![]() Plunkett (Liz Smith) tells Jack (Steve Guttenberg) about how she knows of his meetings with the ghost of Mary (Daryl Hannah), and tells him that, on Halloween, the mystical energies surrounding that day might bring forth a chance for her to come back to life. Jack decides to stay at the castle so he and Mary can be together and even talks marriage with her, and Sharon is wholly happy now that she is with Martin.Īlso, as the castle’s guests leave the morning after, the parapsychologist Malcolm tells Lord Plunkett that, while he has had the worst vacation ever because of all of the bedlam caused by the spirits, he will be recommending Castle Plunkett as the most haunted castle in the Western hemisphere and hopes that this will bring in more visitors and therefore more revenue. Connecting with the earlier-heard phrase “he who tups with the spirit finds only the grave, but the virtuous heart, true love will save,” the energies of Halloween enable Mary to take over Sharon’s body and return to life, and Sharon becomes a ghost. Meanwhile, Sharon playfully chases after Martin until she finds him sitting on the windowsill in the upstairs bedroom, but when she tries to hug him, she falls out of the window to her death on the ground. She later begs for Jack to kiss her, reminding him that she is still the same on the inside, so he reluctantly does and ends up making her young again. On Halloween night, Mary becomes flesh and she and Jack end up having sex, but the mystical energies of Halloween then cause her to age 200 years. ![]() ![]() Still, the recording is worthwhile for several reasons: “Home Sweet Heaven” has some new, even more riotous lyrics (“The King of Prussia / I call him Freddy / Is living by mistake / With Mary Baker Eddy”), and a set of bonus tracks features Coward himself singing “Something Tells Me,” the ballads “If I Gave You” and “Forever and a Day,” and what may be the definitive version of “Home Sweet Heaven.” - D.B.Jack falls for the ghost of Mary, and his wife Sharon with the ghost of Mary’s husband Martin. Cicely Courtneidge is fun as Madame Arcati, and Dennis Quilley is a really first-rate Charles, but Jan Waters as Ruth lacks Louise Troy’s apt, world-weary manner. Her replacement, Marti Stevens, does not for a moment suggest the eccentric, ectoplasmic Elvira. ![]() Tammy Grimes, with her smoky voice and singular delivery, is much missed. The cast album isn’t bad, but it lacks the exciting personalities of the New York original. Original London Cast, 1964 (Pye/DRG) (3 / 5) Coward tried again, this time without Lillie, and what was a nervous hit in New York was a flat-out flop in London. Some fans of Lillie claim that you had to see her perform to get her, but she’s fun in her recordings of “Go Into Your Trance” and “Something Is Coming to Tea,” and especially when singing sweet nothings to her Ouija board in “Talking to You.” In less flamboyant roles, Woodward and Troy are models of urbanity. Grimes gets the choice material, including the lighthearted warning “You’d Better Love Me,” the introspective”Something Tells Me,” and the wacky jet-set spoof “Faster Than Sound.” She absolutely sizzles when describing her social life on the astral plane in “Home Sweet Heaven” (“Delilah’s dreary / But Samson’s handsome / And with his good looks / Robin Hood looks fit for ransom”). The songs are generally very aggressive - Harry Zimmerman’s orchestrations are hell-bent on turning this piece of fluff into a blockbuster - yet they’re also witty and melodic. Along for the ride is Beatrice Lillie as the bizarre medium Madame Arcati. (Coward himself directed.) Edward Woodward is Charles Condomine, whose experiments with spiritualism accidentally conjure the spirit of his first wife, Elvira (Tammy Grimes), much to the horror of his current spouse, Ruth (Louise Troy). If the result is a bit disconcerting, it’s still a droll entertainment. Original Broadway Cast, 1964 (ABC-Paramount/MCA) (3 / 5) Noël Coward’s martini-dry farce Blithe Spirit was turned into a brassy, uptempo musical by songwriters-librettists Hugh Marrin and Timothy Gray.
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