Fascinating, and utterly beautiful. What a fascinating time it is when you discover a movie that is utterly different to everything else you've seen. That is what happened with 'Bell, Book and Candle' (BBAC). Maybe it was the off-kilter combination of Kim Novak and James Stewart, or the deeply dippy performances of Elsa Lanchester and Jack Lemmon. Maybe it was the utterly beautiful cinematography or the score? Or the creepiness? Was it the creepiness? It can be a very creepy movie, especially at the beginning, but it is tied into the evolution of Novak's character, who literally becomes more human through the machinations of the plot. The whole movie literally defrosts as she does.
Oh, okay, a few words on the plot. Let's be conventional. Yawn. Adapted from the play of the same name, BBAC is about a bored witch called Gillian, who runs a small African art gallery, and lives below James Stewart's publisher Shep (yes, it never stops being strange hearing someone be called 'Shep'), who in turn lives below Gillian's daffy auntie Matilda (Lanchester). Desperate to meet someone interesting, and finding out that Shep's fiancée was one of her old antagonists at college, Gillian bewitches Shep and from there the story unfolds.
It could have just been a regular romantic comedy, but there's something indefinable here. Perhaps it's just the good fortune of having Jack Lemmon and James Stewart in the same film, in one of the great casting lucky dips. Yes, it was before Lemmon made it big with 'Some Like It Hot', but he obviously already had star power. Maybe it's Ernie Kovacs, weaving his ridiculous charm around a supporting role as an expert in the arcane arts, or the director Richard Quine. His work on 'How To Murder Your Wife' was extraordinarily pretty too, and I'm not someone who's normally blown away by visuals.
It's not entirely clear to me how the original theatrical play would have looked. There were a significant number of locations in the film, after all, but perhaps I'm being too literally minded. It wouldn't be that difficult, and magic has been a staple of the theatre for a long time. It wouldn't be sets that were the problems, but the cat! And the parrot! Oh, yes, there's a cat. You have been warned. In any case, enough about the play. If I ever get to see it, I'll explain the differences. In detail. You may need a thermos.
BBAC is roundly declared to be James Stewart's last romantic lead role, ending the grand run that encompassed 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'Rear Window', 'The Philadelphia Story' and many others. His is a fascinating presence in the film, where his main purpose is to be (presumably) magically bamboozled, but still maintain his incredible credibility. Of course, he manages that by sheer virtue of being James Stewart, who also starred with Novak in 'Vertigo' in that same year. His following film was 'Anatomy of a Murder', which together form an impressive hat trick. A ludicrous hat trick.
The mystery of Kim Novak grows. Between this and 'Kiss Me, Stupid', it's entirely unclear just what her mysterious power is, but it works. Is she a great actress? I have no idea. She does an amazing job here, just as he did in 'Kiss Me, Stupid'. Very curious. That intangible but unmistakeable distance has to be as much her work as Quine's. She's the one that gets that tune trapped in our heads, after all. For a long time, I didn't realise that her character was intended to be that way, that it wasn't just a weird performance. Maybe that's why it's confusing?
Oh, enough of this rambling. 'Bell, Book and Candle' is a film well worth seeing, and one that has jumped to the top of my 'eventual buy' list. Now, back to 'Groucho Marx, Master Detective' and birthday present wrapping. Where is that staple gun, and the scaled replica of Mozart? I wish they'd hat the twelve foot Beethoven.
O.
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