Ghosts and writing inspiration

I was supposed to spend this weekend working on my novel. Blasted thing won't write itself, after all. It's not coming easily this weekend, so here I am babbling away to you while I watch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. No, I don't mean the 1968-1970 TV series with Hope Lange, Edward Mulhare and Charles Nelson Reilly. (Danny Bonaduce's dad was one of the writers, though...did you know that? I didn't until today.) I'm talking about the movie. 1947. Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney. 104 black and white minutes of ... magic. There's no other way to say it. This just has to be the most romantic movie I've ever seen.

I've never been real big on the girlie-girl stuff. I've alway been a bit of a tomboy. I preferred skateboards to Barbie dolls and climbing trees to tea parties. And when I watch a movie - more often than not, I wanna see things get blown up. I want to hear bones breaking. I want blood, dammit! Sure, sometimes I want a comedy. Fever Pitch almost made me wet my pants, but don't even get me started on that. We'll talk about that another day. And every now and then, I want romance. For me, that usually means one of three movies: The Princess Bride (which we'll also talk about another day), Casablanca or The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

Gull Cottage is haunted by the ghost of a seaman, Captain Daniel Gregg. Local legend says he haunts it because he committed suicide there. The cottage has been empty for years because the captain has frightened every tenant away. In 1900, Lucy Muir, a young widow, moves into the seaside cottage with her young daughter, Anna, and their maid, Martha. Lucy doesn't let Gregg scare her off and they wind up becoming friends. He admires her spunk and decides to call her "Lucia" because it sounds more like a fiesty woman's name...anyway...

When money becomes an issue for her, he helps her write a book, "Blood and Swash" - his memoirs. Long story short - she meets a man at her publisher's office and falls for him. He eventually proposes and she accepts. The captain, who of course is in love with her by this time, comes to her in her sleep. He convinces her that the friendship she had with the ghost of a seaman was only a dream. He lets her go because for her to be truly happy, she must choose the living, not the dead and his presence would only confuse her. Her fiance turns out to be married so Lucy grows old alone, with just memories of her dream.

Even after the engagement is broken, the captain stays away. Many years later, Lucy nods off in her chair one evening and dies in her sleep. At the instant of her death, we hear the captain's voice..."Come, Lucia...come, m'dear." And his dear Lucia gets up...instantly young and radiant again and they walk off into eternity together. It reduces me to tears. Every time, without fail. You really have to see it to appreciate it. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Hmmm...hey, I wonder..maybe working on my novel would be easier if I had a ghost dictating his memoirs. No..no...wait....scratch that - my book is about a serial killer....I'll do the work myself.