Customer Reviews

Ghost & Mrs Muir

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a gloriously charming romantic comedy/fantasy, that should be shared with everyone.

Gene Tierney gives a tender performance as the widow, Lucy Muir, who decides to leave the home of her stifling, controlling in-laws to make a new life for herself and her young daughter Anna (Natalie Wood). She chooses a seaside cottage, although she is warned not to take it, and when she visits the residence she finds out why she has been cautioned - the place is haunted by a grumpy sea captain, Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), who very much wants things his own way. Despite her delicate femininity, Lucy refuses to let Gregg intimidate her, and moves in. Their relationship, at first a bickering one, becomes one of mutual interest and it blossoms as Lucy (whom Gregg christens Luchia) finds that she is bankrupt and can't afford the house, so helps her write a novel based on his seafaring adventures. As they fall in love, it becomes very complicated, as he is a ghost and she is among the living, and when George Sanders' untrustworthy rake comes into Lucy's life, Gregg makes the painful decision to leave and tells Lucy as she slumbers that it was all a dream - she wrote the book, she dreamed him up, although there is regret as he takes one last longing look at her. Lucy resumes her life, having completely forgotten about Daniel, only to discover that her flesh and blood suitor has a wife and children, and Anna Lee shines brightly in her small role of Sanders' long-suffering but understanding wife.

As time passes, Lucy every now and then has a tinge of remembrance, but it's not until her now grown daughter (played by Vanessa Brown) comes home for a visit and talks of a handsome sea captain who engaged her in conversation when she was a little girl . . . . . . . .

Although she again dismisses it as a dream, Lucy appears to be serenely at peace, and time passes and she becomes elderly, she dies in her sleep in her favorite chair, only to be greeted by Daniel, who extends his hand to her, and her young and vibrant spirit exits the cottage with him . . . . .

I can't think of a lovelier ending for this movie, or a better revelation that young Anna also made Gregg's acquaintance. Bernard Herrman's score, somewhat echoing some of his work for Hitchcock, fits the story beautifully. You can't help but love Daniel's references to his monkey puzzle tree, and the sense of humor when he advises Lucy to tell her in-laws to "shove off!". Everything in the film echoes the influence of the ocean and its romantic associations - even the surname of "Muir" is symbolic, since translated from Gaelic it means the sea. I don't think that was a coincidence, and the fact that Gene Tierney was of Irish descent makes this film all the more perfect . . . . . . . . .

Into the sea of love divine, where it is no longer a dream . . . . . .

This is quite possibly my very favorite movie. Wonderfully written, acted and set, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir will be a favorite for the whole family.

I had an interesting experience with this film. I was cajoled into holding a movie night at my home for a church youth group. I agreed on the condition that I would get to choose the movie. The moans and groans were audible when I announced that the evening fare would be The Ghost and Mrs. Muir starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierny.

After just ten minutes into the film the snide remarks ceased and you could have heard a pin drop so intent were the young guests upon the movie. And, no, they were not asleep. After the film ended I asked them how they liked it. One sixteen-year-old young man, an avid movie buff in his own right, said that he loved the film. I asked whether he liked it as well as Titanic, then very popular at the theaters. To my absolute surprise he said that he thought that the Ghost and Mrs. Muir was as good as Titanic.

You will never think of Rex Harrison in the same way again. Harrison's Captain Daniel Gregg is, as his character says in the film, "a man's man." His chemistry with Gene Tierny, as Mrs. Lucy Muir, is absolutely charming. A young Natalie Woods and George Sanders (you'll will remember him as the voice of the tiger in Disney's original Jungle Book) round out the cast.

If you haven't seen this film, in the words of Captain Gregg "Oh, what you've missed."

What's to say, about a true classic film staring Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney and George Sanders?

If anything would convince a doubter, that ghosts exist, this film would.

A marvellously entertaining and well crafted film, adapted from an excellent book and brilliantly acted by outstanding actors.

One can only ask (with complete confidence)that the movie be seen and thoroughly enjoyed.

Gene Tierney gives a performance so smooth that you can't believe it. She makes Rex Harrison's performance work, she is balance, determined in a very quiet way she dominates. The commentaries on the score, and the performances are excellent, except for Kenneth Geist, who is thankfully been edited short. Geist who thinks this is a man's picture is critical of Tierney who carries this picture. What a bore this would have been without her. He even suggest that the lovely Claudette Colbert was wanted and needed for the role. Just as we are so lucky that she was unable to do Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE, we are so lucky to have the subtle Tierney here. She is excellent--I was lucky to see Colbert with Harrison in a romantic comedy in the last year of his life at the National Theater in DC, they were wonderful together, she had to feed him lines to keep it going, but turning this into what the fabulous Claudette did well, suggestive comedy, would not have made this wonderful picture the gem it is. This film is moody and different, and thank God Mankiewicz, a true wonder, and Geist, a man who praises the great George Sanders in one of his most forgettable performances, and knocks Gene who carries this film didn't get their way. No one notes that Tierney was a lover of Jack Kennedy, even though they note that her husband, Oleg Cassini, designed the famous Jackie hats and clothing for Jack's funeral. If you look at Gene you see a resemblance to Jackie in carriage, manner and speech. This is a great film, buy it. By the way there are three other commentary's that are on the money--in fact the best I've heard. The package is impressive.

