The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a slightly unusual movie, as it's genre could best be described as "romantic horror". The main problem with this is that, at least for this viewer, the horror element was merely a put-on. At no time did I feel that any "genuine" horror was coming. So, basically this film is a slightly odd romance, where the protagonists are a recently widowed woman (Tierney), and the ghost of a former sea captain (Harrison), into whose house Tierney's character moves.
Most of the plot is a contrivance to get these two characters into some wonderful scenes. Essentially, in order to afford living in the house, Mrs. Muir ghostwrites (heh heh) the life story of the caption, as he dictates it to her. The book is a success, and in the course of events, Mrs. Muir meets and becomes involved with another writer, played with gleeful caddishness by George Sanders, who is fast becoming one of my favorite actors. Thankfully, the good widow eventually sees through his duplicity (he's married with children, you know), and retreats back into the solitude of her sea shore home. The ending is somewhat predictable, but honestly, no other ending would probably have worked. All in all, quite an enjoyable film. I though the script was a bit weak, and the accents the actors employed (some were English, some, like Tierney, from the USA) ranged from silly to bizarre.
My man problem with the film is that, good as it was, it simply could not withstand the fact that two things overshadow everything else about it. The first is, well, Gene Tierney is a total babe. Maybe I've got a thing for overbites, but I think she has to be one of the half-dozen hottest actresses of all time. Even in the costumes of turn-of the-(last)century England, you could tell, as her captain put it, she has a "fine figure". The other thing that overshadows the film is Bernard Hermann's score. This is one of his finest, ranking up there with the scores he did for Hitchcock's films like Vertigo and Psycho. Hermann's menacing score, along with some very expressionistic lighting and camerawork, give the film, especially in the first half hour or so, a feeling of dread that is nicely juxtaposed by the burgeoning romance between the two leads.
I heartily recommend The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which is available in an excellent release as part of the Fox Studio Classics series.
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