rex harrison Archives - i luv cinema

For the past couple of weeks I have been going on a bit about the Noël Coward celebration taking place in NYC and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Coward on Film programming series to go along with it. This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of catching a double feature of Brief Encounter and the subject of this post, the highbrow comedy Blithe Spirit.

This was the third of four collaborations between Coward and renowned director David Lean and based on Coward’s long running West End play (ran for nearly 2000 performances – longer than the whole of WWII)!

This screening was especially exciting because the audience was treated to a newly restored 35mm print of the film (in vibrant Technicolor, no less). This guaranteed that seeing it on the big screen would not disappoint. Thank you BFI (British Film Institute).

In terms of plot, the BFI (website) offers this very succinct and on point synopsis:

A harmless séance at the home of novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) summons up the ghost of Charles’ glamorous first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond in a reprisal of her stage role).

With respect to the end product, Coward himself thought the film was a largely inferior product to the stage play. In fact he used words which are not suitable for this website to describe it.

For my part, there were enough moments that had me cracking up, most notably …

The interaction of Charles, Ruth and Elvira in their scenes. I can only imagine how wonderfully this translated on the stage.
The scene in which Charles and Ruth are arguing and the subject of past relationships comes up – “If you’re trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you’ve omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch.” This was line was excised from the American release of the film (deemed too risqué). Source: Wikipedia
The revelation of the cause of Elvira’s death – I was floored!
Madame Arcati’s absent-mindedness and incompetence at 1) not realizing what she has unleashed and 2) her several failed attempts at trying to make it right. Rutherford does scatter-brained very well.

One thing that absolutely DID NOT work to for me was the desired affect was the ~~ghastly~~ ghostly makeup – the ethereal, ectoplasmic other-worldliness that was the goal was completely lost in the Technicolor haze. Instead of Statue of Liberty oxidized green, maybe they should have gone for a white or off white.

Another issue of concern is David Lean’s direction. Granted, this film was quite early in his career (well before the grand, sweeping epics that would become his trademark), but it is clear that his comfort zone is in the realm of drama, not comedy. In fact, Rex Harrison allegedly was not happy with how Lean handled the production.

In the end I was able to overlook these issues because the writing and acting worked well.

A BIT OF TRIVIA: Ironically, according to Coward scholar and introducer of the film, curator Brad Rosenstein, Margaret Rutherford (Madame Arcati) did not “get” the humor of the play or film. This is ironic because she delivers a great share of the laughs in the film.

Night Train to Munich deftly blends romance, comedy and suspense to create a great piece of entertainment. Much credit to this must go to director Carol Reed (of The Third Man notoriety) for his ability to combine all of these elements together.

The plot is somewhat generic for WWII espionage thrillers of the period with a few added twists and turns for good measure:

A Czech scientist has some information the Nazis want. As he and his daughter attempt to flee the impending occupation, the daughter (portrayed by Margaret Lockwood) is apprehended and sent to a concentration camp. She eventually “escapes” and heads to England to find her father, who is hidden somewhere in the country. While there, she comes in contact with British intelligence primarily in the form of Rex Harrison. All of this sets the narrative in motion in a race against time to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on the Czech scientist’s secret.

As previously stated, the plot is somewhat generic for a wartime espionage thriller. Taken in its proper context, this makes sense. The year is 1940 and the film represents a propaganda-styled film designed to boost the morale of a nation deeply in the throws of a war against Germany; at this time England literally must feel like an island unto its own as it is about a year before the United States officially enters the conflict.

According to my research, Carol Reed looked at this film as a “sequel” of sorts to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, made two years earlier. While Night Train to Munich shares many similarities to its predecessor, chiefly (1) a main part of the action takes place on a train; (2) the cast includes Margaret Lockwood and the popular Charters and Caldicott (portrayed by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, respectively); (3) it features a death-defying climatic sequence of events.

But that is where the similarities end. Notable and welcomed additions to this idea are the presence of Rex Harrison and Paul Henreid. In the case of the latter, Henreid puts on display his fine acting ability and succeeds in convincing the audience that he is a bona-fide “baddie.” This portrayal is in stark contrast to his later heroic turns in both Casablanca and Now, Voyager (both from 1942).

Night Train to Munich takes its audience on a fun and thrilling ride from the Czech Republic to England and Germany.

While you may occasionally catch it on cable (I recently watched it on Turner Classic Movies), it is also available on Criterion DVD at several online retail outlets.

Noël Coward/David Lean’s “Blithe Spirit” (1945)

Tuesday’s Overlooked Film: Night Train to Munich (1940)