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{{short description|1944 film by Frank Capra}}
{{use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox film {{Infobox film
| name = Arsenic and Old Lace | name = Arsenic and Old Lace
| image = Arsenic_And_Old_Lace_Poster.jpg | image = Arsenic_And_Old_Lace_Poster.jpg
| caption = theatrical release poster | caption = Theatrical release poster
| image_size = 225px | director = ]
| screenplay = {{Plainlist|
| based on = The ] by<br />]
| screenplay = ]<br />] * ]
* ]
| starring = ]
| director = ]
| producer = Frank Capra<br />]
| distributor = ]
| cinematography = ]
| editing = ]
| music = ]
| released = {{Film date|1944|09|23}}
| runtime = 118 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $1,120,175 US (est.)
}} }}
| based_on = {{based on|'']''|]}}
| producer = {{Plainlist|
* Frank Capra
* ]
}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| cinematography = ]
| editing = ]
| music = ]
| distributor = ]
| released = {{Film date|1944|09|1|New York City|ref1=<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/09/02/archives/arsenic-and-old-lace-with-cary-grant-in-premiere-at-strand-youth.html |title='Arsenic and Old Lace,' With Cary Grant, in Premiere at Strand – 'Youth Runs Wild' Is New Palace Theatre Feature |newspaper=] |date=September 2, 1944 |access-date=July 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408070643/https://www.nytimes.com/1944/09/02/archives/arsenic-and-old-lace-with-cary-grant-in-premiere-at-strand-youth.html |archive-date=April 8, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|1944|09|23|United States}}
| runtime = 118 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $1.2 million<!-- $1,164,000 --><ref name="warners">Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 25 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551</ref>
| gross = $4.8 million<!-- $4,784,000 --><ref name="warners"/>
}}

'''''Arsenic and Old Lace''''' is a 1944 American ] ] ] directed by ] and starring ]. The screenplay by ] and ] is based on ]'s 1941 ].{{sfn|McGilligan|1986|p=170}} The contract with the play's producers stipulated that the film would not be released until the ] run ended. The original planned release date was September 30, 1942. The play was hugely successful, running for three and a half years, so the film was not released until 1944.


'''''Arsenic and Old Lace''''' is a 1944 American ] ] directed by ], starring ], and based on ]'s play '']''. The script ] was by ] and ].<ref>McGilligan 1986, p. 170.</ref> Capra actually filmed the movie in 1941 because of star Cary Grant's availability, but it was not released until 1944, after the original stage version had finished its run on ]. The lead role of Mortimer Brewster was originally intended for ], but he could not be released from his contract with ]. Capra had also approached ] and ] before learning that Grant would accept the role. ] played Jonathan Brewster, who "looks like Karloff," on the Broadway stage, but he was unable to do the movie as well because he was still appearing in the play during filming, and ] took his place.<ref>Atkinson, Brooks. ''The New York Times,''January 11, 1941.</ref>{{#tag:ref|As stated in an episode of ''This Is Your Life'', Karloff was actually an investor and a producer of the stage play who received royalties whenever it was performed.<ref name="Nixon">Nixon, Rob. ''Turner Classic Movies.'' Retrieved: June 25, 2012.</ref>|group=N}} The film's supporting cast also features ], ], ] and ]. The lead role of Mortimer Brewster was originally intended for ], but he could not be released from his contract with ]. Capra had also approached ] and ] before learning that Grant would accept the role. On the Broadway stage, ] played Jonathan Brewster, who is said to "look like Boris Karloff". According to ], Karloff, who gave permission for the use of his name in the film, remained in the play to appease the producers, who were afraid of what stripping the play of all its primary cast would do to ticket sales.<ref name="tcm-notes">{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/577/arsenic-and-old-lace/notes.html|title=Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) – Notes|publisher=]|access-date=December 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118000219/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/577/arsenic-and-old-lace/notes.html|archive-date=January 18, 2016}}</ref> ] took Karloff's place on screen.<ref>{{cite news |last=Atkinson |first=Brooks |author-link=Brooks Atkinson |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/01/11/archives/the-play-joseph-kesselrings-arsenic-and-old-lace-turns-murder-into.html |title=The Play; Joseph Kesselring's 'Arsenic and Old Lace' Turns Murder Into Fantastic Comedy |newspaper=] |date=January 11, 1941 |access-date=December 24, 2022 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{refn|As stated in an episode of '']'', Karloff was actually an investor and a producer of the stage play who received royalties whenever it was performed.<ref name="Nixon">{{cite web |last=Nixon |first=Rob |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/577/Arsenic-and-Old-Lace/articles.html |title=The big idea behind Arsenic and Old Lace |publisher=] |access-date=June 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130426105732/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/577/Arsenic-And-Old-Lace/articles.html |archive-date=April 26, 2013}}</ref>|group=Note}} The film's supporting cast also features ], ], ], and ].


