Bell, Book and Candle movie storyline. Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) is a modern-day witch living in Greenwich Village. A publisher named Shep Henderson (James Stewart) moves into the apartment above hers and she becomes interested in him. When she learns he is going to marry her college nemesis, Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule), the next day, Gillian uses her cat, Pyewacket, to cast a love spell on Shep.
Shep is immediately enamored with Gillian and breaks up with Merle on the morning of their wedding. Gillian makes it so that author Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs) visits Shep in the hope that Shep will publish his next book, about witches in New York. When Gillian learns that her warlock brother, Nicky (Jack Lemmon), is collaborating with Sidney, she is worried that Shep will learn about her true nature and her spell on Shep. Since Gillian finds herself actually falling in love with Shep, something that will make her lose her powers, she must make a choice as to what she really wants.
Bell, Book and Candle is a 1958 American Technicolor comedy-drama romance film directed by Richard Quine, based on the successful 1950 Broadway play by John Van Druten adapted by Daniel Taradash. It stars Kim Novak as a witch who casts a spell on her neighbor, played by James Stewart. The supporting cast features Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, and Elsa Lanchester. The film is considered Stewart’s final role as a romantic lead.
David O. Selznick purchased the rights to Van Druten’s play in 1953,[a] planning to cast his wife, Jennifer Jones, in the part of Gil. At the urging of Daniel Taradash and Julian Blaustein, Columbia purchased the property from Selznick in 1956. Taradash, who had adapted From Here to Eternity (1953) for Columbia with great success, augmented the story slightly by incorporating characters who are only names in the play (notably Mrs. De Pass, and Shep’s fiancée Merle) and expanding the action to locations beyond Gil’s apartment.
For the lead roles, Taradash and Blaustein hoped to get Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, who had starred in the play, but Columbia chief Harry Cohn decided on Kim Novak for the female lead. Novak was on loan to Paramount making Vertigo and the scheduling conflict put Harrison out of consideration as well. Taradash and Blaustein also suggested Cary Grant and Grace Kelly as the leads and Alexander Mackendrick to direct; Kelly got married, however, and there were creative differences between the studio and both Grant and Mackendrick. Since the arrangement with Paramount for Novak’s appearance in Vertigo included reciprocity, Cohn advanced James Stewart for the role of Shep. Bell, Book and Candle is generally recognized as Stewart’s final romantic leading role.
Early in 1957, producers also launched a somewhat promotional search for Siamese cats to play Pyewacket. According to one release, as many as 12 cats were needed to perform the number of stunts in the film. Production began on February 3, 1958, and was completed on April 7.
The movie was scored by George Duning, another Columbia veteran who earned praise for his work on From Here to Eternity. The main theme melds bongos and violins, evoking elements of the plot; heard during the opening credits, a few staves of “Jingle Bells” are incorporated to set the Christmas tone of the initial action. Each witch, including Pyewacket the cat, is identified by a musical signature. Duning used creative means such as recording sounds and replaying them at high speed to achieve an eerie background effect for the score.
The soundtrack was released in January 1959 by Colpix (CT-506). Most of the recording took place in Munich with Duning conducting the Graunke Symphony Orchestra. The segments featuring the Brothers Candoli, who appear in the film playing at the Zodiac Club, were recorded in Hollywood at Columbia; on these tracks, John Williams can be heard on piano.
About the Story
In the late 1950s, during the Christmas holiday season, Greenwich Village witch Gillian Holroyd, a free spirit with a penchant for going barefoot, is bored, a little depressed and dissatisfied with her routine life. Gillian seems to be curious about her new neighbor, a publisher named Shep Henderson, who lives above her rare African art store and ground floor apartment. When Shep arrives home and unlocks his door, he discovers Gillian’s aunt, Queenie, in his living room rummaging through his desk.
