“You are very, very dead.”
synopsis
Novelist Charles Condomine invites an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to conduct a séance in his home as research for a book. Instead of theatrical nonsense, he accidentally summons the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Unfortunately, only Charles can see or hear her. His current wife, Ruth, must endure increasingly strange behavior while Elvira gleefully sabotages their marriage from beyond the grave. Domestic life becomes a battleground between the living and the lightly deceased.
pairs well with ...
mini-review
This is supernatural farce dressed in drawing-room sophistication. Based on Noël Coward’s stage play, the film keeps its theatrical precision and verbal sharpness. The ghostly antics are less about scares and more about rivalry, pettiness, and marital absurdity. Margaret Rutherford’s Madame Arcati steals scenes with earnest chaos. It’s polished, arch, and delightfully mean-spirited in a polite British way. The humor lies not in death itself — but in the persistence of ego after it.
A dry martini. Someone with sharp wit. Mild relational tension.
Absurdist's Corner
A séance meant for research accidentally detonates a marriage.
fun facts
It’s based on Noël Coward’s stage hit, and it keeps that “drawing-room duel” energy — polite dialogue hiding sharp knives.
The medium (Madame Arcati) is the kind of character who can wreck your life while earnestly believing she’s doing you a favor.
The ghost isn’t tragic — she’s competitive. The afterlife becomes a petty domestic battleground, which is exactly Coward’s kind of joke.