Bell Book and Candle

A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancee, so she enchants him to love her instead… only to fall in love with him for real.

• Director: Richard Quine
• Genre:Comedy / Fantasy / Romance
• Runtime:102 minutes

Cast

James Stewart : Shepherd ‘Shep’ Henderson
Kim Novak : Gillian ‘Gil’ Holroyd
Jack Lemmon : Nicky Holroyd
Ernie Kovacs : Sidney Redlitch
Hermione Gingold: Bianca de Passe

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, but begins falling for him herself. She must eventually make a stark choice, as witches who fall in love lose their supernatural powers. Gillian’s cat and familiar, Pyewacket, becomes agitated and leaves her when she decides in Shep’s favor.

Meanwhile, the author of a best-selling book, Magic in Mexico, whom Shep has expressed an interest in meeting, arrives on the scene (thanks to a little magic). Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs), who is researching a book on witches in New York, acquires an “inside” collaborator when Gillian’s warlock brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon) volunteers his services—in exchange for a portion of the proceeds.

Gillian uses her magic to make Shep lose interest in Nicky and Redlitch’s book and then confesses her identity as a witch to Shep. He becomes angry, believing that she enchanted him just to spite Merle, and the two fight. Gillian threatens to cast various spells on Merle (such as making her fall in love with the first man that walks into her apartment and sending her around the world), but finds that she has lost her powers because of her love for Shep. Meanwhile, he finds that he literally cannot leave Gillian, because of the spell. To escape, he turns to another witch, Bianca de Passe (Hermione Gingold), who breaks the spell. Shep confronts Gillian and leaves her heartbroken. He then tries unsuccessfully to explain to Merle that Gillian is a witch. Months later, Shep returns and discovers that Gillian has lost her magic powers because of her love for him. The two reconcile. Read more