Bell, Book and Candle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Kim NovakBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-03-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Bell, Book and Candle
Movie Review: The lighter - and magical - side of romantic obsession
Summary: 5 Stars
** Mild spoilers ahead **
Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) runs a little primitve art shop in Greenwich Village, on the first floor of a building also shared by Shep Henderson (James Stewart), a publisher, and her aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester). She likes Shep a lot but admires him from a distance until an odd problem with his phone on Christmas Eve - engineered by busybody Queenie - sends him to her shop to use hers. They take a liking to each other, and he decides to find her at the club she's going to with her aunt that evening - accompanied by his girlfriend Merle (Janie Rule). Gillian's brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon) plays the bongos in the house jazz band at the club, which is filled with all kinds of weird people - very weird as it turns out, because it's a club for witches. Soon Gillian sets her sights on taking Shep away from Merle - who she's loathed since they knew each other in college - and Nicky gets involved in helping to write a book about "their kind of people" with drunken occult writer Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs) who has been summoned suddenly to New York by Gillian's spell. Troubles ensue...
Director Richard Quine's romantic comedy reteams Stewart and Novak immediately after Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO, which was released 7 months earlier. Obviously there are some fascinating comparisons to be made; the first and most obvious is that both are films about romantic obsessions, in both cases brought about initially by deceptions on the part of Novak's character. Both films also feature a frustrated second woman in the life of Stewart's character - Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) in Vertigo and Merle in this film - and though their functions are otherwise fairly different, interestingly enough both are artists. Obviously this film is a comedy, and one will correctly assume that it's not going to have an unhappy or tragic ending, but like VERTIGO it does keep one guessing as to the specific nature of it's ending up until the last few minutes. Both films have scenes with the Stewart characters finding out about the true nature of the Novak characters, getting angry and refusing to accept it - though, again, the consequences are radically different. And both films have gotten flack for the characters that Novak plays - for being sexist or too accepting of the patriarchal norm; in both cases Novak's character tries to assert herself, and faces negative consequences.
Or so it might seem. In BELL BOOK AND CANDLE we're told several times that a witch (or warlock - apart from the name, no distinction is made between the sexes and their abilities or places in the world of magic) will lose her (or his) powers, become "human" if s/he falls in love. So Gillian ultimately falling for Shep - as opposed to just casting a spell on him - can be seen as a sign of feminine weakness, giving up her power for the traditional female role. Not a completely invalid reading but - it's a little more complicated. One of the things I like about this film is that we're not seeing a group of all-powerful, dominating witches, but a group of fairly pathetic people scrounging around like the rest of humanity. Gillian may lose her powers but - so what? They don't help her brother much, or her aunt, who both seem to live in a genteel sort of poverty. And I think that if the film is telling us anything about what "magic" is, it's that love is a kind of magic and force that's mysterious and incredibly potent - and that real feeling is more powerful than any spell.
The film also gets it's share of disparaging "Stewart's too old" sorts of remarks, but I have to say that Stewart actually looks - and acts - a little younger here than he did in the previous film - and Novak comes across as much older, or at least much more mature and self-assured. So this wasn't really a problem for me. The cast all in all is excellent; Kovacs not surprisingly almost steals the show as the non-stop yammering and drinking writer, Lemmon is his usual somewhat smarmy and yet lovable self, Lanchester and Hermione Gingold - as a famous witch who turns out mostly to have the power of self-promotion - are both delightful. Stewart does well in a role that I'm not sure he's perfect for; a decade of playing mostly darker roles leaves him a little too intense sometimes, and a little too self-conscious for this lighter material. I think he does fine - but I'm thinking perhaps a Cary Grant or even Rock Hudson might have done as well.
So ultimately, it's Kim Novak who is the real star and draw here, playing every bit as mysterious, sexy-but-vulnerable and beautiful as she is in VERTIGO. It's not a role that requires quite the range, and it doesn't go to places as dark, but it is something that requires a high level of agility, to be able to stay away from coming off as too demanding or controlling, and yet to never appear weak, and she manages it brilliantly. Having rewatched the Hitchcock film recently also, I have to say it's a total mystery to me as to why she didn't become the biggest star in Hollywood - she had the beauty, the ability to play comedy and drama, and a powerful mysterious sexiness. Maybe - despite playing "fake" characters in a couple of her best-known roles - she was just too real for the phoniness of Tinseltown.
This is a fine transfer and you shouldn't hesitate to acquire it, but I should tell you that the brand-new The Kim Novak Collection is supposed to have an upgraded transfer, along with other must-sees like PICNIC and PAL JOEY. If you're a serious Novak fan, that's the set to get.
Summary of Bell, Book and Candle
BELL BOOK AND CANDLE - DVD MovieStaid, secure publisher James Stewart leads a quiet life until he meets his bewitching downstairs neighbor, Kim Novak. John Van Druten's lighthearted Broadway comedy becomes a lush if lightweight romantic vehicle for Stewart and Novak, who would reunite for Hitchcock's Vertigo the next year. Novak is at her best as a Greenwich witch halfway between the worlds of magic and mortals, looking after her dotty aunt (Elsa Lanchester) and mischievous warlock brother (Jack Lemmon) as they keep their skills in practice. Novak's specialty is making men fall for her, but it's a one-way street: when a witch falls in love, she loses her powers. Director Richard Quine gives the witches an almost beatnik sensibility, a real Greenwich Village subculture hanging out in underground clubs and smart curio shops. Elegantly photographed in rich, glowing colors by James Wong Howe, Bell, Book and Candle is a fantasy world in New York set to a funky bongo-laced jazz score by George Duning. Quine's gliding camera is somewhat marred by abrupt editing, but his handling of actors is superb, in particular Novak, whose mysterious beauty masks inner turmoil and romantic yearnings. Ernie Kovacs appears as a wry author whose specialty is the supernatural, and Hermione Gingold is suitably florid as a witch elder with a penchant for theatricality. For once in his life Stewart is actually upstaged by the slyly comic performances around him. --Sean Axmaker
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