A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead, only to fall in love with him for real.

Who can resist Kim Novak, spell or no spell?

Novak plays Gillian, a New York City witch who is a bit bored with life. She and her cat familiar Pyewacket (uncredited) casts a love spell on Shep (James Stewart), a publisher just moved into her building. Gillian’s family — Aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and bongo-playing brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon) — conspire, variously, to facilitate, thwart or profit from this love spell.

There is a catch, though: witches cannot fall in love, or they lose their powers, so at first Gillian is just using Shep (in 1958, it is obscure what she would want to use him for, mind you!). Shep, under Gillian’s power, breaks off his engagement with Merle (Janice Rule), coincidentally an old college rival of Gillian’s.

Meanwhile, Nicky is seeking to make a few bucks selling witches’ secrets to author Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs), who, as it turns out, is seeking to be published through Shep’s company. This is not well-received by the other NYC witches and warlocks.

Novak is the original manic pixie dream girl, like a sultry, magical version of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Through her meddling, she helps the man in the story to find himself, and all of the conflict leads inexorably to the typical ending you’d expect in a straight romantic comedy. Sadly, this means Gillian loses her powers, but she’s happy enough to have a man.

This is hardly the perfect film, but as a 1950s classic you can hardly beat it. The ensemble of supporting characters steal the show, and old-school funny and light slapstick punctuate this otherwise sappy romance.