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Amazon.co.uk Review
Bell, Book and Candle (1958) is a sparkling, exotic and intelligent comedy based on John Van Druten's original play about the unlikely subject of witchcraft in Manhattan. In his last romantic lead role, James Stewart is publisher Shep Henderson, sucked into the underworld of Greenwich Village by the extraordinarily beautiful Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak). Their liaison kicks off when Gillian employs her skills to indulge in a bit of fun. By the time Shep gets wise and rejects the artificial premise for a relationship, she has sacrificed her powers to emotional awakening and all is set for a happy ending.
Largely thanks to an eccentric supporting cast, which includes Jack Lemmon as Gillian's warlock brother, Hermione Gingold as a fruity nightclub owner and Elsa Lanchester as Gillian's dotty aunt, the film has a delightfully off-centre quality. It's also a bittersweet allegory about being different. "We forfeit everything and then we end up in a little world of separateness from everyone", sighs Gillian. Novak is at the height of her beauty and here, as in her other 1958 triumph Vertigo (also with Stewart), her other-worldly quality fits the character so perfectly that her thespian limitations are well disguised. It's entrancing in every sense.
On the DVD: Bell, Book and Candle's vibrant Technicolor explodes from the screen in this DVD release, which is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions. Everything looks fresh and new--particularly the exotic nightclub scenes--and the mono soundtrack has lasted well. Extras include selected filmographies and original trailers, and detailed background in the booklet notes. --Piers Ford
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DVD Special Features
Trailers
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.
98 minutes feature run time.
Trailers
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.
98 minutes feature run time.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
She's one of them,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Bell, Book and Candle [DVD] [2002] (DVD)
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.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Ring the bell, open the book, light the candle",
By
This review is from: Bell, Book and Candle [DVD] [2002] (DVD)
This charming romantic comedy is set in the world of modern day (1958) witches in New York City. Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak), art dealer, bohemian, and witch, is attracted to her upstairs (mortal) neighbor, Shep Henderson (James Stewart). With the help of her cat familiar, Gillian casts a love spell on the straitlaced Shep; he is immediately besotted and breaks his engagement to another woman. Gillian likes a lot him, but knows that if a witch falls in love for real, she loses her magic powers. Does she dare give up her witchy ways? Will he love her without magic?Stewart is very sweet and likeable as the buttoned-down publisher, but this is Kim Novak's movie all the way. She's adorably and seductively mysterious, with her velvety voice, haunting gazes, and stunning wardrobe of red and black. There is no silly hocus-pocus or levitating of objects; they aren't necessary. We believe Gillian is a witch from the start, and her desire to be vulnerable is touching. Novak and Stewart teamed up romantically in another movie that year, "Vertigo," and they look just great together. This is a lightweight fantasy (shades of "Bewitched") with beautiful stars, a sweet romance, and a remarkably talented Siamese cat!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bewitched: A romantic comedy starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak,
By
This review is from: Bell, Book and Candle [DVD] [2002] (DVD)
Kim Novak plays a beautiful Greenwich Village witch Gillian Holroyd, who casts a magic spell on her neighbor Shep Henderson (James Stewart) so that he breaks his engagement with his fiancée Merle Kittredge (Janice Rule), and begins to love Gillian. After a sometime, Gillian feels like a human unbecoming of a witch; she not only has fallen in love with a human, but she also has mixed feelings about breaking his engagement to Merle. She tries to fix things by reversing everything back so that it goes back to where it was, using her magical powers, but it turns out that she has lost her skills of a witch, and can not get Shep and Merle back together again. In a desperate attempt she confides to Shep that she is a witch, and she is behind the break in engagement with Merle. Later, in a desperate attempt, Shep turns to another witch, Mrs. Bianca de Passe (Hermione Gingold) to cure him of the spell. Months later, Shep returns to Gillian's witch (Voodoo) store and discovers that she has lost her magic powers because of her love for him.
Jack Lemmon plays meddling brother Nicky Holroyd, and Ernie Kovacs plays a researcher and an author of witchcraft. The two has supporting role, but Kim Novak looks adorable in this hopelessly romantic story. The viewers can't help but think that Jimmy Stewart is a little old for the young and beautiful Kim. In fact this was the last movie of Jimmy Stewart in the romantic lead role. This movie is second on-screen pairing after a very successful Hitchcock movie Vertigo. There are similarities between this movie and the earlier "I Married a Witch" and the television series "Bewitched." It is unclear if this movie was an inspiration to the production of the TV series starring Elizabeth Montgomery, but fans would be very happy to see this pair in a romantic mode.
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