19 thoughts on “Blithe Spirit (2020) – Just 1930s Eye Candy

  1. Dr Bradman is played by Julian Rind-Tutt, one of those actors who seems to pass beneath most people’s radar. Not mine. Loved him in ‘Banished’ and ‘Wipers Times’. He appears in a lot of period dramas in film (‘The Madness of King George’, ‘Les Miserables’) and on television (‘Britannia’, a couple of Agatha Christie’s episodes), but I think you would be hard pressed to find images of him.

  2. Am so-so on 1930’s but always enjoyed Poiret’s apartment building and the houses though comic and ghosts really not my thing…

  3. Later Art Deco is my happy place. I grew up watching the Masterpiece Poirot adaptations with my mom. If I can find it streaming, I’d like this one.

  4. Robert Bathurst is the (64 yr. old!!) British actor who played the “lame” Sir Anthony Strallan in ‘Downton Abbey’.
    The suave “blond” gentleman, sitting in that particular picture, is (53 yr.) strawberry blond British actor Julian Rhind-Tutt. Who played Marquess of Blayne in (2017-2019) ‘Harlots’.
    And who I hope: one day will be deserving of a ManCandyMonday, with 24 F.F. roles to his name.
    From ‘The Madnes of King George’ (1994) to ‘Blandings’ (2013-2014) and everything in-between.
    I fell for him as Dr. Macartney in sureal British hospital sketch-comedy-drama ‘Greenwings’ (2004-2007).

  5. This looks lush! The Art Deco period came to my attention in the film ‘Victor, Victoria’ with Julie Andrews back in 1982. Loved the sets of that one as well.

  6. Yes to gorgeous clothes. Yes to a stunning home inside and out, but there was something . . . off about the production itself. Not, for lack of a better word, frothy enough. But if I consider it my Deco shopping list, oh heck yeah!

    1. Frances it was terrible that’s why! ;-) I love Blithe Spirit the play even though it is pretty dated. I’ve seen two very different productions on stage, one in the West end where Hermione Norris played Ruth and Alison Steadman (the one true Mrs Bennett) played Madame Arcata. It isn’t anywhere near as camp as this film makes out and the characters, while hardly deep, have a lot more structure than the ones in the film.
      It was like watching a frothy musical without music!
      but i absolutely agree that is was a feast for the eyes.

  7. Sure. I saw Katy Kendall do it at the Golders Green Hippodrome, many moons ago and have always enjoyed it.

  8. It looks gorgeous, but what is the point of rewriting Noel Coward? He did the script for the original Rex Harrison film, after all.

    Also, setting it two years before the War and four years before it was written is just ridiculous. Coward was bombed out of his home, then the hotel he moved to while writing it. It’s deliberate fluff to raise morale, but it’s also very much about the concerns of its time – as in the 14-18 War, seances and contacting the dead were ideas much in vogue when people were losing so much so routinely.

    And I love Dame Judi. But nobody can really replace the superb Maragaret Rutherford.

  9. I’m just in my way home from a new production in London! Really well done – Jennifer Saunders excellent as Madam Arcati, and my fave Geoffrey Streatfeild as Charles. Coward is so easy to do badly.

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