Bell, Book and Candle Reviews

In the right role, Kim Novak’s detached glamour and chilly braininess could be used to great effect. In 1958, two of the best films to utilize her strengths as an actress and screen presence allowed for her to play roles that mirror each other in unique and strange ways. Vertigo is the more lauded classic, for obvious reasons, but Bell Book and Candle is a thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy.

Both films star Novak and James Stewart as lovers circling each other in erotic obsession and longing. Vertigo positions Stewart as Hitchcock’s proxy, willfully recreating the pliable starlet into his dream woman, before driving her mad by trying to force her into a limited role. Bell Book and Candle has Novak as the main aggressor, partially out of boredom with her life as a Greenwich Village witch, essentially living in a state of extended adolescence. Novak’s witch is too happy to throw her powers and immortality for something real, and the parallels between the two roles is evident as Bell Book and Candle plays Vertigo as a whip-cream light romantic comedy, complete with a happy ending for the pair.

What makes Bell Book and Candle really intriguing is the same thing that energizes many of Novak’s better performances, the tangible connection the actress is making with the role and her real life. One could easily imagine the actress reading the script and finding the bohemian witch’s longing for real experiences and see her slyly smile and nod, understanding that push-and-pull as a sex goddess yearning to break free. Novak’s joy in the role emanates off the screen, and her natural chilliness and removed nature works well here. The moment where she learns that she’s fallen in love and developed the ability to experience emotions is pure glamour and craving as her placid face artfully cries a single tear.

Granted, the major reason to watch this is for Novak’s strong leading turn, but Bell Book and Candle is a movie of many charms. Witches and warlocks are merry pranksters here, hiding out in hip underground clubs and using their stores as fronts for magical pastimes. The most powerful witch is Kim Novak, and she spends most of her time longing for domesticity and a normal, non-magical life. (Hey, it was the 50s, what can you do?) Despite a choice to live a mostly magic-free life, her brother (Jack Lemmon) and aunt (Elsa Lanchester) are constant sources of mischief and mayhem.

James Stewart lives upstairs and is in the book publishing industry. Novak is absolutely crazy about him, and even at 50 years old, Stewart is still his charming, everyman self. But he’s engaged, so what’s a single witch to do? Cast a love spell on the poor sap, of course, as one does. It’s a lot of fun watching Stewart do some solid physical comedy and mug for the camera, long limbs fumbling and face contorted as he tries to make sense of the strange occurrences around him. In the scene where Novak places the spell upon him, her erotically fixed glare and gentle purring are enough to drive any man wild with desire.

The supporting players are a colorful bunch, with the aforementioned Lemmon and Lanchester joined by the rounded elocution of Hermoine Gingold and the gravel voiced Ernie Kovacks. They’re all wonderfully spry here, with Gingold’s respected and powerful grand dame witch and Kovacks’ alcoholic reporter getting high marks. The only thing keeping me from declaring Bell Book and Candle a homerun is that strange, slightly bitter aftertaste of the 1950s establishment hive mind. Novak and Stewart have great chemistry, but why does the witch have to give up her powers to gain her happily ever after?