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Arsenic and Old Lace
USA 1944
produced by
Jack L. Warner (executive) for Warner Brothers
directed by Frank Capra
starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, Peter Lorre, James Gleason, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander, Grant Mitchell, Edward McNamara, Garry Owen, John Ridgely, Vaughan Glaser, Chester Clute, Charles Lane, Edward McWade
screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, based on the play by Joseph Kesselring, music by Max Steiner
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) really has any reason to feel the
luckiest guy alive, having just married his sweetheart Elaine (Priscilla
Lane), with the cab waiting for their Niagara Falls honeymoon already. And
the only thing he has to do while Elaine's packing her things is telling
his aunts Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair), who brought him
up, the good news - when he finds a dead men in their window chest. Now he
immediately suspects cousin Teddy (John Alexander), who thinks he's Teddy
Roosevelt, to have finally snapped and killed someone - and is thus all
the more shocked that his aunts freely admit to having poisoned the man,
as an act of charity mind you, and they have poisoned 11 other men, all
buried neatly in the basement, all lonely men without family, to release
them from their loneliness. Now this comes as an understandable shock to
Mortimer, who then does his best to have Teddy committed - and totally
forgetting about Elaine waiting for him in the process. But while
Mortimer's trying to make arrangements and the night progresses, his
brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) and his sidekick Dr. Einstein (Peter
Lorre) break into the house. Now Jonathan is a ruthless killer who will
slaughter everyone who tells him he looks like Boris Karloff - a result of
botched up plastic surgery by the hands of Dr. Einstein. Now Jonathan and
Einstein have a dead body with them and have the idea to bury him in the
basement - and are quite shocked to learn that Aunts Abby and Martha have
been burying stiffs there for years. Now of course, the arrival of
Jonathan and Einstein complicates things immensely, and the arrival of a
totally incompetent cop (Jack Carson) only adds to the chaos - but
ultimately everything culminates in a happy ending, even if quite a few of
the involved land either in the slammer or the loonie bin ... There's
no two ways to put it, Arsenic and Old Lace is a next to perfect
black comedy, and one that really stands the test of time: Now the cast is
outstanding (and Raymond Massey does a great job with a role specifically
written for the great Boris Karloff), the script is perfectly structured
to make a gradual drift from wholesome comedy to house of horrors, the
dialogue's extremely poignant, the characters are relatable despite of
their eccentrities required by the film's premise, and the direction is
just on the point throughout. And despite its macabre premise, this is old
Hollywood at its very best, and a definite must-see!
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