I Married a Witch (1942)

This fun and stylish Rene Clair comedy gave two big Hollywood names--Fredric March and Veronica Lake--a chance to break away from their stereotypically serious roles (as intense leading man and film noir vamp, respectively) and exercise their funny bones. The sultry Lake stars as a Salem witch burned at the stake who returns to haunt the descendants of the Puritans who let her smolder, namely aspiring politician March. Lake concocts a love potion for her victim that will get him to fall in love with her, rather than his snooty fiancée (Susan Hayward in one of her early roles). Things get a wee bit complicated when said potion works its spell on Lake instead and she falls head over broomstick for March. Blissfully hilarious and romantic, this Witch is blessed with great chemistry between March and Lake (who never looked lovelier), dryly funny one-liners, and a scene-stealing performance by Cecil Kellaway as Lake's perennially drunk warlock dad. Robert Benchley of Algonquin Round Table fame also pops up in a supporting role. Rumored but never actually confirmed to be the basis for the hit TV series Bewitched. --Mark Englehart Amazon.com

Father and Daughter

Cecil Kellaway makes I MARRIED A WITCH a scary film indeed, and I suspect that John Huston must have recalled Kellaway's portrayal when he undertook the role of the evil, incest-driven patriarch in Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN. Against all odds, Kellaway has kept his daughter to himself for 270 years, thanks to the Puritans who have condemned him to live, as a ghost, in the form of smoke, under a giant oak tree on the ancestral property of the Wooley family. And in turn Kellaway has cursed the Wooleys, ensuring that, in each generation, no man shall find happiness in love, all will be married to plain battleaxes.

Meanwhile Daniel (the warlock played by Kellaway) had Jennifer (his lovely daughter, played by the uniquely talented Veronica Lake) right where he wants her--he's the only man in her universe. When a lightning storm topples the tree, releasing father and daughter, it spells trouble for Daniel who risks losing the undivided love of his daughter, as, like Miranda in THE TEMPEST, she discovers a brave new world of cute guys and sort of begins to neglect dear old Dad. Daniel's fury is right out of the Chinatown playbook, and he tries everything he knows to break up Jennifer and her new love interest, Wallace Wooley (Fredric March, looking pretty dumpy only a few years after his killer sex appeal in the Wellman version of A STAR IS BORN).

Some will love Veronica Lake, some will be puzzled, but everyone must admit that in her early scenes, before love makes her more "human," she makes some of the oddest acting choices ever captured on film (Surrealist or otherwise). She employs a squeaky, oltrano voice, as though entrapment in an oak tree for centuries has blanched away her voice to mere oxygen. In her memoir, Lake told the story of how French director Rene Clair directed her from moment to moment, coaching and acting out her every phrase and expression, every mincing step. It is a performance more in bits and pieces than a whole, but it is extraordinary nonetheless. Readers of VERONICA, Lake's memoir, will also recall that she got tired of Freddie March always feeling her up during their scenes together and she arranged a rocking chair scene in which she managed to steer the rocker part right into his most vulnerable area. See if you can spot it in the finished film and look for his momentary expression of ghastly testicular pain. June 29, 2007

Delightful romantic comedy fantasy which shows all concerned at the top of their form...

Veronica Lake's fooling, charming, biting witch (released from the trunk of a tree by a freak lightning storm, she returns to upset the household and descendants of the man who had her burnt a few hundred years earlier) was a role that suited her to perfection: she was a spry, punchy little cockerel from Broolklyn - breeding ground of other feisty spirits such as Clara Bow, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West and Susan Hayward - whose beauty hid brains, and whose brains worked fast to seize a chance and make the most of it... She also had an explosive temper which she unleashed on those bigger than she, in size and power, resulting of course in the destruction of her career... But in her youth these qualities supplied her an electric current that switched a lot of people on...

Veronica resented being known for her long blonde hair, but fame draws on strange things to single out one person for the attention of others: with Bette Davis it was acting; with Crawford it was staring; with Hayworth it was dancing and with Lake it was her silky hair... But regardless of the gimmick that drew us to her, it was the unrepeatable quality within which made a star like Veronica Lake imitated and loved - not for what she may have thought she could do, but for the fact that she was there to do it at all...

January 2, 2007

Film is OKay, but the DVD release a disappointment

Release date "I MARRIED A WITCH" DVD: March 24, 2006.
April 4, 2006: this morning the sealed "I MARRIED A WITCH" DVD arrived, finally.

