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Bell, Book and Candle

Bell, Book and Candle

  • Status: Released
  • 25-12-1958
  • Runtime: 106 min
  • Score: 6.5
  • Vote count: 220

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

James Stewart

Shep Henderson

Kim Novak

Gillian Holroyd

Jack Lemmon

Nicky Holroyd

Ernie Kovacs

Sidney Redlitch

Hermione Gingold

Bianca de Passe

Elsa Lanchester

Aunt Queenie Holroyd

Janice Rule

Merle Kittridge

Philippe Clay

French Singer at the Zodiac Club

Bek Nelson

Tina

Howard McNear

Andy White

Fred Aldrich

Mover (uncredited)

Leon Alton

Club Patron (uncredited)

Monty Ash

Herb Store Owner (uncredited)

Alex Ball

Club Patron (uncredited)

Joe Barry

Exterminator (uncredited)

Wolfe Barzell

Zodiac Club Proprietor (uncredited)

Gail Bonney

Betty - Merle's Maid (uncredited)

Don Brodie

Cab Driver (uncredited)

Robert Haines

Club Patron (uncredited)

James Lanphier

Waldo (uncredited)

Perk Lazelle

Club Patron (uncredited)

Ted Mapes

Gillian's Customer (uncredited)

Hans Moebus

Club Patron (uncredited)

Ollie O'Toole

Elevator Operator (uncredited)

John Truax

Cab Driver (uncredited)

John Chard

Pyewacket Pudding. It's one of those films that we all have, the movie that features actors you simply adore, but no matter how many times you watch it in the mystical hope that it will change and get better, but it never does. Bell Book & Candle is my pet frustration. Fronted by James Stewart and Kim Novak, supported by Jack Lemmon & Elsa Lanchester, this screen version of the theatre play has a modicum of charm befitting the story of a publisher who falls under the love spell of a modern day witch, but ultimately it plays out as dull. It looks nice, both in art direction and colour photography, Jimmy and Kim are pleasant of course, and Elsa, Hermione Gingold and Pyewacket the cat are bundles of fun, yet the belly laughs are missing, a need to care about the lovelorn and the restless sadly some place else. I have a framed still of Jimmy & Kim from this movie hanging in my hallway, every time I pass it I point my finger at it and swear with sadness in my heart. I love those guys you see, the movie not so much... 5/10