Bell, Book, and Candle

My older sister and I spent many weekend nights in our childhood watching Frankenstein and Dracula movies. What can I say--she loved to scare me!

One night, she told me we would be watching a movie about witches, and I slid beneath the blanket on the couch, fully prepared to see black-gowned women performing sacrifices over campfires as their black cats peered from behind the forest trees, their green eyes glowing in the dark.

However, from the very first moments of Bell, Book and Candle I knew this would be a very different type of witchcraft movie! Bell, Book and Candle is a fun, charming romance starring Kim Novak as Gillian Holroyd, a bewitchingly beautiful witch who casts a love spell on San Francisco publisher Shep Henderson, played by Jimmy Stewart. Novak and Stewart also starred together in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo the same year Bell, Book and Candle was released.

Bell, Book and Candle is based on the hit Broadway play written by John Van Druten. Released in 1958, the film makes good use of the beat culture--one of the early scenes takes place in an underground bar with a French dancer gyrating provocatively on stage while Jack Lemmon plays the bongos with the band. It is Jack Lemmon's performance in this film that intrigues me the most, but then, Jack Lemmon's performances always intrigue me!

Lemmon plays Novak's brother, Nicky Holroyd, who wants to expose the family's secrets in a tell-all book. Lemmon's performance in this film is as powerful as ever, and almost overshadows Kim Novak. It is only be reducing his time on-screen that the director, Richard Quinn, managed to prevent Lemmon from becoming the star instead of the supporting role. The director is careful to restrain Lemmon's high energy, and at some points in the film, to use this energy to move the plot. In one scene, Stewart rushes into the smoky, noisy, basement bar and, without audible dialoque, the audience clearly understands the conversation taking place between Stewart and Lemmon through Lemmon's skilled use of body language.

Although the film opens with a Christmas scene and most of the plot takes place during winter, the skilled performances by Stewart, Novak, and Lemmon make it enjoyable any time of the year.

The film also stars comedian Ernie Kovaks who appeared in shows as diverse as Laugh-In and Sesame Street before the tragic car accident that took his life in 1962. The famed British stage actress Elsa Lanchester plays Lemmon and Novak's quirky Aunt Queenie Holroyd.

One of my favorite lines from Bell, Book and Candle is a typical Cold War response belonging to Jimmy Stewart. When Kim Novak tries to explain to Stewart that she is a witch, Stewart, trying to understand her emotional distress, asks, "Have you been engaging in un-American activities or something?"

My second favorite quote is in the first bar scene, when Shep Hendersen and Merle Kittridge first join the group of witches in the basement. They are listening to Nicky Holroyd play the bongos, and Aunt Queenie Holroyd Says: "Nicky and the boys play very well together. Nicky's the one playing the bongos. Up to a few months ago, he'd never studied music."
Shep Hendersen: "Ahh, isn't that remarkable."
Aunt Queenie Holroyd: "Particularly when you consider that up to a few months ago, he used to work in an herb shop."
Merle Kittridge replies: "Looks to me as if he's eaten one herb too many."

Happy Mother's Day, Mommie Dearest!

I loved Joan Crawford as a child. She had so much presence on the screen. I first saw her in the 1939 version of The Women. The accurate portrayal of social-climbing, catty, gossipy, backstabbing women; the obvious absence of men in any scene in the film; the real-life competition between Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford--everything about this film makes it a classic, but it is Joan Crawford's performance as the sly home-wrecker that moves the film into the realm of a true work of art.

Joan Crawford, one of the most ambitious women in Hollywood, was accurately cast in this role. She often played the aggressive, unfaithful friend. Perhaps this is why few found it surprising when her adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, released her scathing autobiography, Mommy Dearest in 1978. The book was made into a movie in 1981 starring Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid.

The movie received mixed to poor reviews, though it faired well at the box office. According to IMDb, they started with a budget of $5 million and ended with $19 million from box office sales, $8.6 million in video rentals and international sales of $6 million. The movie quickly gained cult film and camp fans, which Paramount capitalized upon by changing its advertising.

