Bell, Book and Candle- Page 2

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 1:46pm

Marion Lorne played Aunt Clara on "Bewitched" from 1964 (the first searson) to 1968.

I don't believe it was Elsa. Nothing I've found indicates she was in any episodes. She did play a character on "The John Forsythe Show" in that 1965 TV series.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 1:51pm

Elsa also played the hatchet murderess on I LOVE LUCY.

Lucy at the lunch counter - "I'd like a 2nd HELPing."

Updated On: 7/1/05 at 01:51 PM

[wildcat]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 8:53pm

Elsa Lanchester, not Lancaster.

I thought "Picnic" was one of Roz's best performances. The character of Rosemary is meant to be pretty overbearing. I would love to have seen Eileen Heckart in the role on Broadway. Actually, that whole original cast was an extraordinary line-up.
Janice Rule, Kim Stanley, Paul Newman, with Joanne Woodward understudying....

[NCGuy]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 9:52pm

Oh, I've loved Rosalind Russell in everything else I've seen her in, and I realize the character is overbearing...I guess she was TOO GOOD at being THAT overbearing...I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about anything that happened to her character.

This is blatant threadjacking (and I do apologize, Glebb), but do you guys remember the cable TV-version of "Picnic" from the mid-eighties (Gregory Harrison, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Learned)? Showtime ran it incessantly one summer when I was a kid and I watched it over and over again. Loved it at the time, but not sure if I would trust my eighth grade judgement now.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 10:26pm

No apologies necessary.
I love talk of any and all of the old movies.

[NCGuy]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 10:31pm

Thanks, Glebb!

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 10:42pm

I know PalJoey. Isn't amazing that I've never seen PalJoey?
Elsa was also Katie Nana in Mary Poppins - the film.
I saw that LA production of A Little Night Music.
Man I wish Lee Remick had been able to do it. Not even sure if she could have saved it. It was terrible.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/1/05 at 10:55pm

BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, a clever '50's allegory about the homosexual demimonde.

TheEnchantedHunter
Ted Hunter, Cane, NH
Updated On: 7/1/05 at 10:55 PM

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 8:37am

Lenny (Woody Allen) - to Linda Ash nee Judy Cum (Mira Sorvino): "I loved you in The Enchanted Pussy." - MIGHTY APHRODITE - 1995

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 8:45am

"50's allegory about the homosexual demimonde."

I had never heard this before, but it certainly seems plausible. I wonder what they were trying to say, then, with the whole 'can't fall in love' bit?

And this is also one of my favorite movies.

[wildcat]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 10:28am

Imagine Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer playing all that sparkling romantic comedy on Broadway when they were in the throes of a bitter marriage break-up and not speaking offstage AT ALL!

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 10:32am

Wow, now I see where Carol Burnett was coming from.

[Marquise]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 2:09pm

Thanks Glebb for starting this thread. I love "Bell, Book and Candle"!
One of my all time favorites, this movie along with "Picnic" started me off on a mini-obsession with Kim Novak.

I've seen [almost] everything she's done including some pretty weird stuff like "The Legend of Lylah Clare" [1968] with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine.

"B B and C" had some great comic performances from Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs.

One of my favorite scenes from the film ws one betwen Jimmy Stewart [Shepherd Henderson] and Janice Rule [Merle Kittidge] regarding Kim Novak's [Gillian Holroyd] character:

Shepherd Henderson: That girl you know, Gillian Holroyd, she's one.

Merle Kittridge: A witch?

Shepherd Henderson: Yes!

Merle Kittridge: Shep, you just never learned to spell.
Updated On: 7/2/05 at 02:09 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 5:31pm

"I wonder what they were trying to say, then, with the whole 'can't fall in love' bit?"

Given that the play and film were produced during the conformist and staid 50's, Novak's character is essentially saying she wishes she were 'normal' and conventional. The story could serve as a metaphor for anyone living on the fringe (bohemians, artists, etc) but given the connections between "witchcraft" and sexuality and the specifics of some of the settings (the crazy witch 'bar,' hint, hint), it seems to very strongly suggest a homosexual subtext.

Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 5:38pm

Does everything in life have to have a homosexual subtext?

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 5:52pm

YES!!! LOL!

[kjklo]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 8:51pm

Jose, of course not. Only those things that don't have it in the foreground.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/2/05 at 8:52pm

"Does everything in life have to have a homosexual subtext?"

Resolutely, no. But when it is apparent, one should acknowledge it. Along the same lines, see NIGHTHAWKS with Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer.

Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 7:51am

Kim Novak was a homo dream in "The Mirror Cracked".

[justthefacts2]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 1:30pm

Elsa Lanchester? I thought it was Hermoine Ginghold (sp?) who played the aunt. Am I misremembering? She was the sister, by the way, of Anglea Baddely who played Mrs. Bridges on "Upstairs Downstairs." Hermoine was wonderful - still can hear her throaty, rich voice rasping "Drink it!" over this hideous bubbling brew she had just concocted.

Kim Novak was the ultimate cool and yet earthy blond knock-out - no one could match her.

Remember the blue-eyed Siamese cat - Piawakcet?

Updated On: 7/3/05 at 01:30 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 5:31pm

Turner Classic Movies is airing BB&C early Monday at 2:15 AM in the NYC area. Keep an eye (and ear) out for that subtext!


Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[Marquise]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 6:08pm

KIM NOVAK AND PYEWACKET in "BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE"

[wildcat]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 9:49pm

Yes, you're right, Hermione was the aunt but Elsa was in the film as Queenie.

[justthefacts2]

Posted: 7/3/05 at 11:37pm

Oh, Marquise, awesome picture!!!! Thanks for the spelling of Pyewacket's name.

[NCGuy]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 5:23pm

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but thought some of you might be interested...there's an interview with Kim Novak in the new issue of Movieline/Hollywood Life that's worth checking out.

Quote from the article: "I needed entertainment, and that's what men were to me. I was like a kid in a candy shop."

It's the issue out now (with Jessica Simpson on the cover).