I MARRIED A WITCH

Veronica Lake and Fredric March

I MARRIED A WITCH (1942). Director: Rene Clair.

In the 17th century, the witch Jennifer and her father Daniel are burned at the stake (off-screen), but not before Jennifer places a curse on the family of her chief accuser, Jonathan Wooley (Fredric March): "Each Wooley must marry the wrong woman." A series of funny vignettes illustrates how the curse is working until we are 270 years into the future, and Wallace Wooley (also March), who is running for governor, is about to marry his attractive if harpy-like fiancee, Estelle (Susan Hayward), on election day. A bolt of lightning hits the tree under which the remains of Jennifer and Daniel are buried, and their spirits are immediately freed.

Cecil Kellaway

Eventually father and daughter get bodies (the logistics of this are glossed over), with Jennifer emerging as Veronica Lake and Daniel materializing in the form of Cecil Kellaway [The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms]. Daniel believes that Jennifer had the right idea with her curse, but that it would be better if she made Wallace fall in love with her and then reject him, causing a lifetime of pain. But when she prepares a love potion, she accidentally drinks it herself. Soon father and daughter are pitted against one another as Jennifer fights even harder to get Wally away from Estelle and Daniel has trouble causing mischief because he can't remember the words to his spells. All havoc breaks out during a wedding ceremony, and there are even more complications after that.

Robert Benchley and Fredrick March

I Married a Witch boasts a very funny script and excellent performances, with March (who not only plays Wallace but all of his ancestors) proving a very adept comedian. But Lake is no slouch -- she not only gets across the kittenish sexiness of her character, but successfully plumbs the vulnerabilities and insecurities of Jennifer. Susan Hayward is cast in the thankless role of foil and straight woman, but she delivers, and there are fine turns by Elizabeth Patterson as Wally's scandalized housekeeper; Robert Benchley [Nice Girl?] as Wally's pal; Robert Warwick as Estelle's apoplectic father; and -- right up there with March and Lake -- Kellaway in his impish yet malevolent portrait of the quirkily sinister warlock, Daniel. Rene Clair also directed And Then There Were None.

Verdict: Black comedies like this either work beautifully or they don't work at all. This one works every step of the way. The hilarious wedding sequence is alone worth the price of admission. ***1/2. 

NICE GIRL?

Franchot Tone, Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack

NICE GIRL? (1941). Director: William A. Seiter.

Small-town girl Jane Dana (Deanna Durbin) has a perfectly swell, handsome boyfriend in Don Webb (Robert Stack of The Tarnished Angels), but wanting to appear more sophisticated, she makes a flagrant play for an older man, Richard Calvert (Franchot Tone of Honeymoon), which only makes her seem like an idiot. That's basically the plot of this dull movie that hasn't enough drama or laughs to make it even worth sitting through -- not even Durbin's singing can save it! There are some good actors in it, including Robert Benchley [The Bride Wore Boots] as Jane's father; Helen Broderick as a housekeeper, Cora; and Walter Brennan (almost looking young) as a mailman who has a hankering for Cora. Ann Gillis and Anne Gwynne play Jane's younger sisters, and we've also got Elisabeth Risdon from the Mexican Spitfire movies and Kenneth Howell from the Jones Family series in much smaller roles.

Verdict: This picture is so slight it hardly seems to exist. *1/2.

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS (1946). Director: Irving Pichel.

The marriage of Sally Warren (Barbara Stanwyck) to her writer husband Jeff (Bob Cummings), has already been tested by his disdain for the horses Sally loves, as well as the continual, irritating presence of would-be boyfriend Lance (Patric Knowles), but now there's a new threat in the form of pretty and perky Mary Lou (Diana Lynn), who has a crush on Jeff and wants to be his secretary -- and more. Naturally the couple break up, come together, and break up again, with all sorts of amusing complications. Willie Best (of My Little Margie and many movies) works for the Warrens, and little Natalie Wood is one of their adorable children. Stanwyck has always been as adept at comedy as she is at drama, and proves it once again, where she's right up there with skilled comedian Cummings. Peggy Wood and Robert Benchley are fun as, respectively, Sally's mother and uncle, and Lynn and Knowles are also effective. Gertrude Hoffman, also of My Little Margie, has a small role as a club woman. The picture is fast-paced and cute and very well acted.

Verdict: A trifle, but nice. ***.

THREE GIRLS ABOUT TOWN

THREE GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1941). Director: Leigh Jason.

Hope (Joan Blondell) and Faith Banner (Binnie Barnes) are hostesses at a hotel that caters to male conventioneers out for a good time. The more upstanding ladies of the city want to close the hotel down and essentially accuse the two women of being hookers. When a dead body (Walter Soderling) is discovered in one of the rooms, the girls panic, afraid that a murder will surely get the place shut down for good. In the meantime Hope's boyfriend, reporter Tommy Hopkins (John Howard), realizes the dead man is the negotiator who has come to mediate a labor dispute, and wants to scoop other papers with the story of his death. There begins a supposedly comical moving about of the corpse that reminds one of later films The Trouble with Harry and Weekend with Bernie. Added complications include the fact that hotel manager Wilberforce Puddle (Robert Benchley) wants to marry Faith, and the arrival of third sister Charity (Janet Blair) who makes a play for Tommy and is always kissing him. And we musn't forget the drunk conventioneer (Eric Blore) who is always asking for "Charlie." Nobody ever expresses the slightest sympathy for the dead man (although there's a twist where that's concerned). Blore nearly walks off with the picture, not that that's such a great feat in a movie that has only exactly two laughs. Even the scene when Tommy brings the corpse to a poker game falls flat. [Of course someone refers to the dead man, who's won at poker, as a "lucky stiff." Ha, ha.) The actors give it their best, but this is a monumentally stupid "comedy" that lacks the light touch it needs and becomes a positive effort to sit through.

Verdict: Atrocious. *.