Arsenic and Old Lace

source: Arsenic and Old Lace

One of the great black comedies. If Boris Karloff had joined his fellow Broadway cast members - Jean Adair, Josephine Hull and John Alexander - I think it would have been an even better movie. Raymond Massey, unquestionably a good actor, did his best, but didn't quite seem to get the joke, or maybe was overwhelmed by having to incarnate Karloff. But it's a quibble, really, and we're more than compensated by the the rest of the cast. Cary Grant motors the piece along at a terrific pace. He's a joy to watch, with his double-, triple-, even quadruple- and quintuple-takes. Hull and Adair are equally wonderful in their different ways, the former all floaty and tip-toe, the latter hysterically earnest - one of my favourite moments is Adair's superb double-take when she notices, on the dining-room table, a shoe she doesn't recognise. Peter Lorre, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason, and the rest, are all everything they should be, and Priscilla Lane is splendidly dewy-eyed and pouty as the love-interest. I've seen Arsenic and Old Lace countless times. I've never tired of it, always look forward to it, and highly recommend it.

I'm a fan of comedy: everything from Fibber McGee & Molly to Family Guy. Arsenic and Old Lace is not funny though. It is also not warm, not engaging, not interesting, and not even pleasant. In fact, most of its characters are completely unsympathetic (meaning I could not relate to them or care for them in the least). After a somewhat intriguing start, poor Mr. Grant runs around like a chicken with his head chopped off. The cast of characters is dominated by nut-jobs for whom my feelings ranged from pity to disgust. The brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt is beyond annoying after his first "CHARGE!" up the staircase. The action and characterization are contrived. And there is more than the usual, period-misogyny. I've been watching lots of movies from the 40's lately. Some (like The Talk of the Town) strained credulity but were still enjoyable. Others (like The Man Who Came To Dinner) featured mean-spirited characters but somehow managed to keep them charming and zany. Arsenic and Old Lace fails on both counts. It's not only a bad comedy but a bad film of any genre.

Cary Grant believes he overplayed his character in 'Arsenic and Old Lace', and I agree, he's over-the-top. At times his frantic jumping around and shocked facial expressions are funny, such as when he tells his aunts early on that they really oughtn't to be poisoning their visitors by saying "Look, you can't do things like that! Now, I don't know how I can explain this to you, but it's not only against the law, its wrong! It's not a nice thing to do. People wouldn't understand. He wouldn't understand. What I mean is, well, this is developing into a very bad habit!" … all while hunched over and gesticulating. This is a loud movie, with one brother believing he's Teddy Roosevelt yelling 'Charge!' as he runs up the stairs and slams his bedroom door repeatedly, characters rapidly entering scenes in a pell-mell confusion of trying to hide bodies, threaten each other, commit others to mental institutions, etc etc. It's also all over the map. At first I thought Capra may have threaded the needle and been able to deliver both a dark comedy and a drama, since Raymond Massey's glowering and Peter Lorre's simpering are quite sinister, and a nice counterpart to Cary Grant and the sweet old ladies played so wonderfully by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair. However, the movie dragged on, and was far too long at 118 minutes. Some may like the madcap frenzy Capra created based on the stage play, and I have to say there are some nice moments and lines ("Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."), but overall the movie gets to be a little much, and doesn't stand the test of time, at least for me.

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944): Dir: Frank Capra / Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey: Overrated piece of junk that looks like something Frank Capra shat out of his ass after having made worthy films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It Happened One Night. Well, what happened one night is this sh*t was conjured up and labeled as a classic. It stars Cary Grant who goes hopelessly over the top as a newly wed whose two nut job aunts mercy kill lonely men by poisoning their wine. Grant discovers a body in the window seat that Capra was too cheap to actually show the audience because apparently this garbage is a comedy. Apparently everyone in this house belongs in an insane asylum. His brother thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt and yells, "Charge!" He barges up the stairs about fifty times to the point where a well placed trap door would have been appreciated. Then we have Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre as villains who resemble Frankenstein and Igor in performances best left on the cutting room floor. The worst scene has Grant tied to a chair while some half wit cop fails to see the obvious, and this goes on and on until the viewer goes as mad as the characters. Pointless drivel with production values that resemble a cheap stage play and characters that are complete morons. This film should be laced with gasoline and a match. Score: 1 / 10

I love the title. Hate the movie. Cary Grant's performance is embarrassing to watch. I know it's supposed to be funny. But his facial expressions are just stupid and he is very loud and his lines are horrible. John Alexander as Roosevelt is also loudly unfunny. The two aunts blab to everyone they meet there are bodies in their cellar. I don't know how they managed to kill 12 people without telling the whole town. I do like one part where Peter Lorre is in the dark and says, "Where am I?" and waves his match and says, "oh here I am." That's it.

