THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) ** ½
Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney) is a widow who takes her daughter and housekeeper to live in an old house by the sea. The place is haunted by the ghost of a crusty captain (Rex Harrison), who tries to scare Mrs. Muir off the property. He soon learns that she doesn’t scare easily and he eventually allows her to stay, provided she helps him pen his memoirs. (Does that make him a ghost writer?) When Mrs. Muir turns her manuscript in to the publisher, she meets a dapper author (George Sanders) and winds up falling for him. Does the old captain have a ghost of a chance to steal her heart?
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is an amiable comedy/drama that is pretty much ruined by some herky-jerky storytelling and an extremely disjointed third act. The scenes between Tierney and Sanders run on too long, and the flash-forwards to Tierney as an old woman are pretty clunky. Had these scenes been trimmed back a bit, I feel the ending (which works up to a point) would’ve had much more of an impact.
Tierney is excellent as Mrs. Muir and she is quite sexy while dressed up all in black too. And while Harrison has a tendency to chew the scenery a bit, he still remains fun to watch. The chemistry between the two keeps The Ghost and Mrs. Muir afloat, even when it hits choppy waters.