Waste of time

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Recently widowed Gene Tierney moves to the seaside with young daughter Natalie Wood to start a new life and escape her obnoxious in laws. The house she picks is haunted by it's former owner, sea captain Rex Harrison. Harrison wants her out, but is not afraid of him and refuses to leave. They agree to share the house, and form a pretty strong relationship until they come into conflict over her relationship with slimy George Sanders. It's striking how much better this film is to just about any similar film made today. It's a beautifully romantic and magical film with a perfect cast ... it would be played for broad, dumb humour today.

It's heartbreaking to see a woman turn down somebody she could literally be with forever, over some lousy bastard, but that happens every day in 'real' life so it's easy to forget about the supernatural nature of Mrs. Muir's true love. It doesn't matter if he's real or not because Rex Harrison would charm your socks off. Mrs. Muir's haunted villa by the sea is a part of the most beautiful landscape that somehow evokes the memories of the love that's lost. I love the shots of the stormy sea. "Muir" is Scots Gaelic for "sea", so it makes a lot of sense for Mrs. Muir to become a sea captain's darling. Gene Tierney is perfectly cast as Mrs. Muir. If anyone wants to see male/female equity on film, I highly recommend this one.

The Ghost and Mrs. MuirThe difference between landlubber and seafaring ghosts is the latter's ectoplasm reeks of chum.Mind you, scent isn't enough to ward of the widow in this romance.Moving with her daughter (Natalie Wood) to a cottage on the English seaside, the independently wealth Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney) soon finds her new home is haunted by the previous owner Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), an ornery sea captain.When Mrs. Muir's fortune vanishes, her transparent tenant proposes she pen his biography, and live off the royalties.During the process, the two grow fond of each another. But when a shifty author (George Sanders) enters the picture, Gregg concedes to his able-bodied competitor.Light on frights but formidable in premise, this unorthodox odd- couple ghost story is a charming romp with loads of ethereal chemistry between the principal leads. But be forewarned, if your ghost boyfriend is abusive no one will ever believe you.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

What's not to like in this film that covers so many categories and comes on top of all of them? The story, of course, is hyper-romantic but it's held in order by an under-stated treatment it so much needs. The music by Bernard Hermann is absolutely perfect in every way, unapologetically romantic and dreamy at the same time and never, never over-stated or saccharine. The leads are perfectly cast and feed off each other beautifully as if they were inventing the script as the events happened, which leads me to the point in particular that surprised me the most: so many writer-directors make films that are labored with verbose scripts which lack anything else but words on paper. Mankiewicz is guilty of this on a number of occasions in other films he's directed but here he is ideal and even memorable in his role as virtuoso director. This is a film to treasure.Curtis Stotlar