replace the love she felt for him. The story has been told countless times, but the repartee between Rex Harrison and Kay Hammond is hard to match, not to mention Margaret Rutherford taking a wonderful turn as Madame Arcati.

I saw this play done well at the Williamstown Theatre Festival recently. So, I was interested to see how it had been treated on the silver screen. I think 3 of the 4 main characters were done well.

This adaptation fell flat around Kate Hammond's performance as Elvira. She really failed to portray someone you could believe died laughing. The ghastly green makeup didn't help her, either. The director could have convinced us she was a ghost without going the sledgehammer route.

Beyond that there were some minor annoyances. The soundtrack stepped on the dialog at some points, which is especially bad in this sort of piece. The ending is poorer than the stage version. Several bits of dialog that added to the cheekiness of the play were dropped in the adaptation. Finally, the editing was a bit too choppy for my taste.

This is a fine production of an extremely lightweight play. No wonder that so many high schools used to perform it. This is definitely not a "sex romp," as the puff piece states, and it isn't even slightly suggestive in that regard. It's about quarreling, endless bickering about the existence of an ex-wife, a spirit, in the room. The "one-liners" aren't at all amusing, and the ending is as absurd as its beginning. Three cheers for four of England's finest actors. But there isn't much one can do with such a turkey script. If you're into this sort of thing, try Topper. At least it contained some humor.

I love Margaret Rutherford. I think she is one of the funniest ladies I have ever seen. Everything I have seen her in is wonderful. I just wish I could get other DVDs besides the "Miss Marple" series at a reasonable price.