Phantoms on Film
A few DVDs for a dark and stormy night.
I’ve been fascinated by ghosts all my life, and yet I’m also the biggest scaredy-cat ever. This means that I have never seen The Shining, The Exorcist, or It and can promise you that I never will. Instead of terror, I look for the delicious spookiness that comes from gentle hauntings, and over the years, I’ve built up a fairly extensive DVD library of this type of film, which I plan to share with you here. I’m going to skip over movies that you have probably already seen, like Ghost and The Sixth Sense. I hope you enjoy the movies on my list.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1947. This is one of my all-time favorite films of any genre; I watch it several times a year, at least. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and filmed in subtle black and white, it tells the story of an Edwardian widow named Lucy (Gene Tierney) who breaks away from her controlling in-laws by renting a seaside house that was previously owned by Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), a sea captain who reportedly committed suicide in the house. Lucy’s young daughter Anna (Natalie Wood) and maid Martha (Edna Best) happily accompany her, and all three settle into the intriguing cliff house that first day. By bedtime, Captain Gregg has made his presence felt, but only to Lucy. Their early prickly relationship deepens over the course of the film, as Daniel and Lucy become partners of a sort, building a relationship that is both pragmatic and romantic. The ghost and Mrs. Muir find that they need each other.
I’ve wondered if the theme of the dead still being present in their best-loved homes and making strong connections with the living made this film especially appealing to a 1947 audience that had lost so many and so much in World War II. Charles Lang’s moody cinematography, Bernard Hermann’s haunting score, and the gorgeous seaside locations all add to the charm and emotional weight of this movie.
Truly Madly Deeply, 1990. This British film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley) and shot in twenty-eight days. Spanish language interpreter Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is inconsolable months after the sudden death of her cellist lover, Jamie (Alan Rickman). And then one day, Jamie is back, in his former body, able to embrace Nina but always searching for extra blankets because he is so cold. Nina is ecstatic and withdraws from her work, family, and friends to spend every moment with Jamie. Yet the question of how one builds a life with a ghost intrudes more and more into Nina’s mind, as Jamie’s lay-about ghost friends show up in Nina’s apartment to watch videos with their pal. Why, exactly, has Jamie returned?
I would not recommend this movie if you have recently suffered bereavement yourself. The scene of Nina sobbing while meeting with her therapist is one of the rawest and most affecting presentations of grief that I’ve seen in a movie, and the reunion of Nina and Jamie is almost unbearably poignant. I, myself, haven’t watched Truly Madly Deeply since Alan Rickman passed; that might affect my reaction to this positive movie whose motto might be, “Life is for the living.” For me personally, Truly Madly Deeply brings back memories of seeing Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman acting together on stage in As You Like It in 1985. Wow.
From Time to Time, 2009. Directed by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame. Screenplay by Fellowes, based on The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston. Thirteen-year-old Tolly (Alex Etel) is sent to stay with his grandmother (Maggie Smith) while his mother searches for information about his father, who is missing in action. The year is 1944, and the grandmother’s house, Green Knowe, is very old, very dilapidated, and very haunted. In some of his supernatural encounters, Tolly can speak with ghosts, while in others, he witnesses scenes from his ancestors’ lives in the early 1800s that provide information about the family’s strained relationships as well as clues about the long-ago theft of valuable jewels. This movie blends time travel with hauntings, never letting the viewer forget about Tolly’s worries in his own time: the grandmother’s inability to afford Green Knowe any longer, the past strife between Tolly’s parents and Granny, and, most of all, the unknown fate of his father.
Director and screenwriter Julian Fellowes “cast” Athelhampton Hall in Dorset as Green Knowe, and the fifteenth-century stone house certainly has a lot of character, appearing in shades of silvery blue in 1944 and warm gold in 1808. The past is not a kind place, however, and Tolly must watch cruelty and prejudice in the treatment of friends Susan (Eliza Bennett), who has been blind from birth, and Jacob (Kwayedza Kureya), who escaped slavery in the U.S. by stowing away on a ship bound for England. Ultimately, Tolly’s understanding of Green Knowe’s many inhabitants weaves the past and the present together.
Jacob is the hero of the 1808 narrative, a smart, resourceful, and brave young man. However, viewers don’t learn much about his response to being “given” to Susan as a companion—a serious weakness in the film, I think. In his later movie Gosford Park, Fellowes explores the themes of power, servitude, and class, giving the characters opportunities to speak about their roles as servants to the wealthy, but in From Time to Time, Jacob’s exploitation is presented without that commentary. We see him making the best of an abusive situation but, unfortunately, don’t hear his reaction to it. A scene between Jacob and Susan in which they talk about the limitations that other people have put on their lives would’ve been so helpful.
This film has a strong supporting cast that includes Hugh Bonneville, Timothy Spall, and Pauline Collins.
Movies that are notable for a stand-out performance:
Topper, 1941. Starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, this black-and-white screwball comedy tells the tale of a pair of carefree socialites, killed in an accident, who stick around our world for a time in order to teach their earnest banker, Cosmo Topper, how to loosen up and enjoy his days on Earth. I find the tropes of the controlling wife leaching the pleasure out of her husband’s days and of binge drinking bringing spontaneity to life quite tiresome. Still, Roland Young’s performance as Topper is first-class, especially in the scenes when the invisible ghosts are carrying him around and manipulating his inert body—of course, Young is responsible for most of these contortions. The trick photography in Topper holds up well, and I enjoy the clip in which the invisible ghosts straighten Topper’s clothing and comb his hair back in an effort to improve his appearance for the judge who is hearing charges against him—while the judge is watching. Look for Hoagy Carmichael, composer of the classic tunes “Georgia on My Mind,” “Stardust,” and “Heart and Soul,” playing himself in an early sequence. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod.
Blithe Spirit, 1945. Based on the play by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean, Blithe Spirit centers on three remarkably dislikeable people: writer Charles (Rex Harrison again), his second wife, Ruth (Kay Hammond), and his first wife, Elvira (Constance Cummings), a ghost who is summoned back during a séance that Charles has arranged in order to research his next book. Charles can see Elvira, Ruth cannot, and acidic misunderstandings and cross-conversations ensue. Blithe Spirit is saved, in my opinion, by the character of the medium who conducts the séance, Madame Arcati, played here by the inimitable British actor Margaret Rutherford. The love that Madame Arcati has for her profession, her utter delight in having actually conjured up a ghost at last, her joi-de-vivre, and her fondness for sandwiches and bicycling are truly charming. I wish the entire play (and movie) were about her. By the way, if you have seen the play but not this filmed version of Blithe Spirit, you’re in for a surprise or two, which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling.
The Canterville Ghost, 1996. There have been at least six filmed versions of Oscar Wilde’s short story that I’m aware of, with Charles Laughton, Richard Kiley, John Gielgud, Ian Richardson, David Niven, and Patrick Stewart in the title role of Sir Simon de Canterville, the ghost who has been haunting his ancestral home in England for three hundred years. I wish I could say that I’ve seen them all; unfortunately, several versions are quite hard to track down these days. The 1996 film (a Hallmark production) stars Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame as the ghost and Neve Campbell as Ginny Otis, the young American who takes pity on him and endeavors to break the curse that resulted from his terrible crime. Stewart, with his piercing eyes and limber voice, conveys very well the agonized guilt, remorse, and loneliness of Simon de Canterville, and Neve Campbell makes the gradual acceptance and eventual embrace of her new life in England believable.
Ghosts and movies complement each other perfectly in my view. The performances are all in the past, yet they still exist in the movies, conjured up by us once again for a dark and stormy night’s entertainment.