Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Directed by Frank Capra. Starring Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Priscilla Lane, John Alexander, Jack Carson, Edward McNamara, Edward Everett Horton, John Ridgely, James Gleason, Grant Mitchell, Chester Clute.

Classic combo screwball and black comedy, based on the popular stage play of the same name. Grant’s long-standing bachelor status has been evacuated after tying the knot with Lane, but he’s deeply concerned about how insanity runs in the family (“It practically gallops”), and he’s not wrong to be anxious—one of his brothers (Alexander) thinks that he’s Teddy Roosevelt, his other brother (Massey) is a mass murderer on the run from police, and his “sweet, little old lady” aunts (Hull, Adair) have just blithely informed him that they poison lonely elderly men and bury them in the basement, a dozen to date! A little overextended at times, especially during the denouement wrap-up, but there are precious few dry stretches where the absence of laughs causes interest to wander. Grant and his animated reaction shots lead a terrifically funny ensemble, with Alexander’s outbursts and Hull and Adair’s incongruous behavior as special treats (all three of them are reprising their roles from Joseph Kesselring’s play); unfortunately, with Massey taking over for the role that Boris Karloff played on stage, all the carry-over jokes about how his character “looks like Boris Karloff” lose their in-jokey sting. The film was finished more than two years before its release date, held up due to contractual obligations to wait until the hit play had finally run its course in theaters. A gravestone outside his family home can be spotted carrying Grant’s real name: Archie Leach.

81/100