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The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
In the classic fantasy romance weepie, set at the turn
of the century, from director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with exceptional
Academy Award-nominated cinematography by Charles Lang Jr.:
- the beautiful seaside locale - the picturesque English
coastal village of Whitecliff-by-the-Sea, where young, strong-willed,
and widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) moved with her 9 year-old
daughter Anna (Natalie Wood), into a residence known as Gull Cottage
- the sequence of Lucy's first sighting of a spiritual
presence in the house, who was attempting to scare her with lightning
strikes, gusts of wind and rain; she challenged the ghost to speak:
("Are you afraid to speak up? Is that all you're good for, to
frighten women? Well, I'm not afraid of you. Whoever heard of a cowardly
ghost?"); the cantankerous sea captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison),
Gull Cottage's ghostly former owner who, four years earlier, had
allegedly committed suicide (it was actually an accidental gas asphyxiation),
finally responded: "Light the candle. Go ahead, light it";
he revealed that he had scared off other renters or buyers, because
he wanted to turn the house into "a home for retired seamen"
- the bargain negotiated between the Captain and Lucy
- he said she could stay in his home ("You may stay, on trial")
but she had to keep his presence a secret from Anna ("She's
much too young to see ghosts"), and to only stay in his/her
bedroom:
"Leave me bedroom as it is and I'll promise not to go into any
other room in the house. And your brat need never know anything about
me"; however, the Captain also made it clear they would have to
sleep in the same bedroom - his bedroom; he told her:
"All you see is an illusion. It's like a blasted lantern slide",
and insisted that his painted self-portrait had to be hung in the bedroom
- the scenes of their growing bonding and loving relationship,
as Captain Gregg continually haunted Lucy's bedroom and thoughts
in his non-flesh-and-blood form
- the farewell scene when the Captain bid Lucy good-bye
while she slept, telling her that she must find her own way in life
- and that she was only dreaming of a sea-captain haunting the house;
his decision to leave her life came after she declared her intention
to marry childrens' book author Miles Fairley (George Sanders) (pen-name "Uncle
Neddy"), a smooth-talking, slimy cad: (Daniel: "You've
made your choice, the only choice you could make. You've chosen life
and that's as it should be. And that's why I'm going away, my dear.
I can't help you now...You must make your own life amongst the living,
and whether you meet fair winds or foul, find your own way to harbor
in the end...It's been a dream, Lucia")
- the revelation that the womanizing, deceitful Miles
Fairley was already married with a family of two children
- the transcendent, sappy ending in which white-haired,
elderly widow Lucy died in her British seaside cottage's chair; immediately,
captain Daniel Gregg appeared and beckoned to her; he greeted her
with outstretched hands to help her from the chair: "And now,
you'll never be tired again, come Lucia, come my dear"
Reunited in Death in the Transcendent Ending
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- and then in the conclusion, rejuvenated and young
again, Lucy walked off, hand-in-hand with him downstairs and through
the front door into the afterlife
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Arrival at Whitecliff
Appearance of Captain Gregg
Bargain Between Lucy and the Captain
Always in Her Thoughts
Daniel: "I'm going away, my dear"
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