I Married a Witch: René Clair

I'll be perfectly honest...I only watched René Clair's I Married a Witch because it was recently added to the Criterion Collection. How could I not with a description like this:

"Many centuries after cursing the male descendants of the Salem puritan who sent her to the stake, [Veronica Lake] finds herself drawn to one of them—a prospective governor (Fredric March) about to marry a spoiled socialite (Susan Hayward). The most delightful of the films the innovative French director René Clair made in Hollywood, I Married a Witch is a comic confection bursting with playful special effects and sparkling witticisms."

But having now seen the film, I have come to the conclusion that this film was only added to the Criterion Collection because it was directed by the man who made Le Million (1931) and À Nous la Liberté (1931). It's not a bad film, mind you. It's just...alright. It's okay. It's upbeat and cheerful enough, I suppose. Veronica Lake is delightful as the alternatively naughty and lovestruck witch. And the film's special effects are charming in their simplicity. But the film isn't extraordinary. In fact, it's a bit misogynistic by today's standards. I'm willing to bet that many people could interpret Lake's accidental, irreversible infatuation with March as a kind of rape. After all, she doesn't willingly fall in love with him. It's only after he accidentally makes her drink a love potion that she imprints on him. Mind control's still mind control, folks. Listen, I'm all in favor of inducting classic Hollywood films into the Criterion Collection. But there are so many other films, even from 1942 (where's my release of Casablanca and Cat People, Criterion!!), that the inclusion of I Married a Witch seems inexplicable.

7/10