Set in 1950s Beatnik era New York young witch Gillian (Kim Novak) decides to cast a spell on her upstairs neighbour Shep (James Stewart) at the insistence of her brother Nicky (Jack Lemon) and Aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) who says she never does anything for herself as she is too afraid of the consequences.

What leads to her actually going through with is Shep bringing his fiancée to Club Zodiac in the East Village and Gillian finds out she was her rival in college and then gets the jazz band to menace her (a funny scene, I sent this to jazz friends to wind them up). “Just once I’d like to listen to carols instead of bongos at Christmas!” Gillian laments.

One thing leads to another after Gillian sings to her cat Pyewacket and it jumps onto Shep’s shoulders, next thing they are kissing on top of the Flatiron building at 6am Christmas morning. Shep goes and calls the elopement off but is not sure why.

I was looking forward to seeing this one for ages since I saw it listed in the “All of them Witches” program at the defunct Cinefamily cinema in Los Angeles. Not sure why I never saw it until now. It is what a lot of stuff like I Dream of Genie and Bewitched is based on along with stuff like Practical Magic, Charmed and even some of Buffy!

The cat steals the show as always and ends up really being the main protagonist as when it rejects its owner you know she has lost her powers. “Doesn’t this cat have a hobby? Can’t you give it anything to read?” Yes, they go there with the whole “woman has to lose her agency to get the man” angle. This argument is old and tired but this movie gets a pass as the whole thing works so well.

At least three of the movies I was most looking forward to were over 50 years old, something that had not happened ever in the festival I think?

This did start out as a successful Broadway production by Irene Mayer Selznick and is regarded as a “comfort” movie by many people. As a special bonus Kim Novak had a voice introduction at the start of the movie as she is doing with all the films in the special program of her movies screening at the festival.

Movie details:

Director: Richard Quine

Producer: Julian Blaustein

Key Cast: Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester

Year: 1958

Length: 106 mins

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Romance, Fantasy

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBbmP2TctE