Bell Book And Candle

(1958)

"A bewitching comedy about an enchanting subject!"

"Bell Book And Candle" is a classic romantic comedy starring James Stewart and Kim Novak. The film bears similarities to the 1942 Veronica Lake film, "I Married A Witch", and most likely inspired the hit 1960's TV show "Bewitched", which was produced by Columbia's television division.

Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) is a modern-day witch who lives with her Siamese cat familiar, Pyewacket, in a Greenwich Village apartment building where she owns a small gallery that offers primitive art.

Book publisher Shep Henderson (James Stewart) lives upstairs, and when she discovers that Shep is engaged to her old nemesis from college, Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule), Gillian casts a spell to make him be in love with her instead - only to fall in love with him herself.



The predictability of this does nothing to spoil the fun - skillfully directed by Richard Quine, based on the Broadway play written by John Van Druten, screenplay by Daniel Taradash - "Bell Book And Candle" is wonderfully written, full of playfulness and poignancy throughout, in addition to being a visual delight.



Novak at her prime is showcased in outfits designed by Jean Louis, all gorgeous - some of them backless - Novak had a beautiful back, so was often dressed in open-backed clothing in her films. She is first seen in a red jacket over a black pullover and slacks, barefoot, and she moves with a feline fluidity befitting her role and her clothing.



"Bell Book And Candle" boasts a solid co-starring cast: Jack Lemmon as Gillian's brother Nicky Holroyd, a mischievious bongo-playing (Lemmon played the bongos himself) warlock; Elsa Lanchester as Queenie Holroyd, their somewhat addled aunt and fellow witch; Janice Rule as the snooty fiance, Merle Kittredge; Ernie Kovacs as Sidney Redlitch, the boozy author of a book on witchcraft; and Hermione Gingold as Bianca de Passe, another witch.



This was Stewart's last film as a romantic lead, as he felt that at age 50 he was becoming too old to be convincing in that category. He and Novak do however exhibit the same chemistry that was evident in their other on-screen pairing ("Vertigo", one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films, released earlier the same year). "Bell Book And Candle" was originally written as a serious play; however it was revised to a light romantic comedy when audiences kept unexpectedly laughing during try-outs. The revised play, starring Rex Harrison and Lili Palmer, was a Broadway hit. The film "Bell Book And Candle" was honored with two Academy Award Nominations: Art Direction and Costume Design.

Trivia - to stock Gillian's art gallery, $75,000 worth of African and South Seas island primitive art was borrowed from New York's Carlebach Gallery. Also, as the actress spent much of her time barefoot for her role, Columbia hired an attendant whose sole responsibility was to provide blankets for Novak's feet to keep them warm in between takes.

Westworld

(1973)

"Boy, have we got a vacation for you..."

Westworld is set in the future (as visualized back in 1973 when the film was made; apparently the computers of the future are really, really big, and the monitors are really, really small), where the pampered rich can go to a vacation resort named Delos, and choose one of three worlds to visit and play make-believe-for-grownups in: Medievalworld, Romanworld, and Westworld. Protagonists John Blaine and Peter Martin (James Brolin and Richard Benjamin, respectively) choose Westworld.

John is a Westworld veteran who displays a sauntering confidence; Peter is his friend and first-timer at the resort who, upon getting outfitted for the adventure, utters childlike statements such as "Do we get a real gun? Wow!"



In the various worlds, the guests interact with each other and with anatomically-correct, extremely realistic robots. They are able to *ahem* interact very closely with the female robots, and shoot the gunslinger robots for fun if they wish (the guns they are supplied with will not work on real people). Romanworld is promoted as something of a sex resort, and Medievalworld seems geared towards the romantics.

The film begins with quite a lot of intentional comedy and satire, and starts out very much like it could have been a 1970's TV Movie of the Week, complete with goofy music, but once the robots start to malfunction the rest of the film is a truly creepy western/sci-fi film. It's a western, albeit a sci-fi western. The last half-hour of the film is also essentially a silent movie, as Crichton said he wanted, save for the great soundtrack that kicks in at this point that sounds something like a bow being drawn against piano strings, or a cello. It has the same unsettling effect as the out-of-tune piano in another favorite film of mine, Wait Until Dark (1967).

There have been many films with robots/androids that I have seen and loved. Examples of what I consider to be truly frightening robots in film, besides Westworld, are: The Stepford Wives (1974), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), and The Companion (1995).

Westworld was the first scary robot film I ever experienced, and I have still seen nothing that quite equals Yul Brynner in his role as the robot gunslinger in Westworld.



His performance really makes the movie; Brynner was a very accomplished actor, and used his skill to great effect to bring a frightening and chilling subtlety of expression to this role. When Brynner's robot gunslinger commands "Draw" to Peter at the moment when it's become obvious to him that the robot has malfunctioned, with the slightest twist of a smile at the corner of his mouth, I invariably get chills. The chase is on, with Peter running as the gunslinger robot methodically hunts him down. Even the way Brynner walks and moves has an element to it that is hard to define and very unnerving. When Peter first meets him at the saloon we see that the robot gunslinger's movements are very fluid in a way one doesn't usually see an actor portray a robot, yet the smooth mannerisms somehow serve to further the effect.

What's also interesting about this film is the evolving of the Peter Martin character. He starts out as the inexperienced nerdy sidekick to Brolin's John Blaine, and ends up showing his true mettle as the going gets rough. The formerly milquetoast Peter quickly learns how to survive and fight back, and Richard Benjamin is very sympathetic, likeable, and effective in his portrayal.

This was Sci-Fi writer/director Michael Crichton's first foray into big-screen filmmaking. Crichton has said he made the film in thirty days, under schedule and within the budget. I would expect that finding pre-made sets was fairly easy; there was bound to be at least one western set sitting around the studio lots. Several locations were utilized for the filming of Westworld: the Mojave Desert, part of the gardens of the Harold Lloyd Estate, and various available studio stages.

If you find a DVD of this to rent, and you've never seen the film before, I recommend that you do not watch the trailer first! It's a real spoiler.

Note: Look for Majel Barrett (of Star Trek - Generation, and she was also Gene Roddenberrys' wife) as the whorehouse Madam.

Brynner's part, and his clothing, was a take on his role in the classic 1960 western The Magnificent Seven.

Photo credits: MGM