Alls Fair in Love and Magic

A great and often overlooked romantic classic is Richard Quine's 1958 film Bell Book, and Candle, a story about a witch who falls in love with a mortal. The film follows along that similar theme also shown in the television show Bewitched and in the 1942 movie I Married a Witch, starring Fredric Marc, Veronica Lake, and Susan Hayward. Bell Book and Candle is based on a play of the same name, written by John Van Druten. The film again teams up James Stewart and Kim Novak in the lead roles, as did Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo.

The film follows along with Gillian Holroyd (Novak), who is just your average witch-about-town living in Greenwich Village, New York with her cat, Pyewacket. Publisher Shep Henderson (Stewart) walks into her oddities shop one day to use the phone and Gil is smitten with him. Gil grows jealous when it turns out her old college rival Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule ) and casts a love spell on Shep to draw his attentions away from Merle. Unfortunately, Gil starts to fall in love with Shep as well and when a witch falls in love with a mortal, she looses her powers. Meanwhile, Shep's publishing agency has decided to accept a book being written by Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs ), who is writing about the supernatural with the help of Gil's warlock brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon ). At underground clubs, they meet several members of the supernatural community, including Aunt Queenie (Elsa Lancaster ). Gil eventually confesses her powers to Shep, who is disgusted with her, and Gil has fellow witch Bianca de Passe (Hermione Gingold ) break the spell Gil has cast over him. The film, of course, has a happy ending which I won't divulge here.

Stewart turned 50 on the set of this film and afterwards, ceased to play romantic leads focusing more on father figure roles. Both the film and the soundtrack that was released for it were moderate successes. The title is a reference to the phrase used during to the excommunication process against witches. The original Broadway stage production included Rex Harrison as Shepherd Henderson, Lilli Palmer as Gillian Holroyd, Jean Adair as Miss Queeny Holroyd, Larry Gates as Sidney Redlitch and Scott McKay as Nicky Holroyd. The name of Gil's cat Pyewacket comes from the records of witchfinder general" Matthew Hopkins, who listed is as one of the familiar spirits found in a small English town in 1644. The film was nominated for best Art Direction and Costume design for the 1959 Oscars, but did not win either.

Several reviews of this film are available for more background information. The Moon in the Gutter blogspot offers some insight into why the film has gone overlooked. Moviediva.com does a great article sighting reviews of the film and goes into detail about various interpretations and academic looks at the film and its subtext. The Spinning Image blog has a basic review of the film and one of the original reviews from the year it was released can be found here, thanks to The New York Times.