I Married a Witch (1942)

I Married a WitchThe hardest part about marrying a witch is getting her to wear a white wedding dress. Luckily, the sorceress in this romantic-comedy is open to other colors than black.When the spirit of burnt witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), is freed from the tree holding her captive, she's released on Salem in the 1940s. Eventually Jennifer encounters the descendant of the puritan (Fredric March) she cursed to never find true love, only to find him vying for governorship, and engaged to the daughter (Susan Hayward) of his biggest financial supporter.In a twist of fate, however, the enchantress ends up falling for the candidate on the day of his wedding.An old Hollywood romance with a dash of Paganism, this amiable albeit naïve witch's tale is surprisingly funny, but poorly acted on the part of its stunning starlet.Incidentally, when you divorce a witch she's entitled to half your life essence.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I am a Veronica Lake fan, so I really do not care what the haters say about her (see March, Frederic). This is a classic movie, that is timeless. It is about two witches named Jennifer (Veronica Lake)and her father who are burned at the stake, and their remains are trapped in a tree. However, before that she puts a curse on all Wooley men which is to marry the worst possible woman, starting with the man she loves Nathaniel (March). If you see the speech he gives to his son, warning him not to tell his mother (he knows it is coming and he probably would have been better off with Jennifer in the first place). They show several different Wooley men (all played by March) who suffer that fate. One cannot wait to fight in the Civil War to get away from his wife. 270 years later, lightening strikes the tree and the spirits are released and they see another Wooley this time named Wally who is running for Governor and they plan on ruining is life. The witches come back to life (the father creates a fire in a Department Store to make a body and Wally hears a voice and "Rescues" Jennifer, and brings her to a hospital and she has no burns, and shows up at his home in his pajamas, starting the process of ruining him, because marrying a bad woman (Susan Hayward) is not good enough, Jennifer tries to get Wally to fall in love with her and break off his engagement to Susan Hayward. He does fall for her, but does not break the engagement, so she creates a love potion, for him to drink so she can take him away. However, a painting of Nathaniel hits her on the head, and Wally gives her the potion, making her fall in love with him. Spoilers ahead: Jennifer then wrecks the wedding and she and Wally end up eloping, and breaking the curse, and by witchcraft she gets everyone in the State to vote for him. However, her father does not approve and would rather have Jennifer in the tree with him and crashes their car into the same tree with Wally surviving but Jennifer losing her powers and dying. The last thing she tells him is "Love is stronger then witchcraft." They look in the window and see how brokenhearted Wally is losing her, and Jennifer pretends she is happy and her father gives her powers back, and she then traps him in a whiskey bottle and is reunited with Wally. They have a happy life with a boy and a girl but the little girl wants to play on a broom, so you know she will be trouble. The key line in the entire movie is the one Jennifer said: "Love is stronger then witchcraft." That is the key to not only breaking the curse: A Wooley marrying the right woman instead of the various shrews they ended up with (and it can only be Jennifer who is the right woman), which is what Wally did (with some supernatural help from Nathaniel and the clunk on the head), It also allows Jennifer to be with someone who really loves her, instead of her spirit continuing to be trapped like her father. 10/10 stars.

We are shown various bits of history of the Wooley family through the ages. A twenty year old Veronica Lake is "Jennifer", who had put a curse on the Wooley family for all time. March is Wallace Wooley, the latest member of the family, who stops to save someone from a burning building. He meets "Jennifer"... the ghost. Some fun co-stars helping out - the low key Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward (will go on to win an Oscar 15 years later), and Jennifer's father ( Cecil Kellaway, from Postman...) There is a scene where Jennifer gets out of Wooley's bed as the housekeeper walks in, and the housekeeper is shocked - pretty rough stuff for 1942. All Wallace says is "I'll explain later." The pace of this is a little off; the basic story is good, but the acting and rapport between the actors is quite stilted. A couple demerits for that. Directed by Rene Clair, who, according to wikipedia, had worked in France, England, and then Hollywood. Story by Thorne Smith, who had also written the hugely successful "Topper". He seemed to be adept at working ghosts who speak with the living into his stories. In this one, everyone can see the ghost as she goes around causing trouble.

In the 17th century, a witch named Jennifer (Veronica Lake) and her father Daniel (Cecil Kellaway) are burned at the stake by Puritans. The leader of these Puritans is Jonathan Wooley (Fredric March). Before she dies Jennifer places a curse on Wooley that he and all of his descendants will have unhappy marriages. This curse is proved to be true in an amusing series of snippets of the history of the Wooley men (all played by March) and their bad luck with women. In the 20th century lightning strikes a tree that grew in the spot where the witches were burned. This frees their souls to walk the Earth again. Jennifer immediately sets her sights on Wooley's latest descendant Wallace, a politician engaged to marry an unpleasant woman named Estelle (Susan Hayward).Very funny and charming comedy with an excellent cast headed by the sexy Veronica Lake. Anyone who has seen Sullivan's Travels knows that she was a talented comedienne. Unfortunately she was also reportedly difficult to work with so her career as an A-lister was fairly short. She's brilliant in this, however. Cecil Kellaway is also terrific in a more villainous (but still likable) role than we're used to seeing from him. Fredric March does an excellent job playing straight man to Lake. Robert Benchley, as always, is wonderful. Great writing and a pleasant tone throughout. A true classic everybody should see.