From: pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu   
      
   Jack Bohn  writes:   
      
   > Wednesday night TCM is showing "Blithe Spirit", a fantasy ghost story   
   > from a play by Noël Coward.  He has a reputation, I'm told, of being   
   > witty and clever, but even he can't do much with the scene of a   
   > character talking to someone nobody else can see.  If only Hollywood   
   > had taken the hint and given it up trying back in 1945!  (Nowadays the   
   > cellphone and bluetooth earpiece has made us used to people talking to   
   > someone who isn't there.)  As it was a stage play previously, I'm   
   > guessing the ghost driving the car was added by director David   
   > "Lawrence of Arabia" Lean, who does less with it than "Topper" did in   
   > '38.   
   >   
   > On the plus side, when we do see the ghost, she is various shades of   
   > green, almost as if they swapped the Technicolor red and green   
   > elements, although it was probably done with makeup and a good eye.  I   
   > find Rex Harrison and Margaret Rutherford watchable in just about   
   > anything.   
   >   
   > They say you can always find something new when you come back to a classic.    
   This'll be my second time watching it.  We'll see.   
      
   I once played Charles in a local production of the play...  the part of   
   my dead wife was double-cast (two different actresses on different   
   nights of the run -- one was roughly a foot taller than the other, which   
   made the nightly adjustment  "interesting"), there was also the part of   
   my live wife (who dies in the course of the play), and my real-life wife   
   was the stage manager.  The backstage joke was that maybe someday I'd   
   get a speaking role.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)