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.

“Who would ever think that so much can go on in the soul of a young girl?”

For as long as I can remember, by favorite book has always been Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. Since tonight begins Hanukkah, I was thinking about the book and the movie as well, in particular the Hanukkah scene. I have read the diary around six or seven times, have watched the movie a few times, and have seen two plays about Anne Frank. I think during this holiday season, it is important to talk about the film about Anne’s brief but inspiring life.

The diary was turned into a Pulitzer award-winning play and then was adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett into a film, which was directed by George Stevens. The 1959 film, The Diary of Anne Frank, was a major project of Stevens and he put a lot of himself into telling the story. Stevens spent four years working on the film, used black and white to create more drama, and Otto Frank as well as Johannes Kleiman were consulted during the making of the film.

The role of Anne was offered to both Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood. Audrey refused because she had lived in Holland during the same time as Anne and has witness the Nazi occupation and brutality first hand. She did not want to bring back old memories. Millie Perkins, instead, played Anne with Joseph Schildkraut as her father Otti, Gusti Huber as her mother Edith, and Diane Baker as her sister Margot. Shelley Winters played Mrs. Van Daan and won one of the three Oscars for the film for the supporting role. Other roles were Ed Wynn as Albert Dussell, Richard Beymer as Peter, Lou Jacobi as Mr. Van Daan, Douglas Spencer as Kraler, and Dodie Heath as Miep.

There are a plethora of reviews for the film. You can read this one, thanks to Apolloguide.com. Another comes from Altfg.com. This one comes from the Oscar Movies blog. And another great review and synopsis can be found here, thanks to beliefnet.com. If you want more information about Anne Frank, you can access the home site of the American Anne Frank Museum or the site that houses both the one of the house she hid in and the official Anne Frank website. At the bottom of this post, I will place the trailer for the 1959 film.

In one of the last pages of her diary, just before she was captured and taken away, Anne wrote: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart”. I believe this is a testament to how brave and how hopeful humanity can be, even surrounded by the most fearsome adversity and despair. No matter your religious practices, this is the spirit that the holiday season embodies. And to any Jewish readers out there, Chag Chanuka Sameach.

Laughing All the Way to the Madhouse

On this day in 1944, one of my personal favorite old movies was released: Arsenic and Old Lace. Directed by the legendary Frank Capra of You Can’t Take It With You and It’s A Wonderful Life fame and starring the just as legendary Cary Grant, the movie is a screwball comedy for the ages.

The plot is complex, as screwball comedies often are. Mortimer Brewster (Grant) is drama critic and famous writer of an anti-marriage book, which has not stopped him from getting engaged to Elaine Harper – played by the beautiful Priscilla Lane. Naturally, that is the most normal thing about Mortimer’s life. Throughout the film, he has to deal with Uncle Teddy, who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and buries “yellow fever victims” in the basement. Add in Mortimer’s long lost, escapee prisoner brother (Raymond Massey) who has been styled by his accomplice to resemble Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, a pair of senile murderess old aunts, a reverend, a judge, a head of mental sanitarium, and half a dozen police officers, and you have a recipe for the chaos that quickly envelops Mortimer Brewster’s life.

Throughout the film, twists in the plot occur making for a darkly funny comedy. After watching the insane antics of the Brewster clan, you will definitely think better of your own family. The movie is based off of a play by the same name, written by German immigrant Joseph Kesselring. Though macabre in nature, the film is truly spectacular and carries on in the unbelievable yet hysterical tradition of comedies in its mode.

What saddens me is that it is rare to find a modern screwball comedy with such well done hilarity, suspension of disbelief, and absolutely superior storyline than those comedies of old. Nowadays, most comedies rely on bowel movement jokes or crude humor to get their laughs, choosing to push the boundaries more than try to write an actually intelligent joke. I’m all for pushing boundaries, but still, it would be nice to have my intelligence appreciated enough that contemporary Hollywood writers thought their audience was smart enough to work out a complex joke or humorous scenario. Often times, films that attempt to recapture the glory of the early screwballs fall terribly short and end up being laughed at for all the wrong reasons.

Classics like Arsenic and Old Lace can hardly go wrong, especially with an all-star pairing such as Capra and Grant. I honestly implore you to go check out Arsenic and Old Lace and I promise you will be barking mad with laughter at the end.