New Plays in Manhattan

Bell, Book and Candle (by John van Druten; produced by Irene Mayer Selznick) comes up with a bright comedy idea and, for perhaps better than half the evening, with a bright comedy. Playwright van Druten has assumed not only that there are modern-day witches but that they can be modish and highly efficient, and that one of them is attractive enough to ensnare a bright Manhattan publisher. When the publisher discovers she is a witch, he walks out on her--only for her to discover she is now a woman. Hoist on her own broomstick, she has fallen in love.

Van Druten perfectly engineers the leap into fantasy. With their shop talk and trade secrets, his witches and warlocks are as conceivable as they are entertaining, and his heroine, both before & after, makes a lively minx. Gradually, however, the social and business life of witches is dulled by repetition; eventually the odd charm of boy-meets-witch slumps into the old hat of boy-finds-girl. Bell, Book and Candle lacks the resourceful twists that kept a fantasy like Blithe Spirit gay to the end; it moves in the opposite--and less rewarding--direction of a fantasy like Lady into Fox.

But if what begins as magic winds up in the foothills of monotony, the trip is smoothly enough managed, the chief travelers are fun to observe. Lilli Palmer--whether murmuring endearments or, cat in hand, muttering incantations--is seductive and vivacious, and even in the fast company of demons, Rex Harrison provides a mere human being with dash.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.