Arsenic and Old Lace ***** (1944, Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Peter Lorre) – Classic Movie Review 2,344

Frank Capra’s sleek and sophisticated 1944 black comedy film Arsenic and Old Lace showcases Cary Grant’s amazing display of double and treble takes.

Director Frank Capra’s sleek and sophisticated 1944 black comedy film Arsenic and Old Lace showcases Cary Grant’s amazing display of double and treble takes. The role of drama critic Mortimer Brewster, an author known for his diatribes against marriage, proved one of Grant’s finest ever. Grant often called it his least favourite of all his movies as he considered his acting to be horribly over the top – though he was wrong about that. 

But it is also the ideal showcase for lovely vintage actresses Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, who play Grant’s giddy maiden aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, a couple of apparently harmless and sweet seeming little old ladies who have a habit of poisoning their elderly gentlemen paying house guests.

Despite his views on getting married and losing his freedom, Mortimer changes his mind when he falls in love with the beautiful Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane), who grew up next door to him in Brooklyn. But then the trouble really begins on his wedding day when Mortimer gets married at city hall and goes home to tell his aunts. He learns that his beloved maiden aunts are actually sweet homicidal maniacs when he discovers their hobby – killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar. Worse still, insanity runs in his family.

The twin brothers Julius J Epstein and Philip G Epstein (with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse) craft a wonderful screenplay adaptation of a perfect black comedy stage play by Joseph Kesselring. The screenplay follows the same basic plot but makes only a few minor changes. The bad taste dialogue is hilarious, crackles and seems very modern in its wicked cynicism.

Capra makes a snappy, seamless, stylish piece of work of the stage-to-screen transfer. It never seems stagey, even though it is basically shot on a single set.

Jean Adair, Josephine Hull and Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace.

All the performances  are judged just right – but particularly from Raymond Massey as Mortimer’s creepy Karloff-like brother Jonathan, John Alexander as his crazy brother Teddy who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, Peter Lorre as the alcoholic plastic surgeon D. Herman Einstein, James Gleason, John Ridgely and Jack Carson as the police, Edward Everett Horton as Mr Witherspoon and Grant Mitchell as the Reverend Harper. They are insanely large but are just still carefully contained on the limits of the screen.

Made in 1941 because of Grant’s availability, it remained unreleased till 1944 after the original stage version had finished its run on Broadway.

Also in the cast are John Ridgley, Edward McWade, Spencer Charters, Edward McNamara, Garry Owen, Vaughan Glaser, Chester Clute, Leo White, Hank Mann, and Lee Phelps.

Arsenic and Old Lace is directed by Frank Capra, runs 118 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, is shot in black and white by Sol Polito, is produced by Frank Capra, is scored by Max Steiner, and is designed by Max Parker.

It premiered on 1 September 1944 in New York City) and was released in the US on 23 September 1944.

Arsenic and Old Lace was by far the most successful of the 12 plays written by Kesselring, though now it is best known through the 1944 film. The long-running play opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on 10 January 1941 and moved to the Hudson Theatre on 25 September 1943, closing on 17 June 1944 after 1,444 performances. The London West End production at the Strand Theatre opened on 23 December 1942 and closed on 2 March 1946 after 1,337 performances.

Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler, Julia Lockwood and Richard Briers appeared in the play in London in 1966. A Broadway revival of the play ran from 26 June 1986 to 3 January 1987 at the 46th Street Theatre, starring Polly Holliday, Jean Stapleton, Tony Roberts and Abe Vigoda. The play was revived in London’s West End from February to June 2003, again at the Strand Theatre, starring Thelma Barlow, Marcia Warren, Michael Richards and Stephen Tompkinson.

Charles Lane (born Charles Gerstle Levison; January 26, 1905 – July 9, 2007).

Charles Lane (who plays the first reporter) has 363 film and TV credits running back to 1931, and lived till he was 102 in 2007.

Mortimer Brewster was intended for Bob Hope but Paramount would not release him from his contract. Capra approached Jack Benny and Ronald Reagan before learning that Grant agreed to star. 

Hull, Adair and Alexander reprised their roles from the 1941 stage production. They got an eight-week leave of absence from the still running stage production and Capra shot the movie in those eight weeks.

Boris Karloff played Jonathan Brewster who ‘looks like Karloff’ on Broadway but he couldn’t do the movie because, as an investor in the stage show and its main draw, he couldn’t leave it. Eventually Erich von Stroheim replaced Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster in the original Broadway production.

Priscilla Lane and Cary Grant waiting for a marriage licence.

The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce, and took $4.8 million at the box office.

American playwright Joseph Kesselring, the son of German immigrants and a former professor at pacifist Mennonite Bethel College, in North Newton, Kansas, wrote the play to reflect the anti-war mood of the late 1930s. When he taught at Bethel College, he lived in the Goerz House boarding house, with many of its living room features of reflected in the play’s setting. The Goerz House is now the college president’s home. The plot was probably inspired by events in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where Amy Archer-Gilligan took in boarders, promising lifetime care but poisoning them for their pensions.

The cast are Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, Priscilla Lane as Elaine Brewster, Josephine Hull as Aunt Abby Brewster, Jean Adair as Aunt Martha Brewster, Raymond Massey as Jonathan Brewster, Peter Lorre as Dr Herman Einstein, John Alexander as Teddy Roosevelt Brewster, Jack Carson as Officer Patrick O’Hara, John Ridgely as Officer Sanders, Edward McNamara as Police Sgt Brophy, James Gleason as Police Lt. Rooney, Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Witherspoon, Grant Mitchell as Reverend Harper, Vaughan Glaser as Judge Cullman, Chester Clute as Dr Gilchrist, Edward McWade as Mr Gibbs, Garry Owen as taxi driver, Charles Lane as first reporter, Hank Mann as second reporter with camera, and Spencer Charters as marriage licence clerk.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,344

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