Bell, Book and Candle
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Movie Reviews of Bell, Book and Candle
Movie Review: She's one of them
Summary: 5 Stars
Boy meets girl. Girl is actually a witch. Boy dumps fiancee. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy finds out that girl put a spell on him. Let the fireworks begin.
That's the basic plot of "Bell Book and Candle," which tackled the funny witchy-romance story long before Samantha or Sabrina existed, and with more humour and polish than either. It's just a cute romance with a unique twist, a cute cat, and meddling sorcery.
It's Christmastime, and Manhattan witch Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) is in a rut. Then she meets hunky publisher Shepherd (James Stewart), who is engaged to her old college nemesis. So with the assistance of her cat Pyewacket, she casts a spell to make Shep fall madly in love with her, and drop backstabbing Merle (Janice Rule). Itr works like a... well, like a charm.
But things start to go wrong when Gil's aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and her pal Nicky (Jack Lemmon) start talking to a bestselling author on witchcraft -- who decides to write a book on the Manhattan witches. What's worse, Gil is falling in love with Shep -- which means her powers will vanish -- and decides to tell him the truth about the love spell.
"Bell Book and Candle" is not really a romantic comedy, so much as a romance movie with some funny characters. And of course there's a low-key fantasy angle -- basically all the witches and warlocks do is cast a few spells, honk car horns, and occasionally boil something in a cauldron. (Hermione Gingold as a showy old witch)
James Stewart tried out whimsy in the delightful "Harvey," where he's a man who claims to have a companion pooka. He plays the opposite side in "Bell Book and Candle" -- he's the victim of magic weirdness rather than the source. Kim Novak gives a chilly, otherworldly performance as a sophisticated witch. Expect weird romantic sparks to fly.
The plot does come slightly unwound in the last act, after Shep takes his love spell cure (his face as he drinks the potion is the funniest scene of the movie) and leaves the building. But it winds itself back up for a satisfactory finale. It also benefits from snappy dialogue that lasts from the first to the last scene ("That girl you know, Gillian Holroyd -- she's one." "A witch? Shep, you just never learned to spell")
All this "Bell Book and Candle" business creates a charming romance, with solid acting, great script, a dash of humor and newt's liver. Enchanting.
Movie Review: As cool as you get....
Summary: 5 Stars
...is this 1958 comedy-romance, which in my opinion is usually vastly underrated and unjustly dismissed, considering how much fun it is. Firstly, it stars that improbable romantic team from Hitchcock's "Vertigo", James Stewart and Kim Novak-only this time they get a happy ending-and what a blast getting there. The cast is simply superb-every actor milks his part to the hilt.
Kim is a very modern, hip(almost a neo-beatnik)witch living in Greenwich Village, happily alone with her gorgeous siamese "familiar", Pyewacket(a note: Kim-a real-life animal lover-fell in love with the cat "actor" who plays her pet in this film-and adopted him from the trainer! True story)...until unsuspecting publisher Stewart moves into the apartment upstairs. Taking a shine to this affable man(who wouldn't?), she not only fancies an affair with him, but discovers he's engaged to a "real" witch-with-a-capital-'B'--an old college foe played deliciously and believably by Janice Rule. This means war, so Kim decides to hex Jimmy...only, things go awry. A terrific plus is the second-banana pairing of two real life friends(and then frequent costars)Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs. This may be Kovacs' best performance ever(his films were never quite up to his talents); Jack and he have a chemistry that's truly delightful to watch, and also-is it just me? Or does Jack Lemmon look, move and sound a heck of a lot like-Daffy Duck? It's an almost uncanny resemblance...although I suspect Jack's mannerisms were "borrowed" somewhat by Chuck Jones, rather than the other way around. There's great production design here, great music(some by the jazz trio of Pete Candoli-fyi Kovacs' widow Edie Adams married Candoli for a while in the 70s!), and the direction by Novak's then-boyfriend Richard Quine is excellent. I've never met someone who was sorry for sitting through this film, although a few were skeptical beforehand-the magic worked on them too-watch it and laugh!