When I first saw Mommie Dearest, I was a little disappointed. At first, I thought my disappointment stemmed from the fact that Christina Crawford was clearly trashing a woman whose acting I had long admired. I also wondered if my disappointment was with the ending, when Diana Scarwid's character, Christina Crawford, makes it clear that she is going to seek revenge against her adoptive mother by destroying Joan Crawford's professional image.

Then I realized that my deepest disappointment came from my suspicions that it was all true, that Joan Crawford had, indeed, abused her daughter.

As I looked back at the many Joan Crawford movies I have seen over the years, truly great films, such as Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, I realized that it was easy to see the intensely driven actress who made these films as the same woman who ran into her daughter's room in the middle of the night shouting, "No more wire hangers!"

Joan Crawford wasn't always the star we remember. Lucille LeSueur was born in 1905 in San Antonio, Texas to parents who were already in the process of divorce. Her mother married at least three more times, and one of her husbands, a Vaudeville manager, changed Lucille's name to Billie Cassin. She started her career as a dancer, and was a stunning beauty in her younger years. She finally changed her name to Joan Crawford after a Photoplay contest. Acting was her life. It was a way that she could escape the mixed-up years of her childhood. She was an obsessive woman, and one of her obsessions was her career.

Joan Crawford was an exceptionally-talented actress, but she was also a bully, and although I do not admire bullies, in the time that she worked in Hollywood, I find it easy to believe that a mix of aggression, drive, talent, and yes, a bit of bully, was needed for a woman to be a success in her field. She was nominated for three Oscars, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her 1946 performance in Mildred Pierce, which was recently remade starring Kate Winslet. She was obviously not the greatest mother to little Christina, however, from 1925 to 1972, Joan Crawford made 102 movies--a remarkable career for any Hollywood star.

Gail Russell--Tragic Death of a Classic Beauty

The first time I saw Gail Russell was in the film The Uninvited, starring Ray Milland. Russell was low on the billing list, but she easily captured the hearts of the viewing audience with her stunning looks and her shy, passive, on-screen behavior.

Though it was not her first film, her performance reveals the lack of training, experience, and skill of her co-stars. It is possible that her obvious naivety enhanced the eerie suspense of the film. Nevertheless, this shyness would eventually bring her downfall as she repeatedly turned to alcohol to calm her nerves before appearing on-screen and before the public.

Elizabeth L. Russell was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 21, 1924 to George and Gladys Russell. She was painfully shy, both as a child and an adult, which is apparent in most of her film appearances, and perhaps the reason why I feel so sympathetic to her plight, as I was painfully shy as a child, as well.

Russell's mother persuaded her to audition at Paramount Studios--unlike many early film stars, Russell did not spend her childhood flipping through Photoplay and Screenland magazines, filling her scrapbook with pictures of Hollywood stars, or hiding behind the curtains at theaters and studios, waiting to catch a glimpse of Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart. Russell was interested in art and spent her childhood with a sketch pad.

Her great beauty may have attracted more attention than she could handle. She was the perfect target for gossip mongers, too shy to defend herself, too naive to protect herself. By the time she was cast alongside John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch in 1948, she had matured into a beguilingly beautiful woman, and rumors of a relationship between Wayne and Russell spread faster than a wildfire in a Texas prairie. Unfortunately, Wayne's wife, Chata Bauer, believed these rumors and tried to shoot Wayne in the head when he returned from the cast party.
http://www.suite101.com/content/gail-russell-and-john-wayne-rumors-of-romance-a367857
Perhaps it was the stress of her appearance at Wayne's divorce trial, or maybe life in Hollywood was simply too much for the shy, passive girl from Chicago. Whatever the reason, shortly after the trial, her life began a downward and heartbreaking spiral. On August 26, 1961, Gail Russell died alone in her apartment from an alcohol-induced heart attack.

I also spent a few of my childhood years in Chicago. Thankfully, my family moved when I was young and I was raised to be a small town girl. Big cities can be cold, lonely places, and Hollywood, in spite of its palm trees and year-round blossoms, is known to be colder than most.

Gail Russell failed to blossom in California. She was not a survivor, but she did leave behind a long list of great movies--such as Angel and the Badman, and Our Hearts were Young and Gay--and many adoring fans...like me.