] and ] portray the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Hull and Adair, as well as ] (who played Teddy Roosevelt), were reprising their roles from the 1941 stage production.<ref> ''Turner Classic Movies.'' Retrieved: June 25, 2012.</ref> Hull and Adair both received an eight-week leave of absence from the stage production that was still running, but Karloff did not as he was an investor in the stage production and its main draw. The entire film was shot within those eight weeks. The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce.<ref>"Special feature section." ''Arsenic and Old Lace '', DVD release: 65025.1B.</ref> ] and ] portray the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Hull and Adair, as well as ] (who played Teddy Brewster), reprised their roles from the 1941 stage production.<ref name="tcm-notes"/> Hull and Adair both received an eight-week leave of absence from the stage production, which was still running, but Karloff did not, as he was an investor in the stage production and its main draw. The entire film was shot within those eight weeks. The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce.<ref>"Special feature section." ''Arsenic and Old Lace'', DVD release: 65025.1B.</ref> The cost of the filming rights was $175,000.<ref>"Film Rights $ Up and Up; Hollywood Gets Taken But Presitige Pix Pay." Billboard 55:49 (4 December 1943), 4.</ref>


==Plot== ==Plot==
The Brewster family of ], New York City, is descended from '']'' settlers. Several illustrious forebears' portraits line the walls of the ancestral home.
The plot revolves around the Brewster family, descended from the "Mayflower" and composed of illustrious ] ancestors whose portraits line the walls. The religious theme is repeatedly mentioned, and Elaine is the daughter of the minister who lives next door, with some scenes held in its ancient cemetery. Today the Brewster clan comprises insane murderers. Gunter argues that the deep theme of the film is the conflict in American history between the liberty to do anything (which the Brewsters demand), and America's bloody hidden past.<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew C. Gunter|title=The Capra Touch: A Study of the Director's Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934-1945|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XLD--w2GHrkC&pg=PA45|year=2012|publisher=McFarland|pages=49–51}}</ref>
]
Mortimer Brewster, a theater critic and author who has repeatedly denounced marriage as "an old-fashioned superstition", falls in love with Elaine Harper, his neighbor and a minister's daughter. On ] day, Mortimer and Elaine get married. Elaine goes to her father's house to share the news of her marriage with him and pack for the honeymoon, while Mortimer visits his aunts, Abby and Martha, who raised him in the old family home. Mortimer's disturbed brother, Teddy, who believes he is ], resides with them. Each time Teddy goes upstairs, he yells "Charge!" and runs up the stairs, imitating Roosevelt's famous 1898 ].


]
Despite having written several books describing marriage as an "old-fashioned superstition", Mortimer Brewster (]) falls in love with Elaine Harper (]), who grew up next door to him in ], and, on ] day, they marry. Immediately after the wedding, Mortimer visits the eccentric but lovable relatives who raised him and who still live in his old family home: his elderly aunts Abby (]) and Martha (]), and his brother Teddy (]), who believes he is ]. Each time Teddy goes upstairs, he yells "Charge!" and takes the stairs at a run, imitating Roosevelt's famous ].


Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in a ] and assumes that Teddy has committed murder under some delusion, but his aunts explain that they are responsible ("It's one of our charities"). They explain in the most innocent terms that they have developed what Mortimer calls the "very bad habit" of ending the presumed suffering of lonely old bachelors by serving them ] spiked with ], ] and "just a pinch" of ]". The bodies are buried in the basement by Teddy, who believes he is digging locks for the Panama Canal and burying ] victims. Searching for the notes for his next book, Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in the ]. He assumes in horror that Teddy's delusions have led him to murder. Abby and Martha cheerfully confess to murdering Mr. Hoskins and explain that they minister to lonely old bachelors by ending their "suffering". They post a "Room for Rent" sign to attract a victim, then serve a glass of ] spiked with ], ], and ] while getting acquainted with them. In addition to Mr. Hoskins, the aunts have murdered eleven other men; the bodies are buried in the cellar by Teddy, who believes they are ] victims who perished in the building of the ].


