dglink
An independent minded widow with a young daughter decides to free herself from her late husband's overbearing sister and fawning mother. Harboring a desire to live by the sea, the widow, Mrs. Muir, overrules the objections of a local real estate broker and rents the charming Gull Cottage in Whitecliff-by-the-Sea. Mrs. Muir, played by the incredibly beautiful Gene Tierney, soon discovers the root of the brokers objections: the cottage is haunted by its former owner, a wily sea captain, Daniel Gregg. Undaunted, Mrs. Muir adapts to the situation, and, when she runs low on funds, the ghostly captain dictates his memoirs to her, which she then attempts to publish. Needless to say, the widow and the lusty spirit have a mutual attraction to each other; opposites do attract.Ably directed by the formidable Joseph L. Mankiewicz, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" overcomes the implausibility of its premise to enchant viewers willing to indulge in a sentimental, but engaging love story. Tierney's acting talents never matched her ethereal beauty, and she often seems too cool and icy to convince as the love interest of an earthy man who has seen the world and sampled all its pleasures. However, she is adequate in the part, although Rex Harrison as Captain Gregg steals every scene he plays with her. Harrison appears to relish the juicy part and playfully toys with Tierney and other non-spirits, especially during an amusing scene with Mrs. Muir's visiting in-laws. George Sanders is on hand as a caddish artist, who unwittingly becomes the third member of a romantic triangle that includes a spectral rival. Nine-year-old Natalie Wood has a small part as the young daughter, Anna Muir, and Edna Best, Robert Coote, and Anna Lee also have small, but well played roles.Mankiewicz utilizes footage of waves pounding on the shore and a deteriorating post with young Anna's name carved upon it to show the passage of time. However, the film actually feels short; the later years pass too quickly to fully appreciate Mrs. Muir's aging and loneliness. However, Charles Lang's Oscar nominated black-and-white cinematography captures the cozy feel of Gull Cottage, full of shadows, nautical paraphernalia, and a hauntingly bold portrait of the deceased captain. Equally fine are Bernard Herrmann's score and Philip Dunne's screenplay, adapted from a novel by E. A. Dick. Rare is the film that a viewer wishes would last longer, but "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" is among them. More playful scenes of Rex Harrison harassing the living, more depth to the relationship between Mrs. Muir and Gregg, and a better sense of the long passage of time following the early eventful years would be welcome. However, the quibbles are minor, the film is a treasure, and viewers will likely want to revisit Gull Cottage regularly over the years.
disinterested_spectator
It is axiomatic that when a character in a movie falls asleep, there is a good chance that what follows is a dream, especially if that person falls asleep in a chair (falling asleep in a bed is too ordinary). And so, when Mrs. Muir, who is a widow, falls asleep in the chair of the allegedly haunted house she is renting, we are suspicious, especially when Captain Daniel Gregg makes an appearance. Is the ghost real, or is she just dreaming him?In any event, they get acquainted. And when she finds she is hard pressed for money, she becomes a ghost writer for this ghost, telling his story as a sea captain. When she falls in love with Miles Fairley, the captain decides to take his leave. He tells her while she is asleep that he is only a dream, and that she wrote the book herself. Now, is this a real ghost telling her this, or is she just dreaming that a ghost is telling her he is a dream?Years later, she sits in the chair and falls asleep again, and so once again we wonder if what follows is another (the same?) dream. The scene that does follow is one in which she finds out her daughter Anna is about to be engaged. Anna and Mrs. Muir have a talk in the kitchen, where it turns out that Anna had seen the ghost of Captain Gregg too, when she was a child, and they discuss whether they both saw a real ghost or simply had the same dream.This is followed by another scene many years later, in which Anna writes that her daughter, Little Lucy ("Lucy" being the same first name as Mrs. Muir), has married a captain (an airplane captain, but you get the idea). Mrs. Muir is tired and decides to take another nap in that same chair. She falls asleep and dies. Or she falls asleep and dreams that she dies. Or she is still in the first dream, and she dreams that she dies. And by now we are completely confused as to