Movie Review: She's a witch? You just never learned to spell!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite all time comedies. Better than the stage play. Jimmy Stewart is perfect as the publisher who after moving into a new house finds that that the woman up-stairs (Elsa Lancaster) has uh, fixed his phone. Needing to borrow a phone, he goes down stairs to the "shop around the corner" where instead of wallets and music boxes he finds himself in a store of primitive African art, and a beautiful hostess played by Kim Novak. Oh, did I mention an up scale magical cat named Piewacket? Pi can make all sorts of things happen when Kim hums a strange but interesting melody to him, or her, whichever the case may be. From then on the film takes off into a world wind romance. Jimmy Stewart dumps his demanding and sullen girl friend and falls madly in love with Kim. But then Ernie Kovacs, a weirdo author who is always looking for his next drink, enters the scene. Jimmy Stewart discovers that Kovac has written a best selling book about witches and warlocks in Mexico. He mentions the author off hand to Kim Novak. Kim sets up the meeting magically, thinking Kovac knows nothing, but Kovac makes friends with Kim's weird brother, Jack Lemmon, a bongo player in the witches favorite haunt, the Zodiac club on Christmas eve.
After that, Kim finds out that her brother is giving away all the private witchy secrets to Kovac and she arranges (magically, of course) that Jimmy Stewart (who is now her lover) dislike the book and refuse to publsh it. Well I won't tell anymore. The climax of the film will have you in stiches when Hermione Gingold enters the scene with a very witchy scene to break a love spell that Kim had cast on Stewart. If you like this kind of humor, you'll love the film. And it's nothing like Bewitched, though they may have gotten the idea from the film.
Movie Review: Who is to say what magic really is?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a Christmas story that may have a more Halloween feel. Shep Henderson takes a new apartment. Little does he know that the other residences are witches. Gil Holroyd Kim Novak sort of likes Shep and wonders if she can get his affection without witchery. She also finds that Shep's girlfriend (Janice Rule) is an old adversary. Now the fun begins.
Will Gill Get Shep?
Will Shep find out that Gill is a witch?
Who is to say what love really is?
Kim Novak "Boys' Night Out"
Jack Lemmon "The Apartment"
Elsa Lanchester "The Bride of Frankenstein"
I have seen the play several times and the movie is just as good if not better. My favorite scene is when Shepherd Henderson (James Stewart) is forced to drink a discussing liquid. And Bianca De Pass (Hermione Gingold) says, "Drink it while it still has strength." The look on is face is priceless.
Speaking of Hermione Gingold she was good in this movie however I think of her in "The Music Man" where as Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn, she returns a book to the library and says, "It's a smutty book" with that Gingold look.
Ernie Kovacs plays another character, Sidney Redlitch. You do not see many films with him in them. However if you can get your hands on it "Wake me when it's over" is a great comedy that he is a fighter pilot. He also stared in North to Alaska (1960) as a sort of Snidely Whiplash.
After watching this movie, can you imaging how many people now have cats named Pywackett?
Bell, Book and Candle: A Comedy in Three Acts
Movie Review: Bell, Book, Oscar please...
Summary: 5 Stars
By far, one of the goddess-like attributes of the divine Ms. Kim Novak has shown herself to be not only the original mold of what a "character actress" must subject herself to, but with her lightening wit, exceptional beauty, (and trust me, the Divine Miss "N" is still in her prime, even at her now "golden years".
I had the privilege of meeting her on her llama ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, before it was tragically burned to the ground.
Everything, EVERYTHING she had, from the original script to Vertigo, BB&C, (which insiders tell me, she has a MAJOR role in her character, Miss Gillian Holroyd, her lines, her back story, which come now as no surprise, as a woman who who is unhappy with her life as a witch, must deal with her bumbling, but lovable aunt, and brother, who find turning the stoplights green, and playing pranks on unsuspecting "mortals", or "outsiders" as they refer to them in the film.
After a final test to see if she can possibly win over co star Jimmy Stewart's interests, without..."tricks", as she poignantly portrays her internal struggle to just "sit in a quiet church somewhere, singing carols... instead of bongo drums", she recites to her Aunt Queenie, none other then the infamous Bride of Frankenstein.
The rest of the movie becomes rather fast paced, as Gillian soon realizes that she may have bitten off more than she can chew this time.
But you must see this classic to find what the Divine Miss "N" has taken in, taken on, that sometimes life is just full of surprises.
And if that old recycled piece of advice doesn't take you, then take it to the nearest recycling center, and give another find.