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Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit title card

Year - 1945
Studio - The Rank Organisation
Stars -Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford
Director - David Lean
Writing Credits - Noel Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allen, David Lean, Ronald Neame
Music - Richard Addinsell

Synopsis

Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) needs to research spiritualism for his next mystery novel, so he invites an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to conduct a seance in his home.

The seance results in the arrival of the ghost of his late wife Elvira (Kay Hammond), visible only to Charles. She talks and complains to him constantly, much to the annoyance of Charles' current wife, Ruth (Constance Cummings). It is soon evident that she plans to kill Charles so that he can join her in the hereafter. However, Ruth is killed instead in a car accident meant for Charles.

Blithe Spirit poster

Madame Arcati returns to find a way to send Elvira back to the other side, but the seance backfires and Ruth's ghost joins the household. Now faced with two bickering ghosts, Charles is desperate for Madame Arcati to find a way to banish them. She apparently succeeds, and advises him to leave the home for a long vacation. As he drives off, his auto brakes fail, he crashes, and his ghost joins Elvira and Ruth, waiting for him at the bridge.

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