A young widow (Gene Tierney) is tired of living with her late husband’s needy mother and his obnoxious, overbearing sister, and since she has an income from her husband’s estate she decides to make a home for herself in a seaside cottage together with her maid and daughter (the latter played by young Natalie Wood). The ghost of the cottage’s previous resident, a retired sea captain (Rex Harrison), tries to terrify her into leaving, and he’s favorably impressed when she refuses to go. They soon come to like each other, though for obvious reasons there’s a limit to how romantic their relationship can be. When she gets involved with a living man the captain waxes jealous, though he realizes she deserves better than a disembodied spirit. It’s an odd sort of atmospheric romantic comedy, an interesting mixture of humor and melancholy that’s probably not to everybody’s taste, though I rather liked it. Composer Bernard Herrmann reportedly considered the score his best.

by