Blithe Spirit

Charles Condomine, a successful novelist, arranges a séance at his home as research for a book, enlisting the eccentric medium Madame Arcati to conduct it. The experiment appears to fail, but it leaves Charles haunted by the ghost of Elvira, his first wife, who is visible only to him. Elvira resents Ruth, his second wife, and sets about disrupting the marriage, leaving Charles caught between the two women.

The film is an adaptation of Noël Coward's stage comedy, with Coward writing the screenplay alongside David Lean and Ronald Neame and also producing. Lean directed; it followed his In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter and preceded Great Expectations in a career that continued through Hobson's Choice, Summertime, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India. Rex Harrison plays Charles, with Constance Cummings as Ruth, Kay Hammond as Elvira and Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati, supported by Hugh Wakefield and Joyce Carey.

Made in the United Kingdom, the film runs 96 minutes and blends comedy with fantasy. Its critical reception sits somewhat higher than its audience scores: on IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 9,200 votes, on TMDB 7 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes, while the critics' rating stands at 7.7 out of 10 from 23 reviews.