Diagonaldi Very well executed

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

weezeralfalfa Those of you familiar with the films "Topper" or "Topper Takes a Trip" will recognize a commonality with the present film of ghosts or deceased ghost-like witches interacting positively or negatively with the living, readily transforming from the invisible to the visible, as well as the reverse. All these films are based upon books written by Thorne Smith: "The Passionate Witch" being the relevant book for the present film. Actually, this novel was finished by Norman Matson after Smith's early death, and not published until 1941, shortly before this film was made. Frederick March plays a series of men with the surname Wooley, beginning during the Salem witch trials, and ending with the contemporary Wooley descendant. Johnathan Wooley is a Puritan who denounced Jennifer(Veronica Lake) and her father Daniel(Cecil Kelloway) as witches and sorcerers, and had them burned at the stake. We don't get to see what they looked like before they were burned. However, Wooley said that Jennifer was uncommonly beautiful. Before being burned, Jennifer put a curse on Wolley and all his male descendants that they would marry a woman who would make them unhappy.(Daniel quips that all men marry a wrong woman, which I would disagree with). Apparently, this was true of all the Wolley descendants until the present Wallace Wooley, who is about to marry a headstrong, demanding, young woman for political reasons, although she is also beautiful. She is Estelle Masterson(Susan Hayward), daughter of an influential and wealthy man who is Wooley's most important backer in his imminent run for governor. After being burnt, the ashes of Jennifer and Daniel were buried in the soil and a tree seedling placed above, with the hope that it would thrive and help keep them entangled among it's roots.(Why were their souls assumed to reside in their bodily ashes??). This worked until one day in 1941, when lightning struck tree, splitting it so that their spirits could escape. Their souls were designated by 2 plumes of smoke. At a formal dance, they hid in 2 bottles of spirits, apparently having a taste for alcohol. They think they have found a Wooley descendant in the man present who is running for governor. They decide to try to make Wooley unhappy by convincing him to marry Jennifer: a witch. They will have to work very fast, as Wooley is scheduled to marry Estelle the next day.Skipping ahead in my summary, Jennifer finally convinces Wooley that she loves him and he loves her more than the volatile Estelle. She convinces him to marry her that night, as they are motoring out in the country and come across a bed and breakfast run by a justice of the peace(as luck would have it!). In their bedroom, Jennifer reveals that she is a witch, which Wolley doesn't believe at first. Meanwhile, a drunk Daniel has figured out how to exit his jail cell. His spirit finds Jennifer and says he will take away her sorceress powers , because her heart is too full of human love and kindness to continue being a witch(Why couldn't she be a 'white witch'??). Daniel, Wooley and Jennifer drive to the oak they were imprisoned in, and crash land ,after an aerial drive. Strangely, none is hurt. However, Daniel calls Jennifer's spirit to abandon her body, saying that Wooley's punishment will be the imminent loss of Jennifer, who is no longer a witch. Before Daniel can nudge her back into the tree, her spirit reenters her body and brings it back to life, she saying that "Love is stronger than witchcraft" Daniel is trapped inside a bottle of spirits, and kept on a shelf for the future. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Wooley live a happy life, with several children. To me, this film is more interesting than "Topper". Partly, this is because of the additional interesting factor of witchcraft, along with ghosts that can change back and forth between the visible and invisible. Partly, it's because of the looks and film personality of Veronica Lake. Surely, her long blond hair, sexily arranged mostly over one side of her head is a significant part of her appeal. But, also her manner of speaking and coquettish personality are important. On the other hand, Frederic March, as Wooley, was poorly cast. He came across as too straight-laced, which even a Veronica would have difficulty loosening up. The girls were left to mostly carry the film. Also, March was 45 and looked early middle-aged. Veronica, at 20, seemed too young for him . Actually, I thought Susan(Estelle) had more potential as a politician's partner, but maybe that was just because she was older. It would have been nice if Bing Crosby or Bob Hope, also at Paramount, could have taken the role of Wooley. Cecil Kellaway was good, as Daniel.

