john van druten bell and book and candle be a delightful and unexpected fantasy about a coven of modern day witch live in new york city while it be obviously an attractive movie property . it have a stellar part for gillian holroyd and for her erstwhile book publisher enforce sweetheart and shepherd henderson and her madcap family and circle and include shep bewilder fiancée and the hateful merle kittredge and against whose chance with shep gillian begin her magical spell casting . it even have pyewacket and a siamese cat familiar with well time miaow and sidney redlitch and a fake witch expert with atrocious pretension and bad manner . in short and it seem to it producer and perhaps and box office magic . and so it prove to be . so many thing be right about it production and it only have one element not perfect while but i find the rest to be amuse and charm and very consistently entertain . to begin with and the screenplay by daniel taradash keep the best quality of the fine theatrical play but open out it scene to include greenwich village and other area of new york scene . the technical production be beautiful and with cinematography by the legendary james wong howe and a fine score by george dun and more than clever set by louis diage and gown by jean louis . in the attractive cast be wolfe barzell and howard mcnear and janice rule a merle and ernie kovacs a redlitch and jack lemmon a gillia mischievous brother and wonderful comedienne elsa lanchester and hermione gingold a fellow witch and lovely kim novak in one of her most touching part a gillian . jimmy stewart be the imperfect element in my judgment while he do well with the comedic portion of his part and but he be never convince a a new york book publisher and and a bit too old for the part of henderson anyhow . but director richard quine use subtle lighting and pace change and and unusually composed shot to indicate the oddness of the witch portion of the film and keep the other portion very luminous but straightforward in their presentation . the plot main crisis in the film come to pass when in reality gillian fall for henderson and who do not believe in witch at all . she start out merely to alienate him from his fiancée and her stick up college rival . later and when henderson try to walk out and he keep come back to her and realize he be under a spell and a she have apologetically try to explain to him . . meanwhile and sidney redlich have be summon by witch spell to come to new york to sell his book to henderson . of course he know nothing at all of magic and but be quite puzzled and interested to find out why he have come anywhere at all while but gillian brother enlighten him . all come out right in the end in this romantic satire a gillian prove her love to henderson by lose her power which be what happen to witch when they truly love a mortal . of course and he never really want to resist her anyhow . the film have sprightly dialogue and charm and and a little magic of it own in the fey charm of the witch and the torment gillian must undergo in her battle with herself and and to win the man she love . a lovely end to this beautifully photograph and unusual romance make it amazing realism and though a fantasy and just about complete in my view . memorably delightful .