I Married a Witch was a good fantasy/comedy that could have been a great one if it were not for the fact that the leading man and lady couldn't stand each other.
Fredric March thought Veronica Lake was a no-talent studio creation and Lake thought March a would be rake who was put out because she wouldn't give him a tumble. Both to some extent were right.
March's peccadilloes have been reported on by a number of people. Doesn't take away from the fact he was a great player. It is clear though he wasn't really interested in the project and it shows in his performance.
In her memoirs Lake spoke very highly of Joel McCrea with whom she had worked well together in Sullivan's Travels and later in Ramrod. Also of Sonny Tufts who certainly had the New England Yankee background for this part. But March, she went on for several pages about how much she loathed him.
Lake and her father Cecil Kellaway are a pair of New England witches condemned and burned around 1670 and whose spirits become part of a tree. When lightning strikes around 1940 those spirits are freed to resume practicing their trade, specifically on Fredric March's family who denounced them back in the day.
As it turns out March is running for governor and when Lake gets a body she steals him away from his fiancé Susan Hayward. Through some manipulating of the votes when March looks like a sure loser, he wins by a miracle.
A joke that might be lost on today's viewers is the way Veronica Lake spins her magic on the state as the voters keep shouting 'we want Wooley' which is March's name, Wallace Wooley. Two years earlier, the American public heard through several ballots at the Republican convention in Philadelphia, Wendell Wilkie nominated for president with an incessant cry coming over the radio, 'We Want Wilkie'. Another example of mass psychology that's never really been duplicated.
Cecil Kellaway easily steal the film from the disinterested leads. He's at his best in the local jail, suffering from a hangover trying to remember any kind of spells that can help him. Rene Clair does the best he can with his feuding leads and maybe this would have been a classic if the two leads had at least liked each other.
It just occurred to me. Did George Bush become president in 2000 through witchcraft? Veronica Lake shows us its possible.
Fredric March thought Veronica Lake was a no-talent studio creation and Lake thought March a would be rake who was put out because she wouldn't give him a tumble. Both to some extent were right.
March's peccadilloes have been reported on by a number of people. Doesn't take away from the fact he was a great player. It is clear though he wasn't really interested in the project and it shows in his performance.
In her memoirs Lake spoke very highly of Joel McCrea with whom she had worked well together in Sullivan's Travels and later in Ramrod. Also of Sonny Tufts who certainly had the New England Yankee background for this part. But March, she went on for several pages about how much she loathed him.
Lake and her father Cecil Kellaway are a pair of New England witches condemned and burned around 1670 and whose spirits become part of a tree. When lightning strikes around 1940 those spirits are freed to resume practicing their trade, specifically on Fredric March's family who denounced them back in the day.
As it turns out March is running for governor and when Lake gets a body she steals him away from his fiancé Susan Hayward. Through some manipulating of the votes when March looks like a sure loser, he wins by a miracle.
A joke that might be lost on today's viewers is the way Veronica Lake spins her magic on the state as the voters keep shouting 'we want Wooley' which is March's name, Wallace Wooley. Two years earlier, the American public heard through several ballots at the Republican convention in Philadelphia, Wendell Wilkie nominated for president with an incessant cry coming over the radio, 'We Want Wilkie'. Another example of mass psychology that's never really been duplicated.
Cecil Kellaway easily steal the film from the disinterested leads. He's at his best in the local jail, suffering from a hangover trying to remember any kind of spells that can help him. Rene Clair does the best he can with his feuding leads and maybe this would have been a classic if the two leads had at least liked each other.
It just occurred to me. Did George Bush become president in 2000 through witchcraft? Veronica Lake shows us its possible.