The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - 1947


Directed by - Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writing credits - R.A. Dick (novel) and Philip Dunne

Complete credited cast -

Gene Tierney .... Lucy Muir
Rex Harrison .... Capt. Daniel Gregg
George Sanders .... Miles Fairley
Edna Best .... Martha Huggins
Vanessa Brown .... Anna Muir as adult
Anna Lee .... Mrs. Miles Fairley
Robert Coote .... Mr. Coombe
Natalie Wood .... Anna Muir (as a child)
Isobel Elsom .... Angelica
Victoria Horne .... Eva



Angelica - But where Lucy? Where can you go?
Lucy Muir - The seaside I think. I've always wanted to live by the sea.
Anna Muir- Oh goody!

Lucy Muir - Oh, of course, it's a painting. I thought for a moment...who is it?
Mr. Coombe - The former owner, ah, Capt. Gregg.
Lucy Muir - A sea captain. That explains the scheme of decoration, doesn't it?
Mr. Coombe - Which is in frightful taste.
Lucy Muir - Oh, I don't agree with you!


Mr. Coombe - You would come. I didn't want to show you but oh no, no, you had to see it.
Lucy Muir - Haunted. How perfectly fascinating.
Mr. Coombe - Fascinating? I suppose it's fascinating that this house is driving me to drink, to drink! Four times I've rented it and four times the tenants have left after the very first night. The owner's in Australia, Captain Gregg's cousin. I've written to him, cabled him, begging him to release me but he only replies 'Rely on you.' Well, I don't want to be relied on. I never want to see this house again. I wish Captain Gregg had lived to be a hundred. I wish he'd never been born.
Lucy Muir - I'm terribly sorry Mr. Coombe.
Mr. Coombe - Hmmmmm....well at least now you know why it won't suit you.
Lucy Muir - Yes, I suppose so. Why does he haunt? Was he murdered?
Mr. Coombe - No, he committed suicide.
Lucy Muir - Oh. I wonder why.
Mr. Coombe - To save someone the trouble of assinating him, no doubt.


Mr. Coombe - Mrs. Muir, if you please.
Lucy Muir - You'll probably think it very silly of me Mr. Coombe, but I've decided to take Gull Cottage after all. I mean if everyone rushes off at the slightest sound, of course the house gets a bad name. But it's too ridiculous really in the 20th century to believe in apparitions and all that medieval nonsense.
Mr. Coombe - But...you, you heard him laugh!
Lucy Muir - I heard what might have been a laugh or what might have been the wind roaring down the chimney.
Mr. Coombe - If I may say so Mrs. Muir, fiddlesticks!
Lucy Muir - I want Gull Cottage.
Mr. Coombe - In my opinion you are the most obstinate young woman I have ever met.
Lucy Muir - Thank you Mr. Coombe. I have always wanted to be considered obstinate.
Mr. Coombe - Very well Mrs. Muir. On the understanding that I disclaim all responsibility of what may happen, you shall have Gull Cottage.


Lucy Muir - Why do you haunt?
Capt. Gregg - Because I have plans for me house which don't include a pack of strangers barging in and making themselves at home.
Lucy Muir - Then you were trying to frighten me away?
Capt. Gregg - You call that trying? Ha-ha-ha! I've barely started. No, that was enough for all the others. They didn't want any part of it let me tell you. Didn't even stop to weigh anchor, they just cut the cables and ran.
Lucy Muir - I think it's very mean of you, frightening people. Childish too.
Capt. Gregg - Well, in your case I am prepared to admit I charted the course with regret. You're not a bad looking woman you know. Especially when you're asleep.
Lucy Muir - So, you were in my room this afternoon.
Capt. Gregg- MY ROOM, madam!


