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Summary: "Blood and Swash" by Capt. X
Review: There are very few movies from the 1940s that I absolutely love - I'm only 17 years old - and this is one of them. The acting is great. Gene Tierney is beautiful, Rex Harrison is perfect for the part of the Captain, and George Sanders is up to his usual slyness. (He plays a similar character in "Rebecca" and his distinctive voice was used for the bad guy, Sher Khan the Tiger in "The Jungle Book" animated Disney movie from the 70s - that's how I first knew who he was as a kid) - and the mood is such that the film brings you into the world of the characters so well and keeps your attention. The film doesn't take long to get where it's going, and there are even some laughs along the way. My girlfriend is usually very reluctant to seeing old movies, but she relented this time and actually ended up loving it too - the ending even made her cry. You know a movie can't be bad if it gives you goosebumps either...If you have musical ears, you might recognize the hauntingly familiar music of Bernard Herrmann who wrote the music for several Alfred Hitchcock movies (Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest)...and don't miss 8-year-old Natalie Wood as Gene Tierney's daughter.
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Summary: Lovely Film Highlighted by Gene Tierney's Quiet Performance
Review: I had never heard of this film until I happened to catch this on TV late one night. I thought it was a charming romantic fantasy, but I was especially drawn to Gene Tierney's quiet, wistful performance as a widow who falls in love with the ghost of a sea captain (nicely played by Rex Harrison) when she moves into an old house on the coast. The direction, the acting, the script, the cinematography, etc. were all superbly executed: the film moved to me both to laughter and tears. I loved the poignant ending, too. Overall, an overlooked gem of a movie.
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Summary: Tierney at her best--Great Package, lots of extras
Review: 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.
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Summary: very nice DVD version of Great Romantic Film
Review: This is a wonderful romantic fantasy that tells the story of young widow (beautiful Gene Tierney)who moves into the seaside house of the late Captain Gregg (played with bluster by Rex Harrison). The captain first tries to scare the widow away, but soon they team up so that she can stay at the house. They both fall in love with the other, but neither can express their love to the other. The ghost leaves Mrs. Muir (and blots her memory of him), but they are ultimatley reunited in a very touching scene at the end of the film with her death. The film has a wonderfully atmospheric score by Bernard Herrmann (I believe it was his favorite) and a great performance by the caddish George Sanders. This charming film is a most definite buy! The DVD has a very sharp, crisp printing of the films with excellent sound - the commentaries that accompany the film are very good and informative, providing a lot of informaiton on how the film was shot and also how Herrmann scored the film. There is a nice one-hour biography on the career on Rex Harrison, along with the usual theatrical trailer.
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Summary: Hauntingly Beautiful!
Review: Admittedly, I'm a lover and a total pushover for movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. It doesn't even have to be a great movie for me to find something to appreciate...as long as it was filmed in the 1930s, or 40s. However, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is different...it's a rare cinematic gem, even among the many true classics from this period. It's not just a ghost story, but an unforgettable tale of unrequited love. Gene Tierney plays the beautiful, but unworldly Lucy Muir, while Rex Harrison plays the crusty "no longer of this world" sea Captain, Daniel Gregg. Once the widow Muir moves into the home of the long dead captain, things really start getting lively. Gregg, unhappy about his home being invaded, sets out to haunt Lucy Muir and her little family until they decide to leave. However, the feisty and brave Lucy refuses to be either haunted, or intimidated. Daniel, moved by Mrs. Muirs strength of character, as well as her great beauty, both inward as well as outward, finally relents and allows Lucy, her daughter...played by a very young Natalie Wood...and faithful housekeeper Martha to stay. All goes well until Lucy discovers that the small income left by her husband is gone and she now faces ruin, not the least of which is the loss of Captain Gregg's home by the sea. To keep Lucy from losing everything, Daniel comes up with the idea of writing a book..."ghost written" by him, but with all the credit going to Lucy. The book is published and is wildly successful, however, during the writing the two have fallen hopelessly in love. It's only when Daniel sees Lucy with a man who is very much alive... and played to perfection by George Sanders...that he finally realizes that he must disappear so that Lucy can have the earthly relationship she needs and deserves. However, love, even with ones feet firmly planted on solid ground, is not always possible. The ending of the movie does reaffirm for us though, that as elusive as love may appear...as invisible as it may seem...it's around us all the time. The farewell to his beautiful "Lucia", is one you will never forget and it's easy to understand why Harrison was called "Sexy Rexy" back in the 40s. He certainly was. There is real chemistry between Harrison and Tierney and the dialog is crisp and intelligent. The cinematography is a work of art and as for the soundtrack, it's Bernard Herrmann's finest...absolutely gorgeous. All-in-all, this is one of the best from the Golden Age of Hollywood and a must have for anyones movie collection.
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Summary: Poodle rates this 5 wags of a tail
Review: This great film touched me deeply.
I love everything about it.
Please do not forgett the tissues.
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Summary: An unusual film with spectacular music and cinematography
Review: More of a romance and a mood piece than a ghost story, this lovely little one-of-a-kind work from Fox (of all studios) brought out the very best in most of the people concerned. The score by Bernard Herrmann, has been justly praised again and again, and its evocative and sophisticated (and extremely non-sugary) romanticism it rivals his later beautiful work for Hitchcock and Truffaut. The gorgeous cinematography (eloquently described on the commentary by Greg Kimball) is exceptional, with exceptional black and white tonalities and use of mise en scene. And Gene Tierney, that most beautiful and inconstant of Hollywood actresses, was never more up to a script than here: her manneredness never seemed more charming, and she is quite fine in her later scenes when she's asked to be her character in middle age (and then old age). Only Rex Harrison, in a barking performance as the dead Captain Gregg, doesn't seem up to standards of the others. The film has nice extras, especially in Kimball's very informative commentary, which gives fine background material about how things were filmed and how Fox operated.
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Summary: A HAUNTING ROMANCE
Review: This is simply one of my favorite films EVER, and the DVD does it full justice with some excellent extra features - in fact, I'm actually surprised Fox went as far as they did for this film. I think I watched it 3 times the week the DVD came out, and have watched it since. This is the film I recommend to people who aren't sure what happened to Old Rose at the end of James Cameron's TITANIC - I never watch the final scenes of MRS MUIR without a lump in my throat and flowing tear-ducts - Ah, to be in love like that!
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Summary: A woman is drawn to a house with a ghost
Review: Mrs. Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) wants to live on her own now, one year after her husband's death. She has a little girl too, played by Natalie Wood. She's been living with her husband's family and they object to her leaving and with the girl. But she had the girl before she lived with them. She decides to go live by the seaside, with the income from her husband's gold shares, and buy Gull Cottage. She finds the house charming, but the agent says it is the wrong house to live in. They discover together the house is indeed haunted. The original owner was Captain Gregg who died four years earlier. She buys the cottage anyway. All moved in, strange things happen. The ghost watches her while she slepts. Eventually, she requests the "cowardly ghost" to speak up. And so he does. he makes his presence known as Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison). That's just the beginning of the film. A tv series "The Ghost And Mrs. Muir" (1968-1970) appeared starring Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare with Charles Nelson Reilly. DVD contains, audio commentaries, theatrical trailer, still gallery and 44-minute biography Rex Harrison: The Man Who Would Be King.
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Summary: WHAT YOU'VE MISSED!
Review: 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."
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