Those of you familiar with the films "Topper" or "Topper Takes a Trip" will recognize a commonality with the present film of ghosts or deceased ghost-like witches interacting positively or negatively with the living, readily transforming from the invisible to the visible, as well as the reverse. All these films are based upon books written by Thorne Smith: "The Passionate Witch" being the relevant book for the present film. Actually, this novel was finished by Norman Matson after Smith's early death, and not published until 1941, shortly before this film was made. Frederick March plays a series of men with the surname Wooley, beginning during the Salem witch trials, and ending with the contemporary Wooley descendant. Johnathan Wooley is a Puritan who denounced Jennifer(Veronica Lake) and her father Daniel(Cecil Kelloway) as witches and sorcerers, and had them burned at the stake. We don't get to see what they looked like before they were burned. However, Wooley said that Jennifer was uncommonly beautiful. Before being burned, Jennifer put a curse on Wolley and all his male descendants that they would marry a woman who would make them unhappy.(Daniel quips that all men marry a wrong woman, which I would disagree with). Apparently, this was true of all the Wolley descendants until the present Wallace Wooley, who is about to marry a headstrong, demanding, young woman for political reasons, although she is also beautiful. She is Estelle Masterson(Susan Hayward), daughter of an influential and wealthy man who is Wooley's most important backer in his imminent run for governor. After being burnt, the ashes of Jennifer and Daniel were buried in the soil and a tree seedling placed above, with the hope that it would thrive and help keep them entangled among it's roots.(Why were their souls assumed to reside in their bodily ashes??). This worked until one day in 1941, when lightning struck tree, splitting it so that their spirits could escape. Their souls were designated by 2 plumes of smoke. At a formal dance, they hid in 2 bottles of spirits, apparently having a taste for alcohol. They think they have found a Wooley descendant in the man present who is running for governor. They decide to try to make Wooley unhappy by convincing him to marry Jennifer: a witch. They will have to work very fast, as Wooley is scheduled to marry Estelle the next day.Skipping ahead in my summary, Jennifer finally convinces Wooley that she loves him and he loves her more than the volatile Estelle. She convinces him to marry her that night, as they are motoring out in the country and come across a bed and breakfast run by a justice of the peace(as luck would have it!). In their bedroom, Jennifer reveals that she is a witch, which Wolley doesn't believe at first. Meanwhile, a drunk Daniel has figured out how to exit his jail cell. His spirit finds Jennifer and says he will take away her sorceress powers , because her heart is too full of human love and kindness to continue being a witch(Why couldn't she be a 'white witch'??). Daniel, Wooley and Jennifer drive to the oak they were imprisoned in, and crash land ,after an aerial drive. Strangely, none is hurt. However, Daniel calls Jennifer's spirit to abandon her body, saying that Wooley's punishment will be the imminent loss of Jennifer, who is no longer a witch. Before Daniel can nudge her back into the tree, her spirit reenters her body and brings it back to life, she saying that "Love is stronger than witchcraft" Daniel is trapped inside a bottle of spirits, and kept on a shelf for the future. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Wooley live a happy life, with several children. To me, this film is more interesting than "Topper". Partly, this is because of the additional interesting factor of witchcraft, along with ghosts that can change back and forth between the visible and invisible. Partly, it's because of the looks and film personality of Veronica Lake. Surely, her long blond hair, sexily arranged mostly over one side of her head is a significant part of her appeal. But, also her manner of speaking and coquettish personality are important. On the other hand, Frederic March, as Wooley, was poorly cast. He came across as too straight-laced, which even a Veronica would have difficulty loosening up. The girls were left to mostly carry the film. Also, March was 45 and looked early middle-aged. Veronica, at 20, seemed too young for him . Actually, I thought Susan(Estelle) had more potential as a politician's partner, but maybe that was just because she was older. It would have been nice if Bing Crosby or Bob Hope, also at Paramount, could have taken the role of Wooley. Cecil Kellaway was good, as Daniel.

