I thought about including this in my We Heart Horror marathon because it does involve witches but it's squarely a rom-com and not in any way horror. Jennifer (Veronica Lake), a witch, places a curse on the Woolley family after Jonathan Wooley (Fredric March) burns her and her father (Cecil Kellaway) at the stake in the 1690s. Returned to life after a lightning strike hits the tree their spirits were trapped in, Jennifer decides to wreak havoc on the current Wooley, Wallace (also Fredric March), by making him fall in love with her just before he is supposed to get married to a newspaper heiress (Susan Hayward) and run for governor. She doesn't count on falling in love with him herself.
This is held up as one of the best madcap rom-coms of the 40s but I was really put off by how irritating Jennifer is as a character. Veronica Lake was a great actress but she is given nothing to do here except pout and simper after March. Like, I get that she's supposed to be a "bad" witch who turns good because of a misplaced love potion but there's nothing to her character other than being beautiful that would make a person care. I guess I'm just stuck on how helpless she seems despite having a lot of power at her disposal. I know that's supposed to be a bonus for women at that time but I just find it too annoying.
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