Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day is my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I’ll pull a previously unseen film from my collection and discuss it here. Each movie will have some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member.]
First of all, Happy 5 month anniversary to AMAD! It feels at once like it couldn’t possibly already be 5 months of this column and like how could it only be 5 months?
And we have a great film to discuss on our quintaversary, 1947’s romantic fantasy drama THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR starring one of cinema’s most beautiful leading ladies Gene Tierney as the titular Mrs. Muir, a widower who moves into a lovely seaside home haunted by the previous owner, a sea captain named Daniel Gregg, played by Dr. Doolitte (Rex Harrison).
Tierney play Lucy Muir as a very strong woman with a cyclone of emotion whirling just below the surface. She is determined to get out of the shadow of her dead husband’s family and has built up a substantial layer of thick skin, a natural defense that might make her appear headstrong and cold to some.
When she sees the empty house, she somehow knows this is her place, despite the nervous real estate guy trying to dissuade her. The place comes fully furnished, so when Mrs. Muir steps inside she can immediately tell, in a way, that the previous owner is still a part of the house.
Tierney moves in with her maid and young daughter, played by Natalie Wood… yeah, THAT Natalie Wood, fresh off her star-making role in the original MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET and good 8 years before she solidified her place in film history in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
Mrs. Muir is immediately confronted by the ghost of the sea captain, but in subtle ways. The lights are out and he keeps blowing out her candle, leaving her in the dark. He’s essentially trying to annoy her out of the house.
But unlike the previous likely buyers, Mrs. Muir won’t put up with this shit and demands he show himself. That he does, appearing out of the shadows and being rather upfront with the lady. His wishes are for the house to be donated as a home for retired seamen, not to be reinhabited by a bunch of women.
This conversation, in the kitchen, is when I really started to fall in love with this movie. The chemistry between Harrison and Tierney is perfect and the clash of personality makes for great entertainment. He’s a little pissed, quite vulgar (for the time, when consarnit and blasted weren’t acceptable for use in conversation), but once the surface emotions calm a bit we find he’s a caring soul.
In that respect, he and Mrs. Muir have a lot in common, they just are opposites of each other. She bottles her emotions up inside, keeping a calm, poised exterior and he’s the opposite, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. But when all that is brushed aside and all we’re left with are the real people they’re pretty perfect for each other.
Too bad he’s dead.
The two end up striking up a deal that as long as she leaves the house to the old seamen when she dies, she and her family can live there… and she also has to keep his old bedroom, which is kinda creepy. They even have a scene where she undresses, covering up his portrait and thinking she’s alone… only to have his disembodied voice tell her that she should never let anyone tell her she doesn’t have a wonderful figure.
I know they did a TV series of this in the ‘60s, but I’m shocked that this hasn’t been remade. The original is a period movie, too, set in the 1900s, not the ‘40s, which gives it a kind of timeless quality to it and Harrison and Tierney are very natural in their roles, not theatrical like some of the actors of their time period. The whole thing is easily watchable even under contemporary expectations.
I’m greatly surprised no one has approached Russell Crowe about being the ghostly seaman and someone like Jolie or maybe even as young as Natalie Portman to be the young widow.
It’s such a sweet love story, innocent through and through, but almost tragic because their love is impossible. She’s living and her desires have to stay in that world.
In some respects, this is a Peter Pan story as well and Mrs. Muir gets to a point where she doesn’t need Captain Gregg anymore and can move on.
This comes in the form of a love interest, another writer named Miles Fairley (Geroge Sanders) who helps her publish Gregg’s biography. But there’s something insanely creepy about the guy that I wasn’t sure was intentional until well into the movie.
When he first meets Tierney, he pretty much stalks her. He’s charming about it, but he’s always leaning in too close and every time they share a scene together I just found myself uncomfortable.
Even though you can view this movie in many ways as a tragedy, the ending will send you away smiling and thinking that no matter how much hardship and pain Tierney has endured, she came out on top and got everything she ever wanted.
If you rewatch the movie or watch it for the first time, keep an eye out on the camerawork. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (director of previous AMAD Sleuth as well as a couple upcoming titles) is a big reason why the film feels as contemporary as it does. The actors do their job to keep the movie from feeling too theatrical and Mankiewicz keeps the camera moving and really using it to tell the film’s story visually throughout. Look especially at the moment when Gregg first appears as Mrs. Muir is napping, how it sweeps the room, pulling into an over-the-shoulder of Rex Harrison looking down on Gene Tierney.
Final Thoughts: THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR is a beautifully executed story that will work for anybody who considers themselves romantics. Gene Tierney was rarely any more beautiful than she is here and I think a lot of that has to do with the vulnerability of her character, which was probably being informed by her true life, which was a very sad and tragic story. If you want to find out more about her life check out her Wiki Page. The film is a definite recommend, though and I think in many ways it’d make a great double feature with CASABLANCA in terms of a perfect romance that has no possible way of ever working.
Here’s what we have lined up for the next week:
Monday, November 3rd: THE FLYING TIGERS (1942)
Tuesday, November 4th: EXECUTIVE ACTION (1973)
Wednesday, November 5th: THE BUSY BODY (1967)
Thursday, November 6th: IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963)
Friday, November 7th: LIBELED LADY (1936)
Saturday, November 8th: UP THE RIVER (1930)
Sunday, November 9th: DOCTOR BULL (1933)
Yep, as you can see we have a few John Ford comedies on the list. Looking forward to hitting those, but I’m also really looking forward to hitting that run of Robert Ryan movies. I love me some Robert Ryan. See you folks tomorrow for John Wayne war goodness (hopefully).
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
