Blithe Spirit

Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford), using her spiritual interlocutor “Daphne,” running the sèance arranged by skeptical author Charles (Rex Harrison), who’s doing research for a novel, with his wife (Constance Cummings) and their guests (Hugh Wakefield, Joyce Carey), in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, 1945, directed by David Lean.

Author Noel Coward’s own narration then a typical dazzling introduction of all but one of his chief characters, Constance Cummings and Rex Harrison as Ruth and Charles Condomine, Jacqueline Clark the maid, Margaret Rutherford cycling and Hugh Wakefield and Joyce Carey the guests, David Lean directing, in Blithe Spirit, 1945.

Author Charles (Rex Harrison) has just seen off the nutty medium he invited for a demonstration, seeing off his guests while his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) confirms she can’t see his accidentally summoned deceased (greenish) first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond), David Lean directing Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, 1945.