Lucy Muir - Good afternoon.
Capt. Gregg - What have you done with me Monkey Puzzle tree?!!!
Lucy Muir - I expected to chop for firewood by now.
Capt. Gregg - ...I planted that tree with me own two hands.
Lucy Muir - Why?
Capt. Gregg - Because I wanted a Monkey Puzzle tree in me garden!
Lucy Muir - Think how much prettier a bed of roses would look there.
Capt. Gregg - I hate roses. I hope the whole blasted bed dies of blight!
Lucy Muir - I wish you wouldn't swear. It's so ugly.
Capt. Gregg - If you think that's ugly, it's a good thing you can't read me thoughts!
Lucy Muir - You seem to be very earthly for a spirit.
Capt. Gregg - And you madam are enough to make a Saint take to blasphemy. Blasted women, always make trouble when you allow one aboard.
Lucy Muir - Captain Gregg! If you insist on haunting me, you might at least be more agreeable about it!
Capt. Gregg - Why should I be agreeable?
Lucy Muir - Well, as long as we're living...I mean, if we're to be thrown together so much, life's too short to be forever barking at each other.
Capt. Gregg - Your life may be short madam. I have an unlimited time at my disposal.
Lucy Muir - I only hope when I reach the afterlife, I have a little more dignity.
Capt. Gregg - Dignity? Do you call it dignified to throw yourself at a herring gutted swab like that?
Lucy Muir - I asked Mr. Coombe here because he's the logical man to help me find lodgers for the summer.
Capt. Gregg - Lodgers? Oh...ha ha ha, here weigh your anchor. Forgive me my dear, I've been seriously misled. I thought you wanted to sign him on as a husband.
Lucy Muir - Mr. Coombe? That walrus?
Capt. Gregg - It's my experience that women will do anything for money.
Lucy Muir - And now you and your blasted experiences have ruined everything.
Capt. Gregg - No, no, no, there's no harm done. I couldn't allow you to take in lodgers in any case, they are worse than passengers at sea.
Lucy Muir - It's them or starve.
Capt. Gregg - Not at all my dear. I've solved all your problems. You're going to write a book.
Lucy Muir - A book? But I couldn't. I find it hard enough to write a postcard.
Capt. Gregg - No, but I can. I can write a book. And you can put it down on paper for me.
Lucy Muir - But what will the book be about?
Capt. Gregg - Me. The story of me life. And we'll call it, let's see, we'll call it...'Blood and Swash'. Yes. 'Blood and Swash' by Captain X.
Lucy Muir - I don't think that's at all a nice title.
Capt. Gregg - It's not meant to be. It's meant to be sensational. Like the subject.
Lucy Muir - But it takes months to write a book. What are we to live on in the meantime?
Capt. Gregg - You have jewelry?
Lucy Muir - A little.
Capt. Gregg - Pawn it.
Lucy Muir - But I couldn't!
Capt. Gregg - Blast your eyes madam, will you understand? You're trying to claw off a lee shore. You can't afford to be squeamish.
Lucy Muir - I do understand and don't swear at me.
Capt. Gregg - Start with that ugly brooch.
Lucy Muir - But Edwin's mother gave it to me.
Capt. Gregg - All the more reason to pawn it. You don't like Edwin's mother and you hate the brooch.


Capt. Gregg - And since we're to be collaborators...uh...you can call me Daniel.
Lucy Muir - That's very good of you.
Capt. Gregg - And I shall call you Lucia.
Lucy Muir - My name is Lucy.
Capt. Gregg - It doesn't do you justice my dear. Women named Lucy are always being imposed upon but, Lucia, there's a name for a amazon, for a queen.
Lucy Muir - I don't feel much like a queen. I feel frightened and confused and wondering what the future will bring.
Capt. Gregg - Don't you trust me?
Lucy Muir - Oh I do Daniel when I'm talking to you. But when you're not here, I, well it's asking a great deal to expect anyone to trust her whole future to someone who isn't real.
Capt. Gregg - But I am real. I'm here because you believe I'm here. And keep on believing and I'll always be real to you.
Lucy Muir - Yes Daniel.


