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Arsenic and Old Lace
1944 Comedy / Crime / Thriller
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Credits
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Director: Frank Capra
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Script: Joseph Kesselring, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein
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Photo: Sol Polito
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Music: Max Steiner
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Cast: Cary Grant (Mortimer Brewster),
Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster),
Jean Adair (Martha Brewster),
Raymond Massey (Jonathan),
Peter Lorre (Dr Einstein),
Priscilla Lane (Elaine Harper),
John Alexander (Teddy ),
Jack Carson (Officer O'Hara),
John Ridgely (Officer Saunders),
Edward McNamara (Police Sgt. Brophy),
James Gleason (Lt. Rooney),
Grant Mitchell (Rev. Harper),
Edward Everett Horton (Mr Witherspoon),
Vaughan Glaser (Judge Cullman),
Chester Clute (Dr Gilchrist)
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Country: USA
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Language: English
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Runtime: 118 min; B&W
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Summary
Mortimer Brewster returns to Brooklyn to visit his elderly aunts Abby
and Martha with the news that he has just got married. The last
thing he expects to find in his old home is a dead body in the window
seat. His aunts casually admit that this is the latest of their
mercy killings. Whenever a solitary old man enters their house,
they take it upon themselves to put him out of his misery, with a glass
of elderberry wine laced with poison. Mortimer’s retarded brother
Teddy, who thinks he is President Theodore Roosevelt, has already
buried 11 bodies in the cellar. Mortimer is still reeling from
this revelation when his other brother, Jonathan, a sadistic
psychopath, puts in an unexpected appearance, with his sinister
accomplice, Dr Einstein. They too have a dead body to dispose of...
Review
Frank Capra was so taken with Joseph Kesselring’s comic play Arsenic and Old Lace when he saw it
performed on Broadway in 1941 that he immediately resolved to make a
film adaptation. Working for Warner Brothers (who had already
bought the rights to the play), Capra shot the film in just four weeks
on a budget of 400 thousand dollars. Unfortunately, owing to a
clause in the contract with Kesselring, the film couldn’t be released
until the stage play had finished its run on Broadway - which, as it
turned out, wasn’t until 1944.
The film version features three of the actors of the original hit
Broadway production - Jean Adair, Josephine Hull and John
Alexander. Boris Karloff was also in this production, but he
couldn’t be released, and so his part in the film was taken by Raymond
Massey, made up to resemble Karloff’s most famous role, Frankenstein’s
monster. Bob Hope was originally considered for the part of
Mortimer, but he was locked into a contract with Paramount Pictures,
and so the part went to another rising star, Cary Grant.
Although it is far from being Capra’s best film, Arsenic and Old Lace is a delight -
a delicious concoction of madcap farce and macabre black comedy.
The film’s main assets are the beautifully understated performances
from Jean Adair and Josephine Hull, who manage to persuade us that
murdering lonely old bachelors is a perfectly respectable occupation
for charitable old ladies. Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre, by
contrast, are infinitely more sinister and behave exactly as
psychopathic killers ought to
behave, albeit with a very subtle edge of pantomime campness
which strangely heightens their Gothic horror creepiness.
The only let down is Cary Grant’s way over-the-top performance, which
must hold the record for the number of double takes in a single
film. Grant may have got away with such wide-eyed, arm-throwing
over-acting in a stage production, but in a film it just looks silly
and badly undermines the comedy. Fortunately, the cumulative
talent of the rest of the cast more than compensates for this
histrionic excess. Thanks to its menagerie of bizarre
characters, its slick direction and weirdly black humour, Arsenic and Old Lace is a highly
enjoyable film which stands up well to repeated viewings.
© James Travers 2008
For World Cinema on DVD...
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