“Goodbye, Jennifer, be a bad girl.”
Wallace Wooley, running for governor and about to get married to his biggest campaign donor’s daughter, finds himself at the mercy of a pair of witches that have recently been freed from their earthly prison and are intent on making his life miserable in 1942’s hilarious I Married A Witch. The film stars Fredric March as Wallace Wooley, Veronica Lake as Jennifer, Cecil Kellaway as Daniel, Susan Hayward as Estelle Masterson, and Robert Warwick as J.B. Masterson. The movie is based upon an incomplete novel by Thorne Smith and was very popular at the time of its release. It is part of a number of “Best Of” lists including the American Film Institute’s 2000 list of 500 movies nominated for Top 100 Funniest American Movies and the Criterion Collection. The film was also partly an inspiration for the classic TV series Bewitched.
The movie opens in colonial Salem, where Wallace Wooley’s ancestor, Jonathan (also played by March) condemns Daniel and Jennifer to be burned at the stake for witchcraft. Before they are burned, Jennifer curses all Wooley men, stating that they will all make bad choices in romance and marry the wrong woman. Her and her father’s ashes are buried beneath a tree that will imprison them for eternity. We then see more of Wooley’s ancestors (all played by March), marry one wrong woman after another, ultimately ending up in the 1940s where Wallace is about to marry Estelle Masterson, the daughter of J.B. Masterson, in a political power move by Masterson. Wallace doesn’t really love Estelle and she doesn’t care for him, either. Daniel and Jennifer are freed from their arboreal prison when lightning strikes the tree, and they immediately set out for revenge against any Wooley descendants that they can find. Jennifer decides to seduce Wallace, but, being a man of honor, even though he and Estelle do not love each other, he resists every attempt she makes. She ultimately resorts to using a love potion to win him over, but drinks the potion herself whenever Wallace tries to revive her when she is knocked out by a falling painting of Wallace’s ancestor. She falls hard for Wallace and he ultimately falls for her. When she realizes that her love for him is real, her father becomes angry and resorts to extreme measures, including faking his own murder, to try and destroy Wallace and his career. The result is a lighthearted romantic comedy that mixes witchcraft with whimsy.
This isn’t the type of film that I normally review, but I really did enjoy I Married A Witch. All of the cast did a great job and the special effects were perfect for the time period. This is a funny movie with some surprisingly adult moments that young audiences won’t pick up on, and plenty of humor for the entire family. Give it a shot. Oh, and for some real fun, check out the film’s IMDb trivia section for some crazy antics that took place behind the scenes.
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