Arsenic and Old Lace
by Frank Capra
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cary Grant, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Carson, Priscilla Lane, Raymond MasseyDirector: Frank Capra
Brand: GRANT,CARY
Cinematographer: Sol Polito
Producer: Frank Capra
Editor: Daniel Mandell
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Writer: Joseph Kesselring
Writer: Julius J. Epstein
Writer: Philip G. Epstein
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Movie Reviews of Arsenic and Old Lace
Movie Review: "Well, usually I'm Mortimer Brewster, but I'm not quite myself today"
Summary: 5 Stars
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
What a wonderful, funny, dark, and even macabre comedy Arsenic and Old Lace is. It runs fast, the situations are hilarious even if you are not supposed to be amused by the family with the history of insanity that not just runs.... "It practically gallops". The film which is based on the highly popular and successful play of the same title, takes place during one Halloween night that brings all Brewster's family skeletons out of the closet with the vengeance. During the course of one night, Mortimer Brewster, the famous writer and critic, will discover the shocking truth about his two most charming aunties, the nicest and sweetest ladies any nephew can imagine. They are two serial murderesses who had poisoned dozen of elderly lonely gentlemen with their famous elderberry wine out of pity for the misery of their loneliness. The aunties call the killings one of their charities. They see themselves as angels of mercy.
Mortimer's escaped from prison psychotic long lost horrifying monster older brother Jonathan (he does have a face of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein) with a creepy accomplice plastic surgeon named Dr. Einstein (terrific Peter Lorre) chose the Halloween night for coming home and dragging a dead body with him. Comparing to the aunts and Johnathan, Mortimer's uncle Teddy is sweet and truly innocent. There is a little problem with Teddy though. He thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt; each time Teddy goes upstairs he blows a bugle, yells "Charge!", and takes the stairs at a run with a sword in his hand (an imitation of Roosevelt's famous charge up San Juan Hill). I read some comments that found Teddy's ascent that he repeats few times, irritating and annoying but I thought it was one of the funniest parts of the movie. Teddy is also digging 'The Panama Canal' in their cellar to bury the victims of "yellow fever" (or so Teddy is told by the aunties). Oh yes, on the top of all, Mortimer, who is known as a staunch bachelor and become famous for writing sarcastically about marriage in his articles and plays, just got married to a lovely young lady, the next door neighbor to his aunts in Brooklyn. His bride expects the attention that is only natural from the groom on the wedding night but...who would blame Mortimer of a little forgetfulness and absent-mildness when he is trying desperately to take care of the crazy relatives, two dead bodies in the living room, to avert the attention of bunch of cops that keep popping in from dozen of dead bodies buried in the cellar, and to survive his brother Jonathan's long lived hatred, very short temper, and passion to torture and to kill. I never thought that Cary Grant, the embodiment of a gentleman, romantic hero, and the man whom Jan Fleming had in mind when he created his immortal James Bond, could be so funny. The film that is directed by Frank Capra is almost two hours long but it combines the elements of comedy/horror/thriller/mystery so clever and witty that it never slows down or drags. It's got surprises on every turn, the acting is first class, and it is absolute delight.
Summary of Arsenic and Old Lace
You'll die laughing! Frank Capra directs Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre and stellar cast in the hit Broadway farce about a nutcase family with well-intentioned homicidal tendencies.Frank Capra made this film in 1941 before he went off to make films for America's war effort, but it wasn't released until 1944. Adapted from the hit play by Joseph Kesselring, this frantic black comedy shows Capra at his best as a master of mood and timing. Actresses Josephine Hull and Jean Adair reprise their Broadway performances as two gentle old ladies who poison men with elderberry wine to put them out of their misery. Cary Grant plays one nephew, a normal guy who just gets wind of their little hobby and tries to get them to stop, while Raymond Massey plays another, a villain just escaped from jail. Capra encourages the cast, especially Grant, to give a somewhat more outsized performance than one might expect. But made during the war years as it was, this overstated comic approach to killing was probably cathartic. --Tom Keogh
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