The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

There aren't very many mash-ups of romance and ghost story, for very obvious reasons - the lovers can never touch. I mean, think of it. They exist on different planes. One's corporeal, the other spiritual. How, therefore, do you have the meetcute? The first accidental touch? The first kiss? And the sex scene is, by necessity, downright impossible. That's not to say that it hasn't been tried. Ghost tried it in 1990. They solved all of the above problems by making the two characters lovers before one of them died. We all remember the clay pot scene. *yawn* But no movie has ever accomplished this mash-up better, or with more class, than The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz, the film stars the lovely Gene Tierney as Lucy Muir, a widow who moves to Gull Cottage on the English coast with her daughter and her housekeeper in the late 1800s, and Rex Harrison as Captain Daniel Gregg, the ill-tempered sea captain whose ghost haunts the cottage.

When Lucy and Anna (a very young Natalie Wood) arrive at Gull Cottage, Lucy discovers to her grief that it is not entirely empty. The cantankerous ghost of the late Capt. Gregg still walks the corridors and bedrooms of the cottage, and at first he makes life quite unpleasant for Lucy. He has plans for his house, and he's not about to let a little thing like death stand in the way of his plans. He wants Gull Cottage to be made into a retirement home for old seamen, and he doesn't want Lucy and her family renting it. By the time her dividend checks have run out, however, and she faces eviction, Capt. Gregg has come to admire her brass, and he thinks up an idea to save her. He will dictate to her the story of his life, and she will write it down and publish it. Thus begins one of the greatest movie romances of all time between two characters who never lay a finger on one another. They are left to convey every emotion, every bit of longing with their words and their looks. And do they ever do a good job of it. As the captain unfolds his life-story to her, Lucy grows fonder and fonder of him. And as her own story comes out, the captain falls in love with her too. They gaze lovingly while they talk, but seldom at each other, often out to sea, as their voices sound the affection that their words never say. But it's a doomed relationship. Capt. Gregg is a spirit, and Lucy is a woman. She needs a man, and, while he doesn't want to stop her, he nevertheless gets jealous of every man she meets. Finally, after the book is published and becomes a success, the captain decides to leave Lucy, to let her live out her life without him among the living. His final words, spoken to the sleeping Lucy, are some of the most heart-wrenching ever uttered in any film.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a moody, atmospheric film, shot along the Monterrey coastline. The sets of Gull Cottage include plenty of deep recesses where the shadows cluster thickly, light reflected from the water that ripples across the walls and ceilings, fog that curls in through the open windows. It also includes plenty of humorous moments, usually involving the captain's dealings with the poor mortal men that enter Lucy's life. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a film that has aged beautifully and hasn't lost one bit of its charm or its pathos in the last 65 years. Next time you're in the mood for a great love story, one that'll require at least one Kleenex, check out The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is rated G and is available in velvety black and white.