Cast and Crew:  Hermione Gingold

What It’s About:  Shep Henderson’s (Jimmy Stewart) landlady Gil Holroyd (Kim Novak) is a witch who just happens to have a yen for him against her aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and brother Nicky’s (Jack Lemmon) objections. Shep is engaged to an old classmate enemy of Gil’s, Merle Kittridge (Janice Rule).  Eventually Gil gives in to temptation and enchants Stewart, who goes right along until one of his editing jobs-Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacks)-gets in the way. Sidney is writing a book on witchcraft in New York and Nicky is all too happy to help…..

Why Watch it Today?: Parts of <i>Bell, Book and Candle</i> take place over the holidays, and for years it was on the schedule at my favorite Boston area theater, The Brattle, in a brilliant bit of counter programming-the season never takes over this amusing tale of witches in 1950s bohemian New York.