Comfy, Cozy Cinema 2024 - Blithe Spirit

Comfy, Cozy Cinema is a collaboration of Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
They have a list of movies to watch for September and October. I was late to the game and not having subscribed to any streaming platforms, I probably wouldn't have been able to watch everything, anyway.

I do know "Blithe Spirit", though, which is the choice for this week.
I'm talking about the 1945 movie made after Noël Coward's play from 1941 which he wrote in six days with the intent to give the British people "a distraction from the war, a celebration of British life, and a reason to continue to fight for this life", and which was really popular both in the London West End and on Broadway although some critics did not think ghosts and death were an appropriate topic at the time.
There have been numerous performances of the play over many years.
Also, there is a 2020 movie remake, but it doesn't seem to be very popular. I didn't see it myself.

So, what is "Blithe Spirit" about (major spoilers ahead, so you maybe shouldn't read on if you haven't watched it, but would like to!)?

Enter Charles and Ruth Condomine.
Charles is a writer, Ruth is his second wife, his first wife Elvira died some years ago.
As research for a new novel, they invite a local medium, Madame Arcati, and Dr. and Mrs. Bradman to hold a séance. None of them really believe in séances and they are prepared to be amused rather than convinced that there is a spirit world.
After dinner, Madame Arcati starts contacting her guiding spirit Daphne, a little girl, and the small table is moving violently (as if we don't know the usual tricks how that is done, right?). It becomes even worse, however, after Daphne's voice is speaking through Madame Arcati who then passes out and falls to the floor.
And then Charles is hearing a voice that no one else can hear, so he claims it was just a joke. The dinner is over, the guests are gone, but one "guest" has just arrived - it's Elvira who has come back as a ghost saying Charles has called her.
Now the problems really begin. Only he can see Elvira and Ruth is by no means amused thinking he has just drunk too much until Elvira starts moving things around to prove she is really there.
Ruth calls on Madame Arcati telling her that she needs to get rid of Elvira again who keeps taunting her. Meanwhile, Elvira is trying to take Charles into the other world with her, but her plan goes wrong and instead Ruth dies leaving Charles being caught between two dead wives who are fighting all the time.
Madame Arcati does everything to send them both back into the other world, but all attempts fail - until she finds out that it was actually the maid Edith who had summoned them inadvertently and puts her in trance to send the spirits away which seems to have worked, but soon it becomes clear they are still very much there.
So Charles follows Madame Arcati's advice to go away on a long vacation, but has a fatal accident and ends up as a spirit himself, united with both of his wives.

That ending, which Coward was not happy about, is different from that of the play in which Charles is leaving.
Honestly, though, I think he deserves to be stuck with Ruth and Elvira, and I also think they all deserve to be stuck with one another because I don't really like any of them.
And actually that is what Coward intended, to make a story about death and ghosts that wouldn't upset people even in wartime, simply because none of them is nice.

Charles is best described by the title. He is a "blithe spirit" and seems to get used to the thought of Elvira hanging around quite quickly, even despite her behavior towards Ruth, he really just cares about himself not getting annoyed by it.
I wonder if I like him even less because I never liked Rex Harrison.
Ruth is effective and trying to hold things together, but seems rather dispassionate to me even when worried and upset. It has a bit of British stiff upper lip, you have a problem, you don't show how much it gets to you, you deal with it.
It makes me wonder what ever made them get together in the first place.
Well, and Charles and Elvira together - they weren't such a wonderful couple either which you learn quickly when they are trying to outdo the other by telling them with whom they cheated them during their marriage, constantly provoking each other.

So why do I love this movie, anyway?
It's Madame Arcati of course.
A while ago I read on a page something like "Margaret Rutherford may not be familiar to you from movies" and my first thought was that they can't live in Germany where her Miss Marple movies are still on TV regularly.
I love Margaret Rutherford and she was simply perfect for this role which she also had in the play, by the way.
Many people say she absolutely stole the show and she did.
While it's a pity that she was typecast for the eccentric old lady (not speaking about the story of her life which is sad and quite strange at the same time) as I'm sure she would have been capable of much more , it's how I got to know her as a child and I just love it how she filled those roles.

Madame Arcati is not what you may immediately think of when you hear "medium". Yes, she is a bit crazy, but instead of the turban you see so often there is a slightly messy hairdo, instead of an embroidered kaftan or dramatically flowing garments there are comfy granny dresses, and there's none of the stereotype drama at all.
Actually, she's rather down-to-earth for someone who deals with the supernatural.

So she mentions that little Daphne has just had a cold, poor child (spirits can catch a cold?), she loves bicycling (as did Rutherford herself) wearing one of the wonderful "Miss Marple capes" (I'd love to have one of those), she has a cozy little cottage instead welcoming her guests in a dark room with long curtains, and she's genuinely interested in solving the problem with the ghosts instead of dropping mysterious hints.
Thinking about it, she reminds me of a Swabian grandmother in the olden days, setting out to get things done, only that things are not a garden, dirty floor or making a substantial meal, but to deal with spirits. She doesn't give up to the end and she does it with so much expression and physical input and neverending optimism that she will be working this out.
I'd hire her for a séance in a second just to see that in person!

Now comes the big overthinking that I can't stop.
I wish they had explained the part with Edith, the maid. How did she summon those two ladies? Did she remember what happened? Did she avoid Madame Arcati from now on? Did she find a job with nicer people? What happened to the house? Did Madame Arcati keep trying to send all three of them back now? Did she tell anyone about what happened? Did she ever talk to the Bradmans about it?
I could keep going ;-)

Seriously now, though. Witty dialogue yes or no, without Margaret Rutherford I'm sure I would have dropped out after ten minutes.
Maybe I'll try to watch the German remake from the 60s sometime to see if or how that changes my feeling towards the whole plot and the people.