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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304442593
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6304442599
Label: Hallmark
Manufacturer: Hallmark
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Hallmark
Release Date: June 24, 1997
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 10610
Studio: Hallmark
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Noel Coward's favorite play was certainly a departure for David Lean, best known for adapting Dickens in the '40s. While it's the director's only comedy, the result is a delightful gem. Rex Harrison is an acerbic author haunted by the ghost of first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond), who tries to seduce him all over again. This throws his second wife (Constance Cummings) into a panic, second-guessing her lack of passion. It's a celestial sex romp that hasn't lost its bite. Margaret Rutherford, as always, steals the show as the sardonic medium. --Bill Desowitz
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "Over the top like a flash and skimming down the other side like a dragonfly!"
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - One wife too many
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - Where's the "blithe"?
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.
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Rating: - Barely passable
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Wy is this movie so expensive
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.
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