Note: Since I was under the weather last Friday and didn't post my Friday Film Adaption, I'm posting 2 today. This is post #1.
This early work by Thorne Smith was originally published in 1942 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Passionate Witch' was James Thorne Smith Jr.'s last novel and was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1934, it was finally finished by Norman Matson. Mr. T. Wallace Wooly, a self-important tycoon, but at heart a shy brown rabbit of a man, meets his future bride when he rescues her from a hotel fire. Readers might think this situation poses unique challenges to a couple just getting acquainted, but it probably helped that the soon to be Mrs. Wooly was completely naked at the time. Mr. Wooly is the most public, most consequential man in town and so respectable that the well-publicized rescue of the nude Miss Broome thrown over Mr.Wooly's shoulder as he rushes from the burning building sets tongues wagging. (You sly dog.) Mr. Wooly is aghast at the rumors, but Miss Broome is after all, bewitching, and Mr. Wooly is soon under the spell of her red lips, lustrous black hair, and slanting yellow eyes. It isn't long after their marriage that Mr. Wooly begins to question the wisdom of their hasty union when he sees his new wife climbing down the trumpet vine outside their bedroom window, riding the goat through the apple orchard in the moonlight, and killing chickens. Among other things. What follows is a whirlwind romance, a string of disastrous 'accidents' and the uttering of a fateful curse.
James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.
Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a Navy commodore and attended Dartmouth College. Following hungry years in Greenwich Village, working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. He was an early resident of Free Acres, a social experimental community developed by Bolton Hall according to the economic principles of Henry George in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. He died of a heart attack in 1934 while vacationing in Florida.
Directed by René Clair
Screenplay: Robert Pirosh & Marc Connelly
Novel: Thorne Smith & Norman H. Matson (completion upon Smith's death)
Fredric March as Jonathan Wooley, Nathaniel Wooley, Samuel Wooley, and principally Wallace Wooley
Veronica Lake as Jennifer
Cecil Kellaway as Daniel
Susan Hayward as Estelle Masterson
Robert Benchley as Dr. Dudley White, Wooley's friend
Elizabeth Patterson as Margaret, Wooley's housekeeper
Robert Warwick as J.B. Masterson
Cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff
Edited by Eda Warren
Production company Paramount Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: October 30, 1942
Running time: 77 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Trailer:
I haven't read the original book but once again the film is among my favorites. One can't help but make comparisons to the future television classic, Bewitched. Love the humor mixed in with a little witchcraft and an age old family curse. Veronica Lake and Fredric March aren't exactly on par with Loy/Powell but very perfect for the movie. A true classic.
Rating: 
Book
Film: Amazon
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