However... a big disappointment, in regards of the video & sound quality of this DVD: very, very bad:
a. the audio: the sound is like medium-wave, or a 78 rpm record, noisy, hiss, hum; a "nosy sound". Music with disortion.
b. video: like a VHS copy. Faces are often difficult to recognize; some drop-outs too.
c. less important: scene selection: 8; no subtitles, no extra's.

It's not a restored and/or a remastered film; in my opinion the manufacturer copied a VHS tape.

A pal bought this DVD also, the same results, and he is disappointed too. We look forward to a restored version; this nice comedy deserves it!

Summary: the film is OK, Veronica Lake is a great actress, but this DVD release is a big disappointment.

Robert


March 27, 2006

A Bewitching Comedy With Sexy Witch Veronica Lake

It's rare nowadays when you can say that you have seen a totally delightful comedy in the cinemas. That rare marriage of charming scenerio, ideally cast players, and romantic setting seems to be sadly a thing of the past which is why I always find "I Married a Witch", such enjoyable viewing. Here we have two very famous performers in dramatic veteran Fredric March, and Film Noir siren Veronica Lake playing against their usual "type" and having a field day cutting loose with this romantic screwball tale that combines sexy humour with elements of the supernatural. Based on the unfinished novel by "Topper", author Thorne Smith, "I Married a Witch", gave us a whole new image of what witches were like minus the warts and crooked nose and in much the same vein as the later legendary series "Bewitched", showed us witches who were playful and extremely sexy. Veronica Lake had I feel her most appealing role here and proved herself adept at frothy comedy and capable of far more than just looking slinky hiding behind her famous peek a boo hairstyle. Her chemistry with Fredric March is magical here (no pun intended!), and goes a long way towards making "I Married a Witch", the great success it is.

Veronica Lake plays a Salem witch who along with her father is burnt at the stake on charges of scorcery. Before her death however she places a curse on the decendants of the man responsible for the burning, one Wallace Wooley. They are all cursed to marry "unhappily", and then we are treated to a series of highly amusing "historical snippets" showing how each generation of the Wooley family falls victim to the curse with wives they would probably much prefer to see burnt at the stake! The action then moves to the present where we see aspiring political candidate for the State Senate Jonathan Wooley (March) fully involved in the run up to not only his wedding to the hot tempered Estelle (Susan Hayward), daughter of media big shot J.B. Masterson (Robert Warwick), but also the upcoming election financed largely by his overpowering future father in law who is calling the shots in the upcoming election. During a storm both Jennifer (Veronica Lake), and her no good father Daniel (Cecil Kellaway) are freed from their imprisonment inside the tree that grew on the spot where they were burnt. Jennifer sets out to make life a complete misery for Jonathan during this important time in his life. She tries to create a scandal after Jonathan supposedly "rescues" her from a burning building by being "caught", in compromising positions in his bedroom right under the nose of both Estelle and disapproving housekeeper Margaret (Elizabeth Patterson). She tries to sabotage Jonathan's wedding day and in an hilarious scene causes a huge wind to come in and literally destroy the whole event. When she pretends to "die by gunshot", in an adjoining room causing an even bigger scandal which will set Jonathan up on a murder charge Jennifer however gets more than she bargained for. Earlier she had concocted a potion that will make Jonathan fall in love with her, Jonathan now accidently uses it to revive Jennifer and she finds herself madly in love with him! Fed up with Estelle's rages and her greedy father planning his every move Jonathan begins to realise that the disorder and excitement that Jennifer has brought into his ordered existence right down to flying through the air in a car, has revitalised him and love blossoms. When Jennifer's menacing and perpetually drunk father sees the change in her and threatens to take the families revenge out on Jonathan himself he takes Jennifer's powers away from him and ends up back in the bottle that will be his home for all eternity. We then see a flash forward to when Jonathan and Jennifer are a comfortably married middle aged couple and the witch streak is still there when their daughter begins feeling "right at home",playing with a broomstick.

This slapstick piece of Americana was ably handled by none other than French director Rene Clair who really produced his best work during the 1930's before leaving Europe in the wake of Nazi aggression. Here however he seems totally at home with his rapid fire direction and rarely has a director got a more lively and delightfully kittenish performance out of Veronica Lake than Rene Clair does here. Fredric March and Lake combine extremely well here despite the very public clashes they had on the set during filming. Indeed March has rarely been more pleasing on screen where he is normally associated with such diverse dramatic roles as in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", "A Star is Born", and "The Best Years of Our Lives". He brings a frustratingly frantic skill to his acting that makes Lake's cool and deliciously wicked playing of this sexy witch seem even more amusing. Cecil Kellaway almost succeeds in stealing every scene he is in as the permanently drunk father of Lake and Susan Hayward, an actress I greatly admire has a quite difficult character to play here that nevertheless indicated what she was capable of delivering in later better roles. For 1942 the magical special effects are first rate where we have scenes of Jennifer and her father's disembodied presences in the form of smoke going inside bottles etc. First rate all the way for this time.