dougdoepke Plot-- A 200-year old curse condemns male members of the Wooley family to marrying the "wrong" woman. Now Morley Wooley (March) is slated to marry beautiful vixen Estelle (Hayward) until witch Jennifer (Lake) decides to enter the picture. The movie's a generally humorous slice of whimsy, with chuckles rather than knee- slappers. When I think comedy, I don't usually think Frederick March. Here he's supposed to be a stuffy politician, which he does well. I figure that's because he shouldn't be too sympathetic, otherwise Lake's witch becomes a villainess instead of a victim of circumstance (her dad's a sorcerer), and that would compromise the movie's ending.Except for Kellaway's mischievous sorcerer, the comedy comes from situations rather than acting. In short, it's more whimsy than madcap. Then too, special effects amount to well- calculated puffs of talking smoke, instead of silhouetted ghosts. And speaking of visuals, catch Lake's mop of blonde hair, as though you could miss it. It's not yet her trademark peek-a-boo, but that's clearly only one floppy lock away. Happily, she's right for the part in a non-sinister kind of cuddly way, though her clinches with March are more like father-daughter than anything romantic. Fans of the humorously fractured Benchley, however, may be disappointed since he plays his adviser part in fairly straight fashion. But most of all, there's that poor operatic singer (St. Rayner) who gets to start her wedding song again, again, and again.All in all, its tricky material well-handled and stands up pretty well, despite the many decades.

gmonger This is Veronica Lake's best movie. She is the reason to watch this movie. It is a slower paced movie than today's comedies with a more subtle humor, sometime even a dry humor. I thought it was great. She is great. Veronica makes the movie , she is a great comedian, cuter than a button, and this is the best character she plays in her career. Talk about a great cast, Susan Hayward is hilarious as the bitchy fiancée. She is stunningly radiant in her opening scene in that white dress and both are a feast for the eyes.The scenes of the re-staging of the wedding gets funnier and funnier, the angrier that she and her dad become. Veronica has a "beauty shot" ( a shot set up perfectly, almost as a still portrait and many times an establishing shot of that actor in the film, like Rita Hayworth flinging her hair back in Gilda or John Wayne, when the camera pulls up to a close-up in Stagecoach), that is one of the best ever. Later she is in a dress that you can see through, may be worth it just for that, and she is tiny and adorable throughout. Robert Benchley is a great comedian to play off of Frederick March, and Frederick is downright dashing and perfect for the part. The maid and Veronica's father are so important, as great character actors are, and shine in the few scenes they do.This is one of the unknown great movies. Why it isn't as popular as, It happened One Night any Katherine Hepburn movie, or The Odd Couple type of movies is a mystery. Perhaps you may notice, that is the movies I will review to start, the great unknowns. Everyone knows about Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, Casablanca etc... I hope my reviews can interest you enough to go see these lesser known films. This is one of them. Veronica's best and one of the best comedies of all time.

wes-139 Delightfully off-the-wall comedy that whips up a bit of supernatural contrivance to skate fairly near the Hayes Code boundaries of the day. No wonder portraits of strait-laced puritans keep falling (literally) off the wall. Frederick March is a rising politician with no noticeable moral qualities on the verge of his wedding (to classy Susan Hayward) and an election, who is caught up in a series of increasingly compromising situations with a witch come back to take revenge on his ancestor, in the form of Veronica Lake. She subverts the melodrama of him rescuing her from a burning hotel with seductive come-ons. We know it's a set-up, in the papers it looks like a publicity stunt, and he himself suspects it's a frame-up by his political rivals. But the joke is he resists rather feebly. People don't just fall in love, he tells her. "Hmmm, guess this'll take longer than I planned" she muses. She spins the clock round several hours having got herself into his bed and his pyjamas, and dawn finds him still reasoning with her at the bedside. The Hayes Code kept him off the bed of course. But his heroic rescue has made the front pages, and when his PA says "What a break - you don't know what this young woman can do for you." he replies "Oh I've got a pretty good idea" with a glance up at the bedroom. Today's films can't do this stuff, we've lost the moralistic conventions to subvert, and the art of the knowing wink to the audience. But the plot skates along to the stuffy wedding, where we know something's gotta give, complicated by the fact that her love-potion has backfired and she's drunk it herself. Her roguish wizard father (Cecil Kellaway) materialises to keep the bedevilment going (as carried over into the 1960s TV spin off "Bewitched") and open scandal requires a bit of magic to conjure a light and fluffy ending out of the hat. It's the moral ambiguity of March's character in the subtext and the delightful send-up of the femme-fatale that give a sardonic noir edge to this felicitous comedy.