I Married a Witch

In the seventeenth century a witch and her father are burned. Before dying she curses the line of the man who denounced them: in every generation the men will marry the wrong woman. Centuries later their spirits are released, and the witch Jennifer decides to give a love potion to Wallace, a candidate for governor and the latest link in the curse. She drinks it herself by accident. The subject is not magic but revenge backfiring. Jennifer loses a hatred sustained across a family line in one accident, and her having to accept it builds the entire comedy. The form is fast and light: an hour and fifteen minutes with no slack, and effects that are inventive for the period. René Clair was working in the middle of his move from France to America, and the tempo here sits where American comedy meets French lightness. The set was tense. Veronica Lake and Fredric March disliked each other intensely and said so plainly afterwards; the chemistry on screen is entirely craft. The source is a novel by Thorne Smith, completed by another writer after his death. The template the film established is regarded as the starting point for later television series built on a witch wife and an ordinary husband. Robert Benchley plays a supporting role. Who it is for: viewers who like forties fantasy comedy and short, brisk classics. Who it is not for: anyone after depth; the film chooses to be light and never gets heavier.