VertiGoals Film Series: Bell, Book & Candle

Bell, Book & Candle (Richard Quine, 1958, 16mm, 106 mins)
Kim Novak hides her true identity from Jimmy Stewart after deceiving him into falling for her. Sound familiar? Their lesser-known ‘58 film finds the pair in the Greenwich Village beatnik scene, where witches cast love spells, a warlock plays bongos, and a hapless publisher finds magic in romance. This supernatural comedy co-stars Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Elsa Lanchester, and a dozen Siamese cats playing Pyewacket. 16mm print from the Yale Film Archive.

The “VertiGoals” film series is devoted to Hitchcock’s Vertigo and a selection of films it inspired.