it a gentle and easy go 1950s comedy . kim novak belongs to a coven of witch in manhattan . she put a spell on neighbor jimmy stewart out of boredom but eventually fall in love with him and lose her power . see and witch be permit to have hot blood but not love . elsa lanchester be novak aunt and also a witch . jack lemmon be her brother and ditto . hermione gingold be the chief witch and and ernie kovacks be sidney redlich and an author who specialize in write about witch . i describe it a a 1950s comedy because it could hardly be mistake for anything else . everything be so smooth and polished and from the set decoration and through wardrobe and plot and to the performance and direction . take the character of ernie kovacks . he refer to a a drunk and a nut . and here how the movie demonstrate these trait . he ask for a second drink and and and though he always wear a jacket and tie like the other gentleman and his hair be a bit long and tousle . that a strictly 1950s version of a drunk and a nut . nothing be out of place while everything be tidy and free of dust . the sol of jimmy stewart shoe be barely scuff . and the zodiac club and where the witch hang out . it call a low dive . yet it a clean and dark place with polite waiter and a quintet of musician and neatly dress clientèle and and pot plant against bare brick wall . that be not my idea or yours of a low dive not even for greenwich village in 1958. my idea of a dive in greenwich village be julius or the white horse tavern or the san remo or the swing rendezvous and a now defunct lesbian hangout . the zodiac club be a high dive compare to these . the kookiness we always hear about be mute by today standard . i mean and kim novak be odd because she run around her apartment in her bare foot . and she wear a lot of black clothes like the beatnik of the period do . but never mind all that . it an enjoyable romantic comedy . kim novak be effective a gillian and who run a primitive art shop for the uptrodden . she have a strange beauty and bulky and ethereal at the same time . she glide rather than walk and a wispy presence . her eyebrow seem draw with a set of plastic french curve . and jimmy stewart be quite good a the bewildered and bewitch victim . in the 1930s he usually play in light role . in the postwar year and for much of the 1950s he be the tortured protagonist and but here he put his early experience in comedy to good use . who could resist laugh when hermione gingold force him to wear a shawl and drink a hideous concoction of putrid fluid in order to cure him of novak spell . it good to see him a a stooge instead of the angry and indignant man of principle he be in danger of become . richard quine direct the movie quietly and without firework or special effect and and do some interesting thing that the play couldn not have have . note the scene in which novak cast the spell over stewart and when the siamese cat face and ear seem to merge with novak startle eye . ernie kovacks in the 1950s be a well know television personality . there be never anything quite like the ernie kovacks show before or after . it bring the word surrealism to mind . he could stage five minute worth of wordless and indescribable trick in an unpopulated room with only bartok concerto for orchestra a background . and he do an unimpeachable sketch use the character of percy dovetail and an effete poet . the credit kind of skip over the condoli brother but that rather casual because these two guy pete and conte be virtuoso trumpeter with independent career in jazz ensemble . conte be later a member of doc severison band on johnny carson late show . the third act kind of bog down a little and become more romantic than comedy . but it never dull . the whole film roll along as neatly a van druten play and the kid will probably get a kick out of it too .