Double Feature Movie Night: The Uninvited and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

I woke up this morning to a general dampness outside that seems to be evidence of either light rain or over-enthusiastic dew. Early morning fog has given way to clouds and it’s chilly but decidedly muggy outside. At once I realized that Los Angeles’ celebrated June gloom seems to have arrived early this year. Weather like this makes me (and everyone else in my family) want to go ‘up the coast.’ I long to linger on deserted stretches of shoreline, buffeted by strong winds and listening to the sounds of seabirds crying in the distance or to stand atop a craggy cliff, again buffeted by strong winds, the sea roaring below. While sitting on my soggy back step, my mind absorbed in a world of clichés drawn from Gothic literature and Hollywood movies, I realized my trip up to the land of ‘Bronte beaches’ (my sister’s phrase) was not to be. Alas, poverty and the exorbitant price of gas forbid my making this journey at the present moment. So I asked myself, “What is one to do when a trip up the coast is indicated but simply cannot be undertaken?” Why, watch a movie, of course. So I have devised a Bronte Beach Movie Night that should, if not exactly cure my wanderlust, at least allay it somewhat.

After but only a moment of thought, two films came to mind: The Uninvited and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Though set in England rather than in California, these films are set in the proper coastal settings, with all the necessary moodiness and melancholy. The Uninvited begins with a brother and sister who discover an abandoned seaside house while on vacation. Buying the house for a remarkably low price, they begin to hear sounds of a woman crying during the night, much mystery and mayhem follows. The screenplay, written by Dodie Smith (101 Dalmations, I Capture the Castle) contains some wonderfully understated and sarcastic humor, and the characters are delightfully familiar, country doctors, devoted family retainers, and one Mrs. Holloway who is strongly reminiscent of Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca. Is it coincidental that she shares her name with a British women’s prison?

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir contains a similar beginning, a young widow looks for a house in a seaside village and decides to rent (against her estate agent’s advice) a remote “cottage” overlooking the sea only to find that it’s haunted. Far from becoming a mystery, however, the story becomes a meditation on love and loss. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, A Letter to Three Wives) with a score by Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, Vertigo), this film has all the melancholy beach shots and windswept vistas one could wish for.