Blithe Spirit

This was an episode of "Ford Star Jubilee", done in the days of live television. I was lucky enough to view an archival video of this and was thrilled by it. Noel Coward himself stars and directs this adaptation of his celebrated play. The cast is superb. Mildred Natwick steals the whole show as Madame Arcati, the role she played in the Broadway version. She is wonderfully funny, and brings a reality to what is often played as cartoonish. Claudette Colbert brings a light comedic touch to the role of Ruth. Her interpretation of the character is much more sympathetic than some I have seen. Lauren Bacall uses her smoky voice to great advantage as the ghostly Elvira. She moves so beautifully as she slinks and floats around, creating havoc in the household. A very young Marion Ross does fine comedic work(and a Cockney accent) in the role of the maid. Coward has shortened the play for this TV version in a way that actually helps it. A few scenes are dropped, and this makes the whole thing play with a very quick tempo, with few lulls.

In his diaries, Coward details the difficulty in getting this production on, mostly due to his clashes with costar Colbert. (She insisted on being photographed only from her left side, among other details). None of the travails are in evidence in the performance. Only Coward himself seems a little stiff at times, but in his published diary, he explains that he was numb with Novocain during the broadcast, due to trouble with his leg. Despite the age of the kinescope I saw, the entire show was still magical, right down to the effective, if simple, special effects.

Noel Coward's famous macabre stage comedy gets somewhat cut down for this TV adaptation but survives handily, aided by Coward's direction, an appreciative live studio audience, and an excellent cast, headed by Coward himself. As Charles, he nails the comedy lines, as how couldn't he, and he paces it swiftly; even the camerawork is unusually sophisticated for 1956. He loathed working with Colbert-"I'd wring her neck, if she had one," he's famously alleged to have said-but she plays Ruth expertly, and even gets exit applause on a key scene. He got along fine with Lauren Bacall, and she's a seductive, husky-voiced Elvira, though her accent varies a bit. Mildred Natwick might be the funniest Madame Arcati I've seen, and I've seen Angela Lansbury; she underplays, and exhibits a joie de vivre that other Arcatis haven't quite mastered. The noted British character actress Brenda Forbes is also on hand, and young Marion Ross keeps up with her estimable fellow players. Other Blithe Spirits are out there-David Lean's quite successful film version, and a somewhat flat 1966 TV remake-but this one has the immediacy of a live play, and it would be hard to top the comic playing here.

This is a great television remake, which runs so smoothly you would never know the entire thing was done live. The cast is great with Noel Coward, starring in his own play; Lauren Bacall as the dead first wife (very funny); Claudette Colbert, in a comedy performance as good as any she did in her many films; and best of all, Mildred Natwick in an Emmy nominated performance, she is by far the funniest thing. Also in the cast is a very young Marion Ross as the maid. All in all, a great television remake, a great example of why the golden age of television truly was golden.