I Married A Witch (1942) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe) torrent

I Married A Witch (1942)

In 1672, two witches (Jennifer and her father Daniel) are burned by puritan Jonathan Wooley; in 1942, they rematerialize to plague his descendant Wallace Wooley, candidate for state governor. Wallace is about to marry tart-tongued Estelle, but Jennifer has other ideas; then her love potion goes wrong...

Fredric March ... Jonathan Wooley / Nathaniel Wooley / Samuel Wooley / Wallace Wooley
Veronica Lake ... Jennifer
Robert Benchley ... Dr. Dudley White
Susan Hayward ... Estelle Masterson
Cecil Kellaway ... Daniel
Elizabeth Patterson ... Margaret
Robert Warwick ... J.B. Masterson

Director: René Clair

Runtime: 77 mins

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034881/

Codecs:

Video : 601 MB, 1147 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 576*432 (4:3), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4,
Audio : 100 MB, 192 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 1 channels, 0x2000 = AC-3 ACM Codec, CBR,

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I'm sure there are many women just as beautiful as Veronica Lake. I'm sure there were, and will be, directors as gifted as Rene Clair. And I'm sure there are Irish mischief makers as amusing as Cecil Kellaway. And politicians as stuffy and pompous as Frederic March. But the combination here in this wonderful fluff is without equal.

Some Hollywood ace, befuddled and benumbed on a steady diet of coke and guacamole, has decided to remake this amazing film. Perhaps we will be shown a flash of real naked witch. But it will never be as sensual as the imagined view of Lake, as she appears in a smoke-filled hotel room. Perhaps in the re-make we will be shown the two characters locked together in a passionate embrace. But it will never equal what we imagine as we see the two ascend the stairs in this wonderful original.

It's not that Hollywood is doomed to produce banality in this new century; it's just that they seem to like it. There are very few films as good as I Married A Witch and there are very few directors who can call on studios like Paramount to supply them with gifted artists and craft persons to equal this witty and wonderful confection. Why even Susan Hayward, who did well with her strident image of bitchiness, is just right here. I suspect that new generations of filmgoers will never see this lovely film, for it is now OOP - out of print. But the horror of it all is I suspect those who made the new film never bothered to screen the old one, being convinced that they had nothing to learn about the craft of cinema.

That they were wrong becomes more obvious as the distance between the old and the new is measured in financial disaster. Perhaps next they might try to remake Sous Les Toits de Paris.

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This is a fairly humorous story with decent special effects, especially considering it was made over 40 years ago. The key ingredient for success in this film was Veronica Lake. She's known more for her peekaboo blonde locks and for starring with Alan Ladd in several hit movies, but Lake was a good comedienne, too.

Susan Hayward does well playing a snotty woman and Cecil Kellaway always plays an interesting character. Frederic March plays opposite Lake and I wish I hadn't read Lake's biography in which she explains how much she hated March. In made the love scenes lose a lot of impact when I learned how "forced" those scenes were.

Oh, well. It's still a nice, lightweight comedy, nothing special but entertaining for the most part.....but it helps to be a fan of Veronica Lake, which I am.

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Is this René Clair's best English speaking picture?, well fans of the glorious And Then There Were None will no doubt disagree, but i personally feel that this is Clair's best mainstream picture.

It's 1690, Daniel & Jennifer are branded witches, burnt at the stake they curse their persecutors, the Wooley family, the curse being that no male member of the family will ever know happiness. We then see a number of sequences thru history where various male Wooley's are beset with misfortune. It's now 1942 and the latest Wooley is a fella named Wallace, he is a pompous prig soon to marry the snobbish Estelle, also, he is running for governor of the state backed by his fiancée's wealthy father. A storm breaks and lightning strikes the old tree that the accused witches Daniel & Jennifer were buried with years and years ago, this releases the duo with Daniel as booze loving rotundian rouge, and Jennifer as a smouldering blonde sexual siren. Jennifer sets about wooing Wallace with every trick in the book, whilst Daniel is less than impressed and does all he can to overcook the broth.

I Married A Witch is now rightly acknowledged as the inspiration for the hit running series Bewitched, and as good as i found that particular show, it could never replace the love i have for this delightfully breezy picture. The cast are a true delight, Miss Gorgeous Bone Structure 1942; Veronica Lake, is simply wonderful as Jennifer, sexy yet vulnerable, Lake shows a real impacting comedy streak, and as memorable as she was in the Noir genre, it's real nice to see her having fun for a change. Fredric March plays all the Wooley's on show, and personally it's a given that March delivers top dollar. Bonus here is the turn from Cecil Kellaway as Daniel, full of sharky snaps and booze sodden songs, it's a delightfully engaging character given maximum gusto from Kellaway. Susan Hayward is Wallace's snob fiancée Estelle, the role doesn't call for a great deal, but the marker was set here and Hayward would go on to be a true great of the acting circle.

René Clair directs with very accomplished comedic hands, what is, a lovely jovial film with smashing special effects, and when one knows that the film was born out of an incomplete novel {Topper writer Thorne Smith}, it just goes to show that magic literally can happen on the screen!.

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* The 1960s TV show "Bewitched" (1964) was based on this movie.

* Several cast members listed in studio records did not appear in the movie. These were (with their character names): Reed Hadley (Young Man), Jan Buckingham (Young Woman), Florence Gill (Woman Playing Chess) and Walter Soderling (Man Playing Chess).

* Dalton Trumbo was a contributing writer, but left because his interpretation of the novel differed from producer Preston Sturges. Sturges also left the production (and declined onscreen credit) because of artistic differences with director René Clair

* Joel McCrea was initially cast as the lead, but declined the role because he didn't want to work again with Veronica Lake, his co-star in Sullivan's Travels (1941).

* 'Veronica Lake' and 'Frederic March' did not like one another, due in part to some disparaging remarks that March made about her. During filming, Lake delighted in playing pranks on March, such as hiding a 40 pound weight under her costume when March had to carry her in his arms. In another scene in which the two were photographed only from the waist up, Lake stuck her foot in March's groin.

* One of several Paramount Pictures productions purchased by United Artists for theatrical release in 1942-1943 during a product surplus of the former company, and a product shortage of the latter.

* They had to start over many scenes because of Veroniaca Lake, Frederick March, her co-star, found it annoying and started to call the movie "I Married a Bitch"

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