Two seemingly sweet little old ladies bump off their lonely male lodgers much to the horror and surprise of their newlywed nephew Mortimer (Cary Grant). What I had hoped would be a charming American comedy classic turns out to be amongst the most tortuous two hours of cinema I have ever sat through. Directed by Frank Capra, the film stars Cary Grant as Mortimer, a writer renowned for his anti-marriage diatribes, who has just done the unthinkable and got hitched to beautiful blonde Elaine (Priscilla Lane). But before Mortimer can leave with his wife for their honeymoon, his discovery of a dead body at his aunts' Brooklyn home throws him into disarray. With zero concern for subtlety from either Capra or his star, Arsenic and Old Lace is a loud, repetitive, drawn-out exercise in absolute tedium, the plot going round and round in circles until the viewer is finally put out of their misery with a really dumb ending. Grant over-acts like his life depends upon it, mugging and doing double takes whenever possible, as though this is all that is needed to drum up laughs; it isn't. The majority of the supporting cast are just as insufferable: the guy who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt really grates, the old ladies are far from endearing, Raymond Massey (as Mortimer's escaped criminal brother Jonathan) glares a lot, and Peter Lorre merely plays a caricature of himself. Somehow this movie has earned itself a solid reputation and a high IMDb rating (8.0), which confuses me just as much as It's a Wonderful Life's place at #25 in IMDb's Top Rated Movies. What is it that others see in Capra's films that I don't?

With Julius Epstein writing and Cary Grant starring, what can be bad? Everything! Overly arch; stagey; the worst performance Cary ever gave (imagine Cary in the nightgown from "Bringing up Baby" for an entire film). (Watching this, I felt that I would scream if I saw one of the old ladies doing that cute little shuffle across the floor one more time.) I am not a fan of Frank Capra; I think that "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of the most overrated films ever. However, this is truly the bottom of the barrel. Aimed at a sub-adolescent sense of humor; The Three Stooges with a veneer of respectability. This film comes from one of the great periods of Hollywood comedy, but every golden age has a bit of dross in it. Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.

Mortimer Brewster, a New York critic of both drama and marriage, has finally married Elaine Harper, the girl next door. But before heading off to Niagra Falls for the honeymoon, Mortimer stops in to see his aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, two sweet little old ladies who donate toys to charity and care for their nephew Teddy, a bugle blowing nutbag who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt. But Abby and Martha aren't as sweet and innocent as they seem. Mortimer soon discovers, to his horror, that his dear old aunties have a dozen bodies buried in the basement. It seems the Brewster sisters have a new hobby - luring lonely old men into their home and serving them Elderberry Wine spiked with arsenic poison. To make matters worse, Mortimer's deranged and very dangerous brother Jonathan shows up. Jonathan, on the run from the law, has a dead body in the trunk of his car, a drunken plastic surgeon at his side and a face that looks like Boris Karloff. Mortimer frantically attempts to deal with dead bodies, insane asylum directors, attempted murders and a new bride all on a single crazy Halloween night. This is a must-see Halloween movie, filled with Gallows humor, leaf-strewn graveyards, pumpkins and death. Cary Grant delivers a performance unlike any other he has ever done - manic, panicked, hysterical and almost as insane as his screen family. John Alexander is flawless as Teddy; bugles, pith helmet and all. Jean Adair and Josephine Hull are so sweet and cute and so absolutely morbid you'll forgive them anything. Raymond Massey as Boris Karloff lookalike Jonathan is simultaneously menacing and amusing, and Peter Lorre as his drunken German sidekick Dr. Einstein is a riot, bugging his eyes and flinching through the entire film in a most endearing way. This is a must see film, no matter your genre preference. There's something for everyone here: quick-witted comedy, true romance, grisly deeds, everything! Fans of Grant and Lorre must not miss this film. 10 stars!

That anyone, anywhere, critic, civilian, movie fan, someone who had never seen a movie before, finds this movie at all appealing is one of the great mysteries of life. From the first scene, "Arsenic and Old Lace" is torture, and not the fun kind. It is loud, and sophomoric, and obvious, repugnant and cruel, and without one convincing, human character or moment. I LOVE Golden-Age Hollywood classics, especially from the 1940s. Love Cary Grant. Love Frank Capra. Love James Gleason. Jack Carson isn't bad. Love Capra's love of taxicab drivers. Priscilla Lane, in the right movie -- opposite John Garfield, say -- can be lovely. Loved the title cards -- black and white drawings of Halloween -- and the studio sets of just over the bridge Brooklyn. Loved the old Dutch house, with the high, exposed beam ceiling, the plates all along the walls, the Dutch tiles in the fireplace. Hated, hated, hated, the movie. No style, no humor, not a scrap of intelligence. Priscilla Lane and Cary Grant are horribly matched. The actresses playing the little old lady aunts lack charisma -- a crime given that there were so many interesting older actresses in those days. Raymond Massey's make-up was simply grotesque. Peter Lorre wandered in from a dozen better movies. The sheer stupidity of scene after scene is an insult to the audience. I just felt like I was being pummeled by a hammer for two hours. If this had been the first movie I had ever seen, I might never have watched another. It takes a special kind of script and director to wring humor from a ghastly, graphic, torture scene, and this movie has the ghastly, graphic torture scene, that is meant to be funny, and that is just as appealing as a big, dead, squashed bug sitting there staring up at you from your dinner plate. Gad, this sucked. Denounce it! It does not deserve its reputation! I just watched it. I need a shower.