The Ghost and Mrs Muir

Old black and white movies are my favorite.  It was an era when men were men and women were cosseted. What a lovely, old-fashioned word.  I wouldn’t mind a little pampering by the likes of Rex Harrison.  One of my favorite of his lines is “I lived a man’s life and I’m unashamed of it.”  Something men today would do well to emulate.

As early as middle-school, I stayed up for the late-late movie or watched AMC once my mother deigned to get cable, to watch the best of the oldies.  My favorite of all time is The Ghost and Mrs Muir.  Perhaps it was the first paranormal.  Falling in love with a ghost certainly wasn’t the norm in the 1940s as it is in teenfiction today.

However you define it, it was a beautiful love story.  I watched it tonight and bawled my eyes out, although I have seen it at least a dozen times.

I’m not sure how prevalent a single mother was at the time, but Gene Tierney tugs at the heartstrings as a strong-willed woman taking control of her life following the death of her husband.  Creating a life for herself and her daughter, she is atypical of the stock romantic heroine of the time.  She has moxie.

Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison) calls her Lucia.  “Women named Lucy are always being imposed upon, but Lucia, now there’s a name for an Amazon.  A queen.”  If ever I need a new moniker, Lucia is the name I’ll choose.

Despite the growing feelings between Lucia and Captain Gregg, Lucy hungers for a flesh and blood man.  “I thought I was impervious to emotion.  a respectable widow woman with a hide like an rhinosceros.  but I’m not.  I need companionship and laughter and all the things a woman needs.”

Amen, sister.

Despite the captain’s warnings that there are “breakers” ahead for Lucy and her flesh-and-blood suitor, Lucy pushes ahead, only to have her hopes dashed against the rocks.

The story ends full-circle.  Lucy lives a full-life, a respectable widow woman, before her life on the physical plane ends and she is reunited with her captain.

Tears were shed.  Hope in the eternal nature of love restored.  End of story.