It would be very easy to give a one-sentence summary of this film that would make it sound completely unappealing. But it is very much not that. In fact it's rather amazing - what looks like being a supernatural comedy of the Topper variety slowly morphs into something genuinely affecting, with two leads who were never better (and George Sanders thrown in for good measure). I've seen Gene Tierney in a couple of films before, both classics: Laura, where she plays a mysterious woman who appears to come back from the dead, and Leave Her to Heaven, where she plays an all-time great villain. In both she is icy and mysterious. This might lead one to believe that she didn't have much range, and perhaps she doesn't, but she's playing a completely different role in this and certainly carries it off. She is Mrs. Lucy Muir, a young widow, a bit dreamy, who, at the start of the film (which takes place, we are informed, at the turn of the century (19th into 20th, of course)) is just plucking up the courage to leave the household of her smothering mother-in-law and harridan sister-in-law
(to the delight of Martha, her maid, and Anna, her young daughter (played by Natalie Wood!).
They are incredulous that she should attempt this, as she has next-to-no money, but she has the dividends from a gold mine her dead husband bought and they are enough for her to pursue her dream of living by the seaside. Showing a spine that bewilders the inlaws, she gathers maid and daughter, and off they go to a (fictional) seaside town to search for the ideal house. There is a humorous interlude where she argues with a realtor (again showing the spine that belies her mild demeanor), who is determined not to show her Gull Cottage, despite it being the cheapest house he has to offer, and thus within her scant resources. Of course his reason is that it's haunted, by the ghost of the previous owner, Captain Daniel Gregg, who is supposed to have committed suicide. Despite the ghost making his presence felt with raucous supernatural laughter, she has fallen in love with the house and is determined to settle. And, as she takes her afternoon nap between 4 and 5, we see Rex Harrison's Captain Gregg come in through the window (leaving it open) and stand over her. And that night, after Martha and Anna have retired, he confronts Lucy (whom he decides to call Lucia, because she's not the pushover that the name "Lucy" calls to mind) in the kitchen. Initially he intends to scare her off, as he has scared off all the previous tenants since his death 4 years ago, but she wins him over (and the fact that Lucy is Gene Tierney at her most eerily beautiful no doubt helps).
He explains the window left open by the fact that he did not commit suicide, as his maid had implied. He shut his normally-open bedroom window against a gale and was thus smothered by the gas he accidentally kicked on as he fell asleep. They each have terms for their uneasy coexistence: he must not bother either Martha or Anna (it emerges later that Anna had quite the friendly relationship with him - no doubt he respected her love of adventure yarns), while she has to sleep in the bedroom that was his, with his portrait on the walls. All is going well until the in-laws show up with the news that the gold mine has closed, and there are no more dividends to support her, so she better move back in. The Captain is in the room as they relay this information (she can see him but they can't) and tells her not to give in and that they'll work something out. And then he helps eject them - he can't be seen, but he can be felt, apparently. The idea he finally comes up with to generate money is for her to write a book - his book, about his life, called Blood and Swash. And this she does, occasionally blanching at the salty language therein. (This film is referred to as a "family" film, perhaps because of the lack of sex or violence, but the Captain makes it clear that he was a ladies' man, and that he lost his virginity at age 16, so hardly as Victorian as Lucy's many demure outfits would have us think.) The Captain knows just the publisher to take it to, as well, with a partner who fancies himself a sailor (or seaman, as, the Captain insists, "sailor" is a lubber's term). While at the publisher, Lucy catches the eye of George Sanders' oleaginous Miles Fairley (or, even worse, "Uncle Ned" - for he is a bestselling author of childrens' books, although not, as Captain Gregg catches Lucy lying about, Anna's favorite author (this is where we learn of her taste for more thrilling reading material)). His relentless pursuit quickly wins Lucy over
(although not Martha, who is quite rude about him) and the Captain, having previously advised Lucy to seek companionship, admits defeat, and, a year after first manifesting to Lucy, leaves her, having first entered her dream to make her believe that she had dreamed everything, including that she didn't make up the book (which, of course, is a big enough success that the issue of money is never raised again).
However, after Miles cancels a picnic, Lucy visits the publisher again (to sign some forms) and gets his address from the clerk. She goes to his house and finds... his wife, newly returned with their children, from abroad. And [spoiler] this is the last man she will ever love. The rest of the film spans over 40 years, years that are marked by the steady decay of a wooden post on the beach, washed by the high tide, in which a kindly sea dog carves Anna's name (and by Bernard Psycho Herrmann's very melodramatic strings). Anna grows up and goes to college, meets her own seaman, invites Martha and Lucy to move in with them, but they stay in Gull Cottage getting older as Lucy's grandchild Lucy grows to adulthood. And then... then you have the ending, which is either very unsatisfactory or in fact the only possible ending.
I liked it very much. But then I'm a soft old romantic. It's hard to like Rex Harrison if you've ever read anything about what he was actually like, but he's very good in this. He does his usual line in genial misogyny, and can't seem to maintain the gruff captain's voice he starts out with, but he shows unusual depths of wistfulness and genuine affection.
So - obviously a good actor, given how much of an asshole he really was. The film is not short - nearly two hours, but while it is not a fast-paced film, it never sags, and in fact it needs the length to complete the arc from light fantasy to genuinely moving love story. (Talking of light fantasy: I can't quite work out the rules of the ghost world in this one. Normally ghosts have to stay in the houses they haunt, but Captain Gregg follows Lucy to London and the publisher in this one. And he can be invisible to her or to others but not her. And he can be heard by others or not by others. And he never touches her or allows her to touch him, but is able to shove the in-laws out of the door, and to release the handbrake on the real estate agent's very early automobile. ALSO, apparently you appear as a ghost as your best self, not as the way you looked when you died, because Captain Gregg was definitely a lot older than he looks in the film when he died.)
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