Mankiewicz's enchanting first masterpiece tells the tale of a young widow who boldly defies social conventions by abandoning turn-of-the-century London to live in a remote coastal cottage haunted by a dashing and embittered ghost. A rich evocation of mourning and melancholia, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir echoes Virginia Woolf with its embrace of death as a tender life-giving force, its fascination with the ocean and its focus on a woman struggling to find her voice. Overlooked as a milestone feminist film, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir combines its poetic exploration of female authorship and imagination with a gently comic satire of rigid patriarchy. The film's romantic strains resonate in Bernard Herrmann's lovely score and Rex Harrison's poignant and understated performance as the phantom sea captain. – HG