Blithe Spirit (film)

Blithe Spirit is a 1945 English fantasycomedy film directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and associate producer Anthony HavelockAllan is based on producer Nol Cowards 1941 play of the same name, the title of which is derived from the line Hail to thee, blithe Spirit Bird thou never wert in the poem To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Seeking background material for a mystery he is working on, novelist Charles Condomine Harrison invites eccentric medium Madame Arcati Rutherford to his home in Lympne, Kent, to conduct a sance. As Charles, his wife Ruth Cummings, and their guests the Bradmans barely restrain themselves from laughing, Madame Arcati performs peculiar rituals and finally goes into a trance. Charles then hears the voice of his dead first wife, Elvira Hammond. When he discovers that the others cannot hear her, he passes off his odd behaviour as a joke. When Arcati recovers, she is certain that something extraordinary has occurred, but everyone denies it.After Madame Arcati and the Bradmans have left, Charles is unable to convince Ruth that he was not joking. After Ruth retires for the night, Elvira becomes visible, but only to Charles. He becomes both dismayed and amused by the situation. Relations between Charles and Ruth become strained until he persuades Elvira to act as a poltergeist and transport a vase and a chair in front of his current wife. ........

Source: Wikipedia