The screenplay by Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and associate producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, is based on Noël Coward's 1941 play of the same name, the title of which is derived from the line "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

The film features Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford, in the roles they created in the original production, along with Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings in the lead parts of Charles and Ruth Condomine.

[3] Seeking background material for an occult-based novel he is working on, writer Charles Condomine invites eccentric medium Madame Arcati to his home in Lympne, Kent, to conduct a séance.

As Charles, his wife Ruth and their guests, George and Violet Bradman, barely restrain themselves from laughing, Madame Arcati performs peculiar rituals and finally goes into a trance.

However, ghostly Elvira's mischievous plan backfires; as a result, it is Ruth, not Charles, who drives off in the car she has tampered with and ends up dead.

Acting on Madame Arcati's suggestion, Charles sets out on a long vacation, but he has a fatal accident while driving away and joins his late wives as a spirit himself.

Coward had turned down offers from Hollywood to sell the film rights, stating that previous American versions of his plays had been "vulgarized, distorted and ruined".

[5] Anthony Havelock-Allen regarded the film as a "failure" because of its casting, which he said Coward insisted on: The point of the play is a middle-aged man well into his second marriage, having long ago put away the follies of his youth with his sexy first wife, and suddenly being 'woken up' by her reappearance as a ghost.

Rex Harrison was not middle-aged; and Kay Hammond, though a brilliant stage actress, didn't photograph well and also had a very slow delivery, which was difficult in films.

During an argument with Ruth, Charles declares, "If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes.

In 1945, Variety observed: "Inasmuch as this is largely a photographed copy of the stage play ... the camerawork is outstandingly good and helps to put across the credibility of the ghost story more effectively than the flesh and blood performance does.

"[20] In 1984, Leslie Halliwell wrote: "Direction and acting carefully preserve a comedy which on its first West End appearance in 1941 achieved instant classic status.

"[21] In the 21st century, Daniel Etherington of Channel 4 rated it three-and-a-half out of five stars and commented:"Like a quintessentially English supernatural take on the contemporaneous American screwball comedy, Blithe Spirit is a joy, sharing with its US counterparts fast, witty dialogue that has its origins in stage performance.

Although the theatricality arguably hampers the film ... the verve of the performances, in tandem with the striking Technicolor cinematography Oscar-winning special effects, elevates it ... Rutherford almost steals the show, playing the kind of charismatically eccentric grand dame that would define her career.