Watch I Married a Witch For Free

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this film. Veronica Lake is funny and charming in a role that really showcases her skills as a comedienne- in my opinion, it's a shame she didn't get the chance to do more comedies, since film noir seems to be what she is best remembered for today. Frederic March, although I like him as an actor in other films, is somewhat miscast here. He simply seems too old for the part of Veronica's love interest. However, I suppose it doesn't really matter who played Wally in the film- make no mistake about it, this is Veronica Lake's film, all the way. She's the driving force behind the film, March is just along for the ride. The supporting cast is also great, especially Susan Hayward who is quite good as "the shrew." I also enjoyed seeing Elizabeth Patterson, Mrs. Trumball on "I Love Lucy", as March's long- suffering maid.

***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.

I am a Veronica Lake fan, so I really do not care what the haters say about her (see March, Frederic). This is a classic movie, that is timeless. It is about two witches named Jennifer (Veronica Lake)and her father who are burned at the stake, and their remains are trapped in a tree. However, before that she puts a curse on all Wooley men which is to marry the worst possible woman, starting with the man she loves Nathaniel (March). If you see the speech he gives to his son, warning him not to tell his mother (he knows it is coming and he probably would have been better off with Jennifer in the first place). They show several different Wooley men (all played by March) who suffer that fate. One cannot wait to fight in the Civil War to get away from his wife. 270 years later, lightening strikes the tree and the spirits are released and they see another Wooley this time named Wally who is running for Governor and they plan on ruining is life. The witches come back to life (the father creates a fire in a Department Store to make a body and Wally hears a voice and "Rescues" Jennifer, and brings her to a hospital and she has no burns, and shows up at his home in his pajamas, starting the process of ruining him, because marrying a bad woman (Susan Hayward) is not good enough, Jennifer tries to get Wally to fall in love with her and break off his engagement to Susan Hayward. He does fall for her, but does not break the engagement, so she creates a love potion, for him to drink so she can take him away. However, a painting of Nathaniel hits her on the head, and Wally gives her the potion, making her fall in love with him. Spoilers ahead: Jennifer then wrecks the wedding and she and Wally end up eloping, and breaking the curse, and by witchcraft she gets everyone in the State to vote for him. However, her father does not approve and would rather have Jennifer in the tree with him and crashes their car into the same tree with Wally surviving but Jennifer losing her powers and dying. The last thing she tells him is "Love is stronger then witchcraft." They look in the window and see how brokenhearted Wally is losing her, and Jennifer pretends she is happy and her father gives her powers back, and she then traps him in a whiskey bottle and is reunited with Wally. They have a happy life with a boy and a girl but the little girl wants to play on a broom, so you know she will be trouble. The key line in the entire movie is the one Jennifer said: "Love is stronger then witchcraft." That is the key to not only breaking the curse: A Wooley marrying the right woman instead of the various shrews they ended up with (and it can only be Jennifer who is the right woman), which is what Wally did (with some supernatural help from Nathaniel and the clunk on the head), It also allows Jennifer to be with someone who really loves her, instead of her spirit continuing to be trapped like her father. 10/10 stars.

We are shown various bits of history of the Wooley family through the ages. A twenty year old Veronica Lake is "Jennifer", who had put a curse on the Wooley family for all time. March is Wallace Wooley, the latest member of the family, who stops to save someone from a burning building. He meets "Jennifer"... the ghost. Some fun co-stars helping out - the low key Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward (will go on to win an Oscar 15 years later), and Jennifer's father ( Cecil Kellaway, from Postman...) There is a scene where Jennifer gets out of Wooley's bed as the housekeeper walks in, and the housekeeper is shocked - pretty rough stuff for 1942. All Wallace says is "I'll explain later." The pace of this is a little off; the basic story is good, but the acting and rapport between the actors is quite stilted. A couple demerits for that. Directed by Rene Clair, who, according to wikipedia, had worked in France, England, and then Hollywood. Story by Thorne Smith, who had also written the hugely successful "Topper". He seemed to be adept at working ghosts who speak with the living into his stories. In this one, everyone can see the ghost as she goes around causing trouble.