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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302797664 Format: Color, NTSC ISBN: 6302797667 Label: Sony Pictures Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Sony Pictures Release Date: June 21, 1994 Running Time: 106 minutes Sales Rank: 1514 Studio: Sony Pictures Theatrical Release Date: 1959-01
Amazon.com: Staid, secure publisher James Stewart leads a quiet life until he meets his bewitching downstairs neighbor, Kim Novak. John Van Druten's lighthearted Broadway comedy becomes a lush if lightweight romantic vehicle for Stewart and Novak, who would reunite for Hitchcock's Vertigo the next year. Novak is at her best as a Greenwich witch halfway between the worlds of magic and mortals, looking after her dotty aunt (Elsa Lanchester) and mischievous warlock brother (Jack Lemmon) as they keep their skills in practice. Novak's specialty is making men fall for her, but it's a one-way street: when a witch falls in love, she loses her powers. Director Richard Quine gives the witches an almost beatnik sensibility, a real Greenwich Village subculture hanging out in underground clubs and smart curio shops. Elegantly photographed in rich, glowing colors by James Wong Howe, Bell, Book and Candle is a fantasy world in New York set to a funky bongo-laced jazz score by George Duning. Quine's gliding camera is somewhat marred by abrupt editing, but his handling of actors is superb, in particular Novak, whose mysterious beauty masks inner turmoil and romantic yearnings. Ernie Kovacs appears as a wry author whose specialty is the supernatural, and Hermione Gingold is suitably florid as a witch elder with a penchant for theatricality. For once in his life Stewart is actually upstaged by the slyly comic performances around him. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Fun, fun movie!
Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak have purrrfect chemistry in this movie about spells and magic! If you are a fan of the T.V. show "Bewitched" you will love this one!
Rating: - Bell Book and Candle
Bell Book and Candle is a most delightful movie for anyone to enjoy. The stars, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon (and a bunch of other great stars), are of my generation and makes one wish our younger folks would be exposed to this kind of fine acting. The story is fun and fanciful; makes you laugh and feel good all at the same time. Working with the vendor through Amazon is great.
Rating: - Bell, Book, Oscar please...
By far, one of the goddess-like attributes of the divine Ms. Kim Novak has shown herself to be not only the original mold of what a "character actress" must subject herself to, but with her lightening wit, exceptional beauty, (and trust me, the Divine Miss "N" is still in her prime, even at her now "golden years".
I had the privilege of meeting her on her llama ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, before it was tragically burned to the ground.
Everything, EVERYTHING she had, from the original script to Vertigo, BB&C, (which insiders tell me, she has a MAJOR role in her character, Miss Gillian ... Read More
Rating: - Bell Book and Candle, the underated fun movie
Jack lemon, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and a cat with a fantastic name. This movie was one of my favorites on those "Sunday" afternoon movies that were on TV when I was a kid. I thought Kim Novak was a living Barbie doll and the bongo sixties beet nick fun element added by Jack Lemon was perfect.
I loved this movie and now that I own it, I can watch it over and over.
Rating: - Magic in Manhattan . . .
This fun, quirky film was adapted for the screen from a play of the same name by John Van Druten. Originally set in England, Van Druten wrote it as a straight play, but in the tryouts, people laughed, so he changed it to a light comedy that starred Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, that was produced in New York by Irene Mayer Selznick. David O. Selznick of Columbia acquired the film rights and cast his wife, Jennifer Jones, as Gillian, and reset the story in Paris, but Jones became pregnant and Kim Novak replaced her - Novak was fresh from working with Jimmy Stewart in "Vertigo", where, ironically, Novak ... Read More
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