Arsenic and Old Lace is a film directed by Frank Capra based on a play by the same name by Joseph Kesselring. The script was adapted by Julius J. Epstein. Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941 but it was not released until 1944 while the studio waited for the stage version to finish its run on Broadway.

In addition to Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, the film also starred Josephine Hull and Jean Adair as the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Both Hull and Adair reprised their roles from the original 1941 stage production as well as John Alexander as Teddy.

Plot

The film concerns a theatre-hating drama critic and confirmed bachelor Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), who has written a number of books describing marriage as just old-fashioned superstition. Nevertheless, he wants to marry his aunts' neighbour Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane), but has qualms, as insanity seems to run in his family.

He visits his bizarre relatives, two elderly aunts who live in the old family home in Brooklyn with Mortimer's brother "Teddy", who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt. Mortimer's sweet, if misguided aunts have a habit of serving lonely old bachelors elderberry wine spiked with arsenic to end their "suffering" and then burying the bodies in the basement. Meanwhile, Teddy yells "Charge!" when running up and down the stairs (in imitation of Roosevelt's famous charge up San Juan Hill). Mortimer learns what his aunts have been doing when he discovers their latest victim in the window seat.

To complicate matters further, Mortimer's other brother, Jonathan (Raymond Massey), arrives with his alcoholic accomplice, surgeon Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre), in tow. Jonathan is an escaped murderer whose face resembles that of Frankenstein's monster (as portrayed by Boris Karloff). This comparison is frequently noted in the film, much to Jonathan's annoyance. (This was originally a self-referential joke, as Karloff himself had played the character in the stage production).

Mortimer makes increasingly frantic attempts to stay on top of the situation. Eventually, Teddy and the two ladies are safely consigned to an asylum. Mortimer is overjoyed to discover that he was adopted and not biologically related to these insane people. He is actually the son of a sea cook. With this weight off his shoulders, he proposes to Elaine.

Cast

Trivia

• The Marvel Comics team The Runaways features a girl-dinosaur pairing codenamed "Arsenic and Old Lace"

External links

1944 films | Black comedy films | Screwball comedy films | Films based on plays | Films directed by Frank Capra

Arsen und Spitzenhäubchen | Arsenic et vieilles dentelles | Arsenico e vecchi merletti | Arsenik och gamla spetsar