Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1941) – A well known local bachelor has decided to get married.  Then he discovers that his two spinster aunts have a very disturbing secret downstairs.  Toss in a delightfully demented brother (who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt) and a creepy, long-lost brother and Halloween will never be the same.

Directed by Frank Capra                          Starring Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre

The tendency is to equate Capra with optimistic movies expressing high flown ideals through everyday heroes.  Here, Capra takes us on a demented joyride that is both farce and horror at the same time.

Mortimer Brewster(Grant) has made a career out of deriding the institution of marriage.  Until he falls for the lovely daughter of the local clergy.  When he arrives home to announce the happy news to his spinster aunts (played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair with the perfect balance of sweetness and dementia) he is confronted with an alarming truth. They’ve been killing people.  Suddenly in the midst of what he had always treated as a slightly eccentric family, he discovers a truly dark secret.  It gets worse when his long-lost brother Jonathan (played with profound creepiness by Massey) shows up with his sniveling sidekick Dr. Einstein (has anyone every sniveled better than Peter Lorre?).

I never realized that the story had such a dark and scary side to it.  The whimsical aspects of the dotty old ladies and “Teddy” are pretty well known.  Capra and Massey combine to bring a darkness to the movie that will send a tingle down your spine.  All of it is done without losing the underlying silliness, which may be the most impressive part of the entire production.

Grant was asked to overact in order to make sure he hit the comic tone required.  The plan was to go back and re-shoot some of the scenes to rein them, but World War II intervened and it never happened.  It leaves Grant playing way over the top in several scenes, but I kind of like it the way it is.  The whole movie represents how Mortimer’s normal life has been turned upside down.  The bizarre and deranged world has shoved everything he thought he knew to one side.  And it seems like he’s the only one that’s bothered by that fact!  So his frenetic reactions don’t feel terribly at odds with what’s happening most of the time.

There’s a top quality supporting cast and the movie tempo zooms along.

Why You Will Like It:  It’s kind of got everything.  Funny, scary, great cast, wonderful direction.  All in the service of some seriously silly, funny stuff.

Rating – **** Recommended