what is real and what is a dream.However we interpret this movie, it has a rather paradoxical attitude about marriage. On the one hand, it follows the usual Hollywood line for that period that marriage is essential for happiness. On the other hand, there is an undercurrent throughout the movie that marriage is not conducive to happiness. In the opening scene, Mrs. Muir announces to her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, with whom she is living, that she is going to get her own place and move out, along with her daughter and her maid. Her in-laws object, suggesting that it would be indecent. To this, Mrs. Muir responds, "I've never had a life of my own. It's been Edwin's life and yours and Eva's, never my own." Since there is no indication that her husband was a bad man, the implication would seem to be that there is something oppressive about marriage itself, that it involves the sacrifice of one's life for the sake of others.After Mrs. Muir rents the house, Mr. Coombe, the man who brokered the deal for her, comes to visit her intent on proposing marriage, saying that she needs the "protection of a man," which is absurd, coming from someone like him, with his high-pitched voice and nervous manner. Captain Gregg is disgusted, referring to him as a "herring-gutted swab," and gets rid of him by causing Coombe's car to start rolling away by itself.After Mrs. Muir writes the book, she takes it to a publisher, where she meets Miles Fairley. She falls in love with him. We are suspicious of him, because he is played by George Sanders, who often plays characters who are smarmy and decadent. She intends to marry him, but it turns out that he is already married with children. Worse yet, his wife knows that Fairley does that sort of thing to women on a regular basis, and it seems to be no big deal to her.In a subsequent scene, however, Mrs. Muir tells Anna she saw Fairley years later at a dinner party, where he cried because his wife had finally had enough and left him. She also mentions that he was "bald and fat." But if Fairley had turned out to be a decent man, and had married Mrs. Muir, he would still have become bald and fat, because that happens in a marriage, even a good one.When the old man carves Anna's name into a post on the shore, he tells her it will be there forever and a day. And yet, as the years pass, we see it slowly rot away and fall over. Is this not a metaphor for marriage, which begins with the illusion that love will last forever, only for it to slowly decay and fall apart?Now, we know that the idea is that for a woman to be happy, she must marry the right man, and the right man in this case is Captain Gregg. And so, at the end of the movie, when she dies, and she and Captain Gregg are together again, apparently forever, we know that she is finally happy. And she and Gregg both have their good-looking, youthful appearance, forever apparently. In other words, Gregg will never become "bald and fat."The three real men in Mrs. Muir's life, her husband Edwin, Mr. Coombe, and Miles Fairley, were not suitable for her for different reasons, and only a dream-ghost was the right man. The message seems to be that a truly happy marriage is itself a dream, and that in real life, one is better off remaining single. As Mrs. Muir says to her daughter, "You can be much more alone with other people than you are by yourself, even if it's people you love."
gavin6942
In 1900, a young widow (Gene Tierney) finds her seaside cottage is haunted...and forms a unique relationship with the ghost (Rex Harrison).While not the most celebrated film of its era, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" has a few accolades to its name. The film received a 1947 Academy Award nomination for Cinematography, though it did not win (and rightly so). The American Film Institute (AFI) has included it among its lists, including "100 Passions" and nominations for "Film Scores" and "Fantasy Film".The horror aspects are very light, despite taking place in a haunted house. A realtor and some nosy in-laws are scared off, but for the most part the ghost of the captain is just salty, not actually violent or malicious. He is somewhat possessive, though, forcing Mrs. Muir to go decades without any romantic pursuits.In some ways, this film might be dated and may not appeal to today's audiences. Whether or not Mrs. Muir is a strong woman is hard to say, and the way the maid is treated is rather insulting. But it is not a bad movie, and a good example of the early directing talents of Joseph Leo Mankiewicz, who would go on to make "All About Eve" (1950). (Incidentally, Mankiewicz had previously directed Gene Tierney in "Dragonwyck" alongside Vincent Price.)
