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I Married a Witch



Veronica Lake casts a seductive spell as a charmingly vengeful sorceress in this supernatural screwball classic. Many centuries after cursing the male descendants of the Salem puritan who sent her to the stake, this blonde bombshell with a broomstick finds herself drawn to one of them—a prospective governor (Fredric March) about to marry a spoiled socialite (Susan Hayward). This most delightful of the films the innovative French director René Clair made in Hollywood is a comic confection bursting with playful special effects and sparkling witticisms.

Disc Features

- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio interview with director René Clair
- Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Guy Maddin and a 1970 interview with Clair

And there was jubilation and much rejoicing in the land

Getting to see Lake's beautiful face in HD is going to be the high point of my year.

$40 for an audio interview?

knives wrote:$40 for an audio interview?

All of the new releases have only very few extras and all are at the higher price point - I guess the trend that started with 3:10 to Yuma is hear to stay.

vsski wrote:All of the new releases have only very few extras and all are at the higher price point - I guess the trend that started with 3:10 to Yuma is hear to stay.

Hell, it's been there since Something Wild.

This is a great movie, even at the higher price point. Please do not stay away from it because of the lack of extras. I will record a fucking commentary track myself if I have to

domino harvey wrote:This is a great movie, even at the higher price point. Please do not stay away from it because of the lack of extras. I will record a fucking commentary track myself if I have to

I'm with you. I'll do anything to make this release a success as it is simply one of the best American films of the studio era. Funny, smart, and exciting in a way most can only dream of. Not to mention Veronica Lake at her absolute best. I wish they had at least included The Ghost Goes West as a supplement.

The liner notes are even written by Guy Maddin-- are we sure I'm not being personally punk'd by Criterion?

What happened to The Ghost Goes West? I thought that was almost guaranteed to be included!
Lovely and hilarious film, but sheesh, that interview better be like one of those Dardennes interviews (feature length).

Domino, this is being released in time for my birthday, so if you could record a downloadable commentary I think my day will be pretty much perfect.

domino harvey wrote:This is a great movie, even at the higher price point. Please do not stay away from it because of the lack of extras. I will record a fucking commentary track myself if I have to

Would love to hear that commentary ! And while I don't like the pricing strategy, I have to agree, this one is worth every penny and I will buy it come rain or shine.

domino harvey wrote:I will record a fucking commentary track myself if I have to

CRITERION FORUM-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

•New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
•New audio commentary by Veronica Lake scholar domino harvey
•Visual essay by noted Steven Soderbergh scholar The Narrator Returns about the film's similarities to Soderbergh's work
•Details on the film's restoration by david hare
•Reversible cover by swimminghorses
•A booklet featuring an essay by knives

The Narrator Returns wrote: CRITERION FORUM-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

•New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
•New audio commentary by Veronica Lake scholar domino harvey
•Visual essay by noted Steven Soderbergh scholar The Narrator Returns about the film's similarities to Soderbergh's work
•Details on the film's restoration by david hare
•Reversible cover by swimminghorses
•A booklet featuring an essay by knives

Sold! *Writes out check*

The Narrator Returns wrote:

domino harvey wrote:I will record a fucking commentary track myself if I have to

CRITERION FORUM-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

•New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
•New audio commentary by Veronica Lake scholar domino harvey
•Visual essay by noted Steven Soderbergh scholar The Narrator Returns about the film's similarities to Soderbergh's work
•Details on the film's restoration by david hare
•Reversible cover by swimminghorses
•A booklet featuring an essay by knives

Now that I would gladly pay $40 for!

Well, I was just making an idle threat but now I'm actually going to do it

I guess the special feature is that it hasn't had a home video release in the U.S. in over 20 years, but I agree that it's pretty stupid that they didn't throw The Ghost Goes West on there. It's not too late, Criterion.

Time to burn my UK DVD as I can't sell it in good conscience.

Koukol wrote:Time to burn my UK DVD as I can't sell it in good conscience.

If you do that won't it come back to haunt you?

Koukol wrote:Time to burn my UK DVD as I can't sell it in good conscience.

Ain't it the truth.

I'm elated at the prospect of I Married A Witch in HD after settling for that PD-quality VHS dub for all these years. Clair's film is an essential Hollywood comedy, and one that's been criminally overlooked.

Jeff wrote:I guess the special feature is that it hasn't had a home video release in the U.S. in over 20 years, but I agree that it's pretty stupid that they didn't throw The Ghost Goes West on there. It's not too late, Criterion.

I think we should all email bomb them with requests for The Ghost Goes West until they capitulate...

Has anyone seen this blu-ray yet? I just finished watching it and I am really underwhelmed by the "2K" restoration. Is this really a 2K restoration? The film is fun to watch, but the picture quality is merely OK in my book (at some points it felt like I was watching some of those Kino Keaton BDs ). I definitely had better expectation for a 2K restoration.

Age of the film could not be a reason. To Be or Not to Be is another film from 1942 recently released by them. I guess there must be a difference between "restored 2K digital film transfer" (for To Be or Not to Be, 1942) and "2K digital restoration" (for I Married a Witch, 1942). These are the descriptions used by Criterion for the respective films. There is definitely a good deal of differences between these two 2K PQs.

Although age isn't a factor, condition of the film could be- if the prints for I Married a Witch were stored in worse conditions, it could easily have affected the quality. I haven't seen this blu yet, so this is just speculation.

EDIT: Is there anything in the "About the transfer" section of the booklet that sheds any light on this?