BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE
US, 1958, 103 minutes, Colour.
James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester, Janice Rule.
Directed by Richard Quine.
Bell, Book and Candle is an adaptation of the play by John Van Druten (I Am a Camera, Voice of the Turtle). It was adapted by noted screenwriter Daniel Taradash.
The film is a light confection about witches in New York City (the opposite of the coven ten years later in Rosemary's Baby). Kim Novak is her usual demure and enigmatic self as the witch who wants to fall in love. James Stewart is his usual genial self as the publisher who is bewitched (they had appeared together previously in Hitchcock's Vertigo to great effect).
Jack Lemmon leads the supporting cast with his usual wisecracks. Elsa Lanchester has a fussy, if less eccentric part than usual. Hermione Gingold and Janice Rule are also in the cast. It was directed by Richard Quine, who made a number of light comedies at musicals at Columbia during the '50s, several of them starring Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak.
Very light - and a bit prolonged, giving it so much sweetness and light rather than comic punch.
1.Entertaining comedy? New York City? Witches? The adaptation of a play, opening it out?
2.Colour photography of New York City, pastel tones, confectionary style? Musical score? The stars?
3.The title, memories of church exorcisms and condemnations of witches, the playful touch with witches?
4.Gillian and Kim Novak and her style, her auntie and her antics in the apartment block? The shop, Piewacket the cat? The fact that they were all witches? Gillian wanting to fall in love? To meet ordinary people? The attraction towards Shep? Auntie interfering with his phone and his coming into the shop? Their discussions, her falling in love, going to the Zodiac Club, meeting Shep and his fiancee? Gillian's memory of the girl at school and her reporting her? The background of her witchcraft at school? Bewitching Shep, falling in love, their happiness together, his calling off the marriage? His discovery of the truth, the falling out? Her desperation? Her relationship with her brother, with her auntie? The author coming to the city? Her giving up the shop, changing it to a shell shop and prospering? Shep's return with the cat, his seeing her blush and weep (which witches couldn't do)? Falling in love without bewitchment? Her becoming human?
5.James Stewart as Shep, the publisher, the encounter with Auntie and the phone, with Gillian, the Zodiac Club, his relationship with Merle, the impending marriage and his calling it off? Bewitched, in love, the lyrical sequences with Gillian? The author coming to New York, the discovery of the truth? His going back to his fiancee, finding the cat, the reconciliation with Gillian?
6.Nicky, the bongo drums, the bright witch, exercising his talents, friendship with his sister, Auntie? The author coming to town, his giving him all the information? Jack Lemmon's comic style?
7.Auntie, her witchcraft, practising, intruding into Shep's apartment, with Gillian, the Zodiac Club, her chaperoning? Her wanting to know what it was like to be human?
8.The manager of the Zodiac Club, Hermione Gingold's eccentric style, at the club, the interviews with the author?
9.Ernie Kovacs as the author - coming from Mexico, his proposals for the book, drinking? His not recognising the witches? Nicky helping him out?
10.The fluffy New York background, the fiancee and her world of wealth and art, private schools? Society, publishing, Zodiac Club?
11.A genial picture of witches - a colourful `black' fantasy?