The DVD edition of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is worth the price. A beautifully produced film, Ghost is a fine example of the old studio system at its best. The cinematography (Charles Lang), set decoration, and the wonderful score by Bernard Herrmann help make this film shine decades after it was first produced. Gene Tierney, at the height of her popularity and star power turns in an excellent performance as Lucy Muir. Her Lucy is a warm yet vulnerable woman longing for a loving relationship. Little did she know that her soul mate would be a dead sea captain. As strange as the plot sounds, the story works incredibly well. Rex Harrison was never better as the ghost of Captain Gregg and he and Tierney have genuine screen chemistry, it's a shame this is their only film together. The DVD has some interesting commentaries and other extras including production stills showing the cast and crew in casual/candid poses. It also includes a biography of Harrison. Too bad they didn't include one on Tierney, especially considering her importance to the Fox studio during the 1940s. Some minor things that bug film buffs is the changing of the star billing. Tierney was top billed, but on the DVD cover packaging, Rex is top billed. This is supposed to be part of the Fox "Studio Classics" series, so I don't know why they don't keep to the original billing, artwork, and so on. The packaging also says this film was a 1942 Academy Award nominee, which is impossible since the film was released in 1947. The movie and the transfer rate five stars, but the packaging is probably about a 3.5. Would have liked to have seen them do as good a job with Ghost as Fox did with The Day The Earth Stood Still. All in all, this DVD is still worthy of any buff's film collection.

i am an avid collector of classis films, have been since i was 18 years old. i am now 36. i actually watched this film in it's entirety for the first time tonight. it was great!! i thoroughly enjoyed this timeless classic. the price is a bargain, especially since it includes ample special features.

regarding the DVD transfer, i noticed some of the other reviewers complained about the lack of clarity of the picture. i personally thought it was good. although i wouldn't say it's superior, but it's certainly above average. it's worth the price.

..., imagine my knocked-to-my-feet surprise when I discovered this earlier, period, version of the same romantic charmer!! As another critic so masterfully captioned earlier, the true beauty of GAMM is that its romance is fully realized, courted, and even consummated without its two protagonists ever having physical contact. How *can* they, when one of them is flesh and the other isn't. But they do court- first in genteel, witty, one-upmanship banter between the sexes, then in gradual, verbal revelations of their most private and personal thoughts, all the while realizing that their individual stubborness and fire is exactly what attracts them to one another. (Listen especially to passages like Lucy describing her late husband- but not with much affection, or the Captain first talking about his rite of passage with an older woman.) Every time they speak they truly enjoy each other's company (the conversation on the train is especially fine) and there is an unspoken yearn to take their friendship to the next level. When Lucy finally utters the sad line "what's to become of us," you realize that their relationship can never really materialize. The later epilogue, where an older Lucy tries to remember the Captain for her teenage daughter- and the daughter's revelation that she knew about him too- is at once lovely and bittersweet. Bernard Herrmann's score? No words are adequate.

I first saw this film as a child, and fell in love with the story, the charactors and the simple beauty. As an adult, I find it still has the same incredible mysteries that keep me entranced. The writing is o-k at best -- the story a bit over-done -- but the romance is beautiful as are the sets and the feeling at the end that you really can find forever love with your true-soulmate. I have seen it on television, on video and even in a movie theater -- and when I just need a good cry that will leave me feeling good and refreshed -- this is where I go! Hope Lange lovers beware -- there is nothing of the sit-com in this stunner!

When Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison) utters this lament, you can't help but swoon. And why is that? Because "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" captures a fear we sometimes have,--"What if there is a person just right for me, but we never meet in this life?" and then puts a spin on it--"Well, suppose you could, if there were such a thing as a ghost!" Captain Gregg has only been dead for four years when Mrs. Edwin Muir (Gene Tierney) rents his Gull Cottage, so they have only just missed each other temporally. Yet they forge a relationship, at first rusty as he must adjust to her settling in, then companionable as her collapsed finances force them to collaborate on his memoirs, then -- but what else can there be, since he's only a ghost? The attraction for me here is Captain Gregg's longing for what he can never have, having to remind Mrs. Muir ever so gently of the sad truth of their predicament: She, "What's to become of us, Daniel, of you and me?" He: "Nothing can become of me. Everything's happened, that can happen." What a lonely, tragic thought, and the brooding, hard to grasp score by Bernard Hermann helps carry the mood of a strange dream of which we can remember only snatches when we unwillingly awake. Captain Gregg eventually realizes he must relinquish his love to live her life among the living, even though he doubts a happy outcome to her infatuation with a suave gentleman author, Miles Fairley (George Sanders). But love is about sacrifice sometimes, and even a ghost can feel pain but do the right thing. Everything about "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" fits together beautifully: the score, as mentioned before; the set of Gull Cottage, built in tasteful nautical style; the costumes designed by Oleg Cassini, then married to Gene Tierney; and the actors, competent and evocative. Cater to the romantic in your soul--see this movie as soon as you can.

Widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) is being stifled by female in-laws. In her efforts to escape she needs to find something affordable for her and her daughter Anna (Natalie Wood.) It turns out to be a perfect (large) cottage by the see with the view obscured by a knarly monkey tree. Soon she realizes she is not a lone. The ghost of the former owner, Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), refuses to give up the house. Lucy also refuses to be frightened off. So the have to make arrangements. In the process they get to know each other and form affection. Looks like Lucy's funds are running out; so she with the help of the captain (a ghost writer) writes his memoirs as "Blood and Swash" to be published. In the process of getting the book published she meets a not so dead Uncle Neddie (George Sanders.) (Exit Captain Gregg) Uncle Neddie has a few surprises of his own. Now she is starting to believe she made up the captain. Years later here daughter now grown (Vanessa Brown) will tell her that she too knew the captain.

You will want to watch and see how all this comes about and find out how it will all turn out.