Main Cast: Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best, Isobel Elsom, Vanessa Brown, Helen Freeman, Natalie Wood, Robert Coote
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
Like its TV-sitcom counterpart of the 1960s, the original film version of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir was based on the novel by R.A. Dick. Gene Tierney plays turn-of-the-century widow Lucy Muir, who escapes her impossible in-laws by moving into an old house on the English seacoast. Despite the warnings of realtor Combe (Robert Coote) that the house might be haunted, the tenacious young widow calmly establishes residence with her young daughter Anna (Natalie Wood) and housekeeper Martha (Edna Best) in tow. Sure enough, the place is haunted by the spirit of its previous owner-a bombastic, profane, yet somehow attractive sea captain named Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison). When Lucy steadfastly refuses to be frightened by Captain Gregg, he takes a liking to her, and the two become close friends (in standard ghost-movie tradition, only Lucy can hear or see the Captain). Realizing that Lucy is in dire financial straits, the Captain offers to dictate his colorful memoirs to her, which she promptly parlays into a best-seller and a lasting literary career. Slowly but surely, Gregg falls in love with Lucy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A beautifully crafted piece of Hollywood fantasy, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a far-fetched but moving fable about a sea captain who haunts a widow. They fall in love as the grizzled captain dictates his real-life adventures to the widow, who turns them into a book. Enormously winning performances from the underrated Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison drive the film, and the direction of veteran Joseph L. Mankiewicz is almost flawless. Natalie Wood plays Tierney's daughter. Stylish craftsman Philip Dunne adapted the whimsical story from a novel by R.A. Dick. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a superb illustration of how post-World War II Hollywood could deftly handle a romantic fable during an era when the movies could deliver escapism without big-budget pyrotechnics. The film ended up being remade as a pedestrian TV sitcom in the late 1960s. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Victoria Horne - Eva; Whitford Kane - Sproule; Anna Lee - Mrs. Miles Fairley; Brad Slaven - Enquiries; William Stelling - Bill; David Thursby - Sproggins; Heather Wilde - Maid; Stuart Holmes - Man on Train; Houseley Stevenson, Sr.
In early 1900s England, Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney), a young widow, moves to the seaside and into Gull Cottage with her daughter Anna (Natalie Wood) and her maid Martha (Edna Best). She rents the house despite rumours the house is haunted, but she is visited by the ghostly apparition of the former owner, a roguish sea captain named Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), who promises to make himself known only to her; Anna is too young for ghosts. When Lucy's source of investment income dries up, he dictates to her his memoirs, entitled Blood and Swash. His racy recollections make the book a bestseller, allowing Lucy to stay in the house. During the course of writing the book, they fall in love, but as both realise it is a hopeless situation, Daniel tells her she should find a real (live) man.
When she visits the publisher, she becomes attracted to suave Miles Fairley (George Sanders), a writer of children's stories known as "Uncle Neddy" who helps her obtain an interview. Captain Gregg, initially jealous of their relationship, decides finally to disappear and cease being an obstacle to her happiness. He ends their friendship and convinces her that he was all a dream whilst she sleeps. Shortly thereafter, Lucy discovers that Miles is already married and she leaves him, heartbroken. About ten years later, Anna (Vanessa Brown) returns to the cottage with a boyfriend and tells her mother that she too spoke with Captain Gregg, rekindling faint memories in her mother.
After a long life spent at the cottage, Lucy dies. Captain Gregg appears before her at the moment of her death – reaching out, he lifts her young spirit free of her dead body. The two walk out of the front door arm in arm, into the mist. She is finally united with her captain.
