'I Married a Witch' - Movie Review

The movie opens at the Salem witch burnings, where Jonathan Wooley (Fredric March) explains to his mother and fiancée that the witch who just burned cursed him and all his descendants to unhappy marriages. And we see this through the first few minutes of the movie, as various Wooleys (all played by March) have horrible wives. Until in 1942, Wallace Wooley (still March) is about to marry another unpleasant woman when the witch and her father are released from their captivity by lightning striking the oak tree that bound their spirits. They set out to cause more unhappiness in Wooley's life, although the two take different tacks and come into some conflict. The reincarnated witch Jennifer is played by Veronica Lake, who determines to destroy Wooley by making him fall in love with her. Slapstick comedy ensues.

Light-weight even by the standards of the time, March and Lake have a lot of fun with their characters and make the movie a pleasure to watch.