Bell, Book and Candle

Bell, Book and Candle (1958): starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold
A light romantic comedy with supernatural undertones starring the two leads from Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo"? "Bell, Book and Candle" comes off like a light-hearted "Rosemary's Baby" or an adult version of Harry Potter. Jimmy Stewart stars as Shep, a book publisher living in a building full of witches (only he doesn't know they're witches). The pretty blonde witch, Gil (Kim Novak) decides she wants to use Shep as her personal love slave, and decides to seduce him away from his fiance (a girl who vexed her back in their school days). They all meet at christmas down in a cellar nightclub that's actually a haven for witches and warlocks. She casts a love spell on him and soon he's breaking off his engagement and pursuing the witch. Ernie Kovaks comes up from mexico as a novelist who specializes in books about witchcraft, and he explains that witches can't cry or blush, unless they fall in love, but then they lose all their power. It's a silly enough plot, but I read somewhere online that the nightclub and the witches and warlocks are all supposed to represent the homosexual community scene of Greenwich village in the late 50s. Whether this was the intention of the filmmakers or not, I don't know. There is, however, a lack of comedy here. There's just not alot of comedy here. It's a pleasant enough film though, and certainly enjoyable for what it is.
*** out of *****