# Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

### reviewed by
Heather Picker

                                           "Arsenic and Old Lace"

                                       Reviewed by Heather Picker

Directed by Frank Capra. Written by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein. Starring Cary Grant, with Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, and Jean Adair. 1944, 120 min., Not Rated.

Joseph Kesselring's stage play of "Arsenic and Old Lace" was so popular on Broadway that the release of the film version was delayed for three years, as it could not be released until the play had finished it's run. I have heard that some dialogue had to be changed at the end of the movie to appease the censors, which is a shame because the changed sentences would have been much funnier if left alone. Luckily, the script is brilliant, the cast is great, and the movie is often hilarious. Frank Capra's direction at times seems both tedious and chaotic, ultimately making for a satisfying viewing experience.

At the beginning of the film we're given a bit of information (that it is Halloween, and the setting is Brooklyn) before our awkward introduction to dramatic critic and newlywed Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant). A quickie marriage to preacher's daughter Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) after their courtship, to the opposition of her father, who voices his concerns, unaware that his daughter is getting married at this time, to Mortimer's aunts, Martha (Jean Adair) and Abby (Josephine Hull). (He isn't convinced that Mortimer, who has a public stance against marriage, writing books with names such as "Marriage: A Fraud and a Failure" and "Mind Over Matrimony," is husband material.)

Martha and Abby, according to a police officer who is showing their neighborhood to a young officer, O'Hara (Jack Carson), who will be taking over his beat, are very nice women. Despite the sign in front of their somewhat ominous looking large house, advertising a room for rent, the officer says that they don't really rent out the room, but instead feed and take care of their guests before letting them leave with their spirits lifted a bit higher. If you think this sounds a little too perfect, you're right.

Mortimer and Elaine are preparing for their honeymoon, and before they leave for Niagara Falls, he goes to visit his aunts while Elaine breaks it to her father, who lives nearby. There, he discovers a body in a window seat, and Martha and Abby offhandedly say they killed him, earnestly reporting that they only do it to the lonely old men who stop by to rent a room, in order to help the men find peace. They simply add a deadly poisonous mixture to the wine they offer the prospective lodger, and after the men are buried in the cellar, hold proper Christian services for them.

Cousin Teddy (John Alexander), who thinks he is President Theodore Roosevelt, and runs upstairs, yelling "Charge" (as he believes the stairs are San Juan Hill), assists. Martha and Abby get him to bury them in the cellar (which be thinks is the Panama Canal) by telling him that they are yellow fever victims. Mortimer is mortified. Teddy wasn't supposed to be put in a sanitarium until Martha and Abby died, but now Mortimer is convinced that Teddy must leave, and he rushes off to have a judge sign the papers to get him committed.

While he is gone, his creepy, long-absent brother, Jonathan (Raymond Massey), who looks like Boris Karloff, which is noted by several characters (Karloff played the role of Jonathan in the play), arrives with his weird plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre) and scares his aunts. Jonathan's face is scarred because Einstein was drunk the last time he operated. Though the men are very secretive, and not much is revealed as to what they're really involved in, they are on the run from the authorities and have brought a dead body with them. Elaine comes over, trying to find Mortimer, who had been acting weird ever since he discovered the body (which she doesn't know about), and Jonathan thinks that she knows what he and Einstein are doing (they just brought the body inside, after turning off all of the lights in the house and making Martha and Abby go upstairs). Naturally, the aunts come downstairs at the commotion and Mortimer comes back, and from here on out, all of the storylines collide and the building pace of the movie really picks up speed and becomes frantic.

Officer O'Hara returns to make sure everything is okay, and is about to leave when he realizes that Mortimer, being a respected drama critic, could help him out. O'Hara has ideas for a play, and wants to discuss them with Mortimer, who agrees, so that O'Hara will stay in the house. Before he joins O'Hara in the kitchen, he tells Jonathan that he must leave. However, Jonathan has different plans, and tells Einstein that the house will make a perfect front for criminal operations.

When Jonathan and Dr. Einstein find out that the bodies in the cellar were victims of Abby and Martha, they are shocked. Einstein takes delight in pointing out that Jonathan has only killed as many people as them. During the next few scenes, O'Hara leaves, a doctor arrives to evaluate Teddy in order to commit him, and Mortimer briefly catches up with Elaine. Back at the house, Jonathan has bound Mortimer to a chair, and put a gag in his mouth, and O'Hara arrives again because the neighbors have been complaining about the bugle Teddy frequently blows. O'Hara doesn't bother untying Mortimer; instead he keeps him stuck in the chair so that he can explain his play concept. Two other officers arrive, and it still takes a considerable amount of time for the film to end. I won't say any more, because the conclusion is the kind you must see to believe.

Clocking in at almost two hours, a lot of story is packed into the film, and the madcap events that ensue after the arrival of the police offers lead up to an equally hectic, breathless ending. The acting, especially Jean Adair, Josephine Hull, and John Alexander as Martha, Abby, and Teddy, respectively, is excellent (all three of those actors were reprising their roles from the play). Raymond Massey is effective as the Frankenstein-like Jonathan, Peter Lorre, who played a lot of roles like this, is also very good. Priscilla Lane makes what she can out of the underdeveloped character of Elaine.

Cary Grant's performance is somewhat baffling. I've read criticism of the overacting, and I've heard that he considered this the least favorite of all of his movies for that reason. I will not disagree that he overacts, but it should also be pointed out that the story is about a sane man who is driven to the brink of insanity by his crazy relatives. Yes, even the killers in the movie seem calm in comparison to Mortimer, but I think that explains his behavior. He finds it incomprehensible that these people can be so laid back and matter-of-fact about their homicidal hobbies.

Mortimer is at his most dislikable at the beginning of the movie, but gradually it is easy to realize why he is so, in the eyes of those around him, excitable. As he wryly comments to Elaine, "Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops." The script is filled with one-liners, but the verbal confusion, involving yelling and character's talking over one another is much better pulled off in films like "His Girl Friday." And it is odd that Grant seems a bit out of place in "Arsenic and Old Lace," as he has done superlative work in classic films that belong to the genre's this particular movie tries to blend. The story is great, and it is an overall great effort, but the film's greatest fault is the manic behavior of Mortimer.

Notes: This film has not been released on DVD. The video is available in its original black and white version, or colorized. Not Rated, suitable for family viewing.

The Verdict: "Arsenic and Old Lace," is a great black comedy, featuring a hilarious script and delightful performances by Hull, Adair, and Alexander. Recommended viewing.

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