Often passed off as the inspiration for the TV series "Bewitched", we will never know for sure if that was indeed the case. What we do know is that in "I Married a Witch", we are in possession of a delightfully wicked little comedy that crosses many sexual boundaries that might not have been gotten away with elsewhere at this time. For those viewers only used to seeing Veronica Lake as Alan Ladd's costar in numerous glossy Film Noirs do yourself a favour and check out her bewitchingly delightful performance opposite Fredric March in Rene Clair's "I Married a Witch". Grand entertainment. June 22, 2004

A comedy fantasy

Format: Color
Studio: Warner Studios
Video Release Date: January 31, 1995

Cast:

Fredric March ... Jonathan Wooley/Nathaniel Wooley/Samuel Wooley/Wallace Wooley
Veronica Lake ... Jennifer
Robert Benchley ... Dr. Dudley White
Susan Hayward ... Estelle Masterson
Cecil Kellaway ... Daniel
Elizabeth Patterson ... Margaret
Robert Warwick ... J. B. Masterson
Gordon De Main ... Man with Masterson on Radio
Ralph Dunn ... First Jail Guard
Frank Elliott ... Magistrate

Franklyn Farnum ... Country Club Extra/Man at Fire
Jack Gardner ... Radio Voice
Robert Greig ... Town Crier
George Guhl ... Fred the policeman
William Haade ... Policeman
Reed Hadley ... Young man
Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian ... Tom, Bartender
Robert Homans ... The Fire Chief
Arthur Stuart Hull ... Wedding Guest
Peter Leeds ... Ambulance Attendant
Jack Luden ... Ambulance driver
Renny McEvoy ... Bellboy
David McKim ... Newsboy
Charles Bates ... Woolley Jr.
James Millican
Frank Mills ... Joe, cab driver
Charles R. Moore ... Samuel's Servant
Edmund Mortimer ... Wedding Guest
Emory Parnell ... The Hotel Owner
Brooks Benedict ... Country Club Extra
Ralph Peters ... Prisoner
Gerald Pierce ... Newsboy
Mickey Rentschler ... Boy at Country Club
Cyril Ring ... Country Club Extra
Ronald R. Rondell ... Country Club Extra/Wedding Guest
Billy Bevan ... Puritan vendor
Ernest Shields ... Waiter
Lee Shumway ... Fireman
Walter Soderling ... Chess Player
Bert Stevens ... Country Club Extra
Billy Bletcher ... Photographer
Monte Blue ... Doorman
Harry Tyler ... Prisoner
Dan White ... Fireman
Wade Boteler ... Cop who arrests Daniel
Aldrich Bowker ... Justice of the Peace
Al Bridge ... Second Jail Guard
Eddy Chandler ... Motorcycle Cop
Chester Conklin ... Party Bartender
Gino Corrado ... Onlooker in Crowd
Florence Gill ... Chess player
Esther Howard ... Bit Role
Georgia Backus ... Older woman
Donivee Lee ... Bit Girl
Eily Malyon ... Tabitha
Viola Moore ... Martha
Kathryn Sheldon ... Elderly wife
Helen St. Rayner ... Vocalist
Marie Blake ... Purity Sykes
Jan Buckingham ... Young Woman
Ann Carter ... Jennifer Jr.
Nora Cecil ... Harriet
Georgie Cooper ... Wedding Guest
Beverly Andre ... Girl at Country Club
Emma Dunn ... Justice's wife
Mary Field ... Nancy
Bess Flowers ... Maid of Honor

A couple of witches are burned in Salem during the pilgrim days, but they first put a curse on the Wooley family and all of their heirs: they will all marry the wrong women. A curse, indeed!

Then Wallace Wooley (Fredric March), in modern times, is running for Governor at the same time that the spirits of the two witches resurface, at the very time that Estelle Masterson (Susan Hayward) and Wally are about to be married. But things go awry when Jennifer, the witch (Veronica Lake) takes a love potion by mistake, and falls for Wally.

This is a funny movie, and was the inspiration for the TV series
starring Elizabeth Montgomery based on the same premise.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and Freedom
and other books

June 14, 2004

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