Bell, Book and Candle

Bell, Book and Candle (1958) is a romantic comedy directed by Richard Quine based on the hit Broadway play by John Van Druten. It starred James Stewart and Kim Novak in their second on-screen pairing (after the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo, released earlier the same year). The film, adapted by Daniel Taradash, was Stewart's last film as a romantic lead. Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn allowed Novak to appear in Vertigo (as a last-minute replacement for pregnant Vera Miles) in exchange for Stewart appearing in this film with Novak.

Fans of the film point to similarities between it and the earlier I Married A Witch (1942) and especially the 1960s television series Bewitched (produced by Columbia's television division), speculating that this film may have been an inspiration. The original 1950 play starred Rex Harrison, his then wife Lilli Palmer, Jean Adair, and Larry Gates.

Plot

The film opens during the Christmas holiday season. Greenwich Village witch Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak), a free spirit with a penchant for going barefoot, has been unlucky in love and restless in life. She admires from afar her neighbor, publisher Shep Henderson (James Stewart), who one day walks into her gallery of primitive art to use the telephone. When she learns he is about to marry an old college enemy of hers, Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule), she takes revenge by casting a love spell on him while falling for him herself. She must eventually make a stark choice, as witches who fall in love...
Read More