Queenie lives in the building and is also curious about the recently moved-in neighbor and studies his belongings to know more about him. She explains her intrusion by telling Shep that she came in to shut a window he left open because it was snowing outside. Perplexed how she got inside and annoyed to find Queenie in his apartment, he becomes terse with her and tells her he needs to make personal phone calls, strongly hinting for her to leave. Annoyed with his rudeness, Queenie puts a hex on the telephone and leaves the apartment. When Shep lifts the handset to make a call, he hears garbled voices on the other end. It becomes clear that Queenie possesses magical powers. Consequently, Shep shows up at Gillian’s store and asks her if he could use her phone to report the troubled line.
That night at The Zodiac Club, Gillian, Queenie, and Gillian’s warlock bongo-playing brother Nicky meet Shep and his fiancé Merle Kittridge who both drop in. Gillian recognizes Merle as an old college enemy of hers and torments her with encircling trumpet players. She learns that Shep is planning to marry her the next day so later that night back at her apartment, when Shep drops in by himself on his way home, Gillian takes revenge by using her Siamese cat and familiar, Pyewacket, to cast a love spell on Shep, who becomes immediately enamoured with Gillian. She will use him more as a pseudo boyfriend and close companion, as witches, according to the film’s plot, cannot (or unusually rarely) fall in love.
Shep then is compelled the next morning, after staying up all night talking and canoodling Gillian out on the town, to visit Merle at her apartment to break up suddenly with her on the day of the marriage. She is left confused and astonished, with him saying that he doesn’t love her anymore.
Sidney Redlitch, the author of the best-selling book Magic in Mexico, arrives in Shep’s office (thanks to a little magic) after Gillian discovers Shep’s interest in meeting him and publishing his next book. Redlitch is researching a book on witches in New York, and unknown to Gillian he acquires an “inside” collaborator in Gillian’s brother Nicky when Nicky offers his inside knowledge on witches in exchange for a portion of the proceeds.
Gillian eventually realises that with Shep’s total obsession for her and proposal of marriage, she must make a choice, as, in the film’s plotline, witches who fall in love lose their supernatural powers. She discovers her brother is collaborating on the witches book and is furious, feeling that Shep (the publisher) will find out about her and her family through the book and will realise that his love was only the result of her spell.
Gillian uses her magic to make Shep lose all interest in publishing Nicky and Redlitch’s book, making his reading of it a drudgery, him thinking the whole story is ridiculous and hopeless as a commercial proposition. Gillian comes to Shep’s office and confesses her identity as a witch to Shep, feeling she needs to be honest with him. Still in love with her, he simply doesn’t believe her story, but in a chance encounter on the street outside his apartment later with Queenie, she inadvertently confirms the version of events and Shep becomes angry, believing Gillian enchanted him just to spite Merle.
Shep confronts Gillian and the two quarrel, with Shep leaving her heartbroken after he has confirmation that his infatuation was indeed a spell. Gillian threatens to cast various spells on Merle, such as making her fall in love with the first man who walks into her apartment plus give her uncontrollable compulsions to travel all over the world. Pyewacket however refuses to be involved in Gillian’s attempts to cast a spell on Merle and runs away.
Meanwhile, Shep, through the recommendation of Nicky, turns to another witch, Bianca De Pass, who can break the original spell by making a horrid looking and smelling potion in her ramshackle house and making him drink it whilst he is verbally taunted by her giant parrot. He does so in the hopes he can get back to his previous existence. He then visits Merle to explain that Gillian is a witch and his behaviour has been the result of her spell. Merle does not believe him and is not interested in any further friendship with him. He thinks Gillian may have cast a curse on Merle and warns her, unaware that Pyewacket ran away and no curse was cast.
Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
irected by: Richard Quine
Starring: Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Elsa Lanchester, Hermione Gingold, Janice Rule, Howard McNear, Dick Crockett, Bek Nelson, Fred Aldrich, Wolfe Barzell
Screenplay by: Daniel Taradash
Cinematography by: James Wong Howe
Film Editing by: Charles Nelson
Costume Design by: Jean Louis
Set Decoration by: Louis Diage
Art Direction by: Cary Odell
Music by: George Duning
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: November 11, 1958
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