THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR

Wednesday 18 October 7.45pm, Swindon Arts Centre

USA | 1947 | 104 mins

THE Swindon Film Society celebrates its 70th anniversary in impeccable style with the delightful 1947 film The Ghost And Mrs Muir, starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney as a most unlikely and beguiling couple.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mrs Lucy Muir (Tierney), widowed for a year, decides to move out of her controlling in-laws’ home in London to the English seaside with her adolescent daughter Anna. She decides to rent Gull Cottage at Whitecliff-by-the-Sea, despite it being reportedly haunted.

Shortly after she arrives there she is indeed haunted by the ghost of the seaman Captain Daniel Gregg (Harrison), who had previously owned the house. Because she refuses to be scared away by his presence, the two come to an understanding.

However, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.

With wonderful performances by the two leads, and excellent direction by the veteran Hollywood master Joseph L Mankiewicz (All About Eve, Guys And Dolls, Sleuth), this film is a marvellous reminder of how, once upon a time, Hollywood could produce superbly-made films without either big-budget pyrotechnics or CGI.

The film society is showing The Ghost And Mrs Muir at the Arts Centre in Devizes Road on Wednesday at 7.45pm. Go to www.swindonfilm.org for more information.