This will be my first addition to my movie section of rachelspineapples. I believe this particular film is more than worthy of being the very first entry. I’ll begin with an overview.
The Ghost and Mrs.Muir, 1947, Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney
The Ghost and Mrs.Muir, 1947, starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney is a wonderful, emotionally-moving film about a turn-of-the-century, paranormal romance. Gene plays Lucy Muir, a widowed mother who leaves the home of her overbearing in-laws for a new start on the English coast. On arriving with her young daughter, played quite adorably by a very young Natalie Wood, she more-or-less forces a silly realtor to allow her to rent a particular home she feels almost spiritually drawn to. We quickly discover that the house is being haunted by the original owner’s lingering ghost, Captain Daniel Gregg, played to perfection by Rex Harrison.
I must take a moment to say, if you’ve never taken the time in your life to watch Rex Harrison movies?… SHAME ON YOU! THE MAN IS NOTHING SHORT OF BRILLIANT!!! Now then, Lucy’s unyielding stubbornness collides in a most hilarious fashion with Daniel’s foul mouth and cheeky quips. Thus begins a relationship built on mutual misunderstanding, insults, and masked affections. As you may have guessed, eventually they come to trust one another, but living in divergent spiritual planes becomes an ever-increasing issue as the film progresses. The plot thickens further when antagonist and seemingly steadfast Miles Fairly (played by George Sanders, whom you all may remember as Sher Khan from Disney’s The Jungle Book) is introduced as the third peg of the film’s love triangle. Will Lucy and Daniel ever be able to acknowledge their feelings? Will Lucy find love with Daniel? Or forgo that love for that of a more logical choice, i.e. a living, breathing man?
From here on out, this article is going to run rampant with spoilers.
In my opinion, the ending is extremely bittersweet. Every character in the movie is played to perfection and the humor is undeniably funny. The movie produced the more-or-less logical ending that I expected. Daniel leaves her forever in the hopes that she will find a nice, young man to marry and live the rest of her life with. Lucy, whose dwindling memories of the Captain increasingly are looked upon as passing dreams, lives the rest of her life alone. This, in part, is because Miles Fairly turns out to be a lying, jackass (just as Daniel predicted, by the way).
By the end of the movie, Lucy has aged tremendously (and still looks fabulous) and passes away in the same rocking chair and situation that her love with Daniel began. Daniel appears almost instantaneously, taking her hand and pulling her from the chair. Lucy, whose spirit is young and spritely again, stands next to him and they walk out the front door of the house on the seaside that brought them together. They will live eternally together in the afterlife, young and perfect.
Bittersweet? Yes. Could there have been another alternative ending? Hardly. Without the plot having something introduced (e.g. a curse, spell, or second chance for Daniel in the living world), that’s the only way this movie could have had happier, more satisfying ending. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would watch it again and again and again. Partly, because of my deep-seated love for Rex Harrison.
This movie definitely receives 10 pineapples!
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