Blithe Spirit (1945)

Why is Charles (Rex Harrison) so blithe? I guess that's the question I never get answered. He's married to a woman for about 5 years, and she dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Seven years later, he's married to another woman, and things seem to be fine.

Then, I guess for fun, they and another couple invite over a weird older woman for a seance. You know she's weird because she rides a bike. Anyway, she doesn't really know what she's doing, and somehow Charles's dead wife crosses over.

This starts what I guess is supposed to be a bunch of funny shenanigans, a hilarious lovers' triangle. And maybe it's serious. Maybe the dead wife is trying to kill the husband so she can have him back on the other side?

I don't know. The humor is 1940s British, but even so, it just doesn't work for me. The female ghost is green, for reasons I never figure out. And while he can't touch her, she can touch and move physical objects. She can even drive a car.

Anyway, the two wives don't get along, and eventually, Charles learns (too late) that the ghost has rigged his car. Unfortunately, it's his living wife that drives off, and she dies.

Here's where things get very blithe. Charles doesn't seem to care that his ghost wife has just killed his living wife. At least he seems to carry on as if nothing has happened. The new wife is a spirit, now, too, although again for reasons I never figure out, we don't see her at first. Eventually, she does materialize, and she too takes on a greenish hue. Why?

Charles's reaction to all this: He plans to leave the house. He must think this is where his wives haunt him, and if he leaves, maybe he can escape them. Wrong.

He takes off and ends up crashing his car as well, and then he's dead, plopped down green between his two green wives for all of eternity.

How strange is that?

Rating: 2/5 stars

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