Capt. Gregg - So now you've been kissed in the orchard all over again.
Lucy Muir - You've been spying on me.
Capt. Gregg - I merely happened to be cruising in the vicinity.
Lucy Muir - I don't believe you.
Capt. Gregg - Why did you let him?
Lucy Muir - I, I didn't. He took me unawares.
Capt. Gregg - Ha, ha, ha, my dear, since Eve picked the apple no woman's ever been taken entirely unawares.
Lucy Muir - Just what do you mean to insinuate by that?
Capt. Gregg - When a woman's kissed it's because deep down she wants to be kissed.
Lucy Muir - That is nothing but masculine conceit.
Capt. Gregg - No the less is true...well, now what happens?
Lucy Muir - He'll stay or he'll go away. It doesn't matter to me one way or the other.
Capt. Gregg - I think it matters more to you than you'll admit. Isn't that so Lucia?
Lucy Muir - Why bother to ask me Daniel? You seem to know my mind better than I do. You don't like him do you?
Capt. Gregg - He puts brilliantine on his hair!
Lucy Muir - Most men do.
Capt. Gregg - And he uses perfume! Blasted, nearly drove me out of his room!
Lucy Muir - You shouldn't have been in his room in the first place.
Capt. Gregg - So you can find an excuse for everything.
Lucy Muir - Only because you are attacking him Daniel.
Capt. Gregg - I know, it's a natural human reaction.
Lucy Muir - I wish you wouldn't be so superior just because you're.....not alive.
Capt. Gregg - And he is, very much so.
Lucy Muir - It's no crime to be alive.
Capt. Gregg - No m'dear, sometimes it's a great inconvenience. The living can be hurt.
Lucy Muir - I don't intend to be hurt.
Capt. Gregg - No captain intends to pile his ship up on a reef, but it happens!
Lucy Muir - You yourself said I should go about in the world, that means taking risks.
Capt. Gregg - I know m'dear. Real happiness is worth almost any risk. But be careful. There may be breakers ahead.
Lucy Muir - I will Daniel.

Capt. Gregg - I thought you were one woman with sense, but you're like all the rest of 'em. A fool for any man who will promise you the moon and end by taking everything you have to give. Oh...don't trouble yourself m'dear, it's not your fault. I should have known it was on the chart. You've made your choice, the only choice you could make. You've chosen life. And that's as it should be, whatever the reckoning. And that's why I'm going away m'dear. I, I can't help you now. I can only confuse you more and destroy whatever chance you have left of happiness. You must make your own life amongst the living, and whether you meet fair winds or fowl, find your own way to harbor in the end. Lucia, listen to me, listen m'dear. You've been dreaming, dreaming of a sea captain that haunted this house, of talks she had with him, even a book you both wrote together. But Lucia, you wrote the book, you and no one else. The book you imagined from his house, from his picture on the wall, from his gear lying around in every room. It's been a dream Lucia. And in the morning and the years after, you'll only remember it as a dream. And it will die as all dreams must die, they're waking. How you'd of loved the North Cape, and the Fiords and the midnight sun. To sail across the reef at Barbados where the blue water turns to green. To the Faulklands where a southerly gale rips the whole sea white. What we've missed Lucia, what we've both missed. Good-bye m'darling.


Lucy Muir - You're very kind but, it's hard to explain. You can be much more alone with other people than you are by yourself, even if it's people you love. That sounds all mixed up, doesn't it?



Lucy Muir - No darling, he never existed. We made him up you and I. I just wasn't intended to have that kind of happiness and I haven't missed it really, really I haven't. Oh I've been lonely at times, but there have been compensations. You and now Bill and dear Martha, we sit and chat like a pair of parrots. And this house and the sea and the gulls and memories. I have those you know, even if it was a dream.


Capt. Gregg - And now you'll never be tired again. Come Lucia, come m'dear.

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