I happened to watch two films close together in which I learned that the lead actors did not get along while filming, "I Married a Witch" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Both could be used as examples of what happens when movies with otherwise decent ingredients are hampered by a lack of chemistry between their actors.Of the two, "I Married a Witch" fares much better. It's a cute but pretty forgettable little comedy about a modern-day descendant (Fredric March) of a family patriarch who was cursed by a witch way back when and condemned to a legacy of bad marriages. March is scheduled to marry rich girl Susan Hayward but doesn't really want to. Luckily for him, a slinky little witch played by Veronica Lake reappears after an absence of a couple of hundred years to make mischief, notably by making March fall in love with her instead. Unluckily for him, the witch's father (Cecil Kellaway) also comes along and gets up to much meaner hijinks (like setting skyscrapers on fire), which include interfering when his daughter starts to develop feelings of her own for the man she's bewitched.Much is likable about the film, but little sparkles. Lake wasn't a great actress, but she could be quite winning and fetching under the right direction. Here she's allowed to be too languid, and what I think was supposed to pass for alluring comes off instead as a bit lifeless. March is good -- he was one of those rare actors who seemed as at home in comedies as dramas -- but the movie around him doesn't allow him much room to build a memorable performance. There isn't really anything egregiously wrong with "I Married a Witch," but there isn't anything to make me whole-heartedly recommend it either.Roy Webb received an Oscar nomination for Best Dramatic or Comedy Score back in the days when the average year found 15 to 20 titles nominated for that particular award.Grade: B

***SPOILERS*** The film that inspired the TV hit series "Bewitched"-Bewitched! Bewitched! you know that craft so well- some 25 years later stars the drop dead gorgeous blonde not yet out of her teens Veronia Lake as 270 year old Jennifer. It's Jennifer who together with her warlock dad Daniel,Cecil Kallaway, who came back to life with the help of a lighting strike to hunt the decedent of puritan Nathaniel Wooley, Fredric March, who condemned them both to death back in the 17th century for practicing witchcraft. Working together as a team Jennifer and her dad Daniel take aim at Nathaniel's great-to something like the 10th generation-grandson Jonathon Wooley also played by Fredic March who's expected to win the election for the state governor as well as planning to marry pretty red-head Estelle Masterson, Susan Hayward, the same evening as part of a double-header!With Jennifer suddenly coming on the scene with her making Johathon save her life in a hotel fire he ends up cooked with his both political and marriage lives in her taking control of them. Jennifer who at first tried to do everything possible to make Johathon's life miserable soon falls madly in love with the somewhat confused jerk who has no idea who she really is-A Witch-and what she and her dad Daniel have planned for him. Breaking up Jonathon's marriage plans was bad enough but leaving him out to hang just didn't quite work out as Jennifer planned. With her dad turning on her for not going through in destroying Jonathon's love life, by her falling in love with him, Jennifer also saves his political career by getting the entire state electorate-2,700,000 to 0-with her witchcraft to vote him into office!***SPOILERS***It's Jennifer's warlock dad Daniel who disapproved in her falling in love and marrying Johathon that was the last stepping stone for her to overcome and she did it by tricking him, who's a down and out drunk to begin with, to get himself lost in a bottle of bourbon and with Jennifer putting the cork down on it was never to bother them again. Veronica Lake started a whole new craze in hairstyles with her Peek-a-Boo look in the movie that it almost cost the war for the US against Nazi Germany and Emperial Japan. That with so many young women working in defense plants- With the men away fighting the war- producing war material having their hair caught in the machinery that she had to drastically change it-For patriotic reasons-in order to keep the war economy going.

This is Veronica Lake's best movie. She is the reason to watch this movie. It is a slower paced movie than today's comedies with a more subtle humor, sometime even a dry humor. I thought it was great. She is great. Veronica makes the movie , she is a great comedian, cuter than a button, and this is the best character she plays in her career. Talk about a great cast, Susan Hayward is hilarious as the bitchy fiancée. She is stunningly radiant in her opening scene in that white dress and both are a feast for the eyes.The scenes of the re-staging of the wedding gets funnier and funnier, the angrier that she and her dad become. Veronica has a "beauty shot" ( a shot set up perfectly, almost as a still portrait and many times an establishing shot of that actor in the film, like Rita Hayworth flinging her hair back in Gilda or John Wayne, when the camera pulls up to a close-up in Stagecoach), that is one of the best ever. Later she is in a dress that you can see through, may be worth it just for that, and she is tiny and adorable throughout. Robert Benchley is a great comedian to play off of Frederick March, and Frederick is downright dashing and perfect for the part. The maid and Veronica's father are so important, as great character actors are, and shine in the few scenes they do.This is one of the unknown great movies. Why it isn't as popular as, It happened One Night any Katherine Hepburn movie, or The Odd Couple type of movies is a mystery. Perhaps you may notice, that is the movies I will review to start, the great unknowns. Everyone knows about Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, Casablanca etc... I hope my reviews can interest you enough to go see these lesser known films. This is one of them. Veronica's best and one of the best comedies of all time.