To complicate matters further, Mortimer's brother Jonathan (]) arrives with his alcoholic accomplice, ] Dr. Herman Einstein (]). Jonathan is a murderer trying to escape the police and find a place to dispose of the corpse of his latest victim, a certain Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan's face, as altered by Einstein while drunk, looks like ]'s in his makeup as ]. This resemblance {{#tag:ref| The reference to Karloff was originally a ] joke due to the veteran actor renown for monster roles playing the character of Jonathan Brewster on stage.<ref name="Nixon"/>|group=N}} is frequently noted, much to Jonathan's annoyance. Jonathan, upon finding out his aunts' secret, decides to bury Spenalzo in the cellar (to which Abby and Martha object vehemently, because their victims were all ''nice'' gentlemen while Mr. Spenalzo is a stranger and a "foreigner") and soon declares his intention to kill Mortimer. While Mortimer digests this information, his brother Jonathan arrives with his alcoholic accomplice, ] Dr. Herman Einstein. Jonathan is a serial murderer trying to escape from the police and dispose of his latest victim, Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan's face, altered by Einstein while drunk, resembles ]'s ] makeup.{{refn|The ] joke highlights Karloff's portrayal of the character in the Broadway production.<ref name="Nixon"/>|group=Note}} Jonathan learns his aunts' secret and proposes to bury his victim in the cellar. Abby and Martha object vehemently because their victims were "nice" gentlemen while Jonathan's victim is a stranger and a "foreigner". Jonathan also declares his intention to kill Mortimer.


Elaine is impatient to leave on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls but is concerned about Mortimer's increasingly odd behavior as he frantically attempts to control the situation. He unsuccessfully tries to alert the bumbling police to Jonathan's presence. To draw attention away from his aunts and deprive them of their willing but uncomprehending accomplice, Mortimer tries to file paperwork to have Teddy legally committed to a mental asylum. Worrying that the genetic predisposition for mental illness resides within him, Mortimer explains to Elaine that he cannot remain married to her.
While Elaine waits at her family home next door for Mortimer to take her on their honeymoon, Mortimer makes increasingly frantic attempts to stay on top of the situation, including multiple efforts to alert the bumbling local cops to the threat Jonathan poses, as well as to get the paperwork filed that will have Teddy declared legally insane and committed to a mental asylum (giving him a safe explanation for the bodies should the cops find them, and preventing his aunts from creating any more victims because they will no longer have any place to bury the bodies). He also worries that he will go insane like the rest of the Brewster family. As he puts it, "Insanity runs in my family, practically gallops!" While explaining this to Elaine, he claims they've been crazy since the first Brewsters came to America as ].


But eventually Jonathan is arrested, while Teddy is safely consigned to an asylum and the two aunts insist upon joining him. Finally, Abby and Martha inform Mortimer that he is not biologically related to the Brewsters after all: his real mother was the aunts' cook and his father had been a chef on a steamship. If he is not an upper-class Brewster then he realizes he will not become insane or a murderer. In the film's closing scene, after lustily kissing Elaine and before whisking her away to their honeymoon, he gleefully exclaims "I'm not a Brewster, I'm a son of a sea cook!"<ref> ''gbproductions.org''. Retrieved: October 24, 2009.</ref> Eventually, Jonathan is arrested. Teddy is safely consigned to an institution, and his aunts insist on joining him. Einstein flees after signing the aunts' commitment papers. Upon hearing that Mortimer signed the commitment papers as next of kin, Abby and Martha are concerned they may be null and void; they inform Mortimer that he is not a Brewster after all: his mother was the family cook and his biological father was a chef on a steamship. Relieved, he kisses Elaine and whisks her off to their honeymoon.


==Cast== ==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
{{col-begin}}{{col-break}}
* ] as Mortimer Brewster * ] as Mortimer Brewster
* ] as Elaine Harper Brewster * ] as Elaine Brewster
* ] as Aunt Abby Brewster
* ] as Aunt Martha Brewster
* ] as Jonathan Brewster * ] as Jonathan Brewster
* ] as Officer Patrick O'Hara
* ] as Mr. Witherspoon
* ] as Dr. Herman Einstein * ] as Dr. Herman Einstein
* ] as Police Lt. Rooney
* ] as Abby Brewster
* ] as Martha Brewster
* ] as "Teddy Roosevelt" Brewster * ] as "Teddy Roosevelt" Brewster
* ] as Reverend Harper
{{col-break|gap=4em}}
* ] as Officer Patrick O'Hara
* ] as Officer Sanders
* ] as Police Sgt. Brophy * ] as Police Sgt. Brophy
* ] as Police Lt. Rooney * ] as taxi cab driver
* ] as Mr. Witherspoon * ] as Officer Sanders
* ] as Judge Cullman
* ] as Reverend Harper<ref name= "credits">All credits: ''Turner Classic Movies.'' Retrieved: June 25, 2012.</ref>
* ] as Dr. Gilchrist
{{col-end}}
* ] as reporter
* ] as Mr. Gibbs, the old man
* ] as photographer at marriage license office (uncredited)
* ] as marriage license clerk (uncredited)
}}


==Background==
'''Cast notes'''
The play '']'' was written by ], son of German immigrants and a former professor at ], a pacifist ] college. It was written in the ] atmosphere of the late 1930s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sprunger |first=Keith L. |url=http://mennonitelife.bethelks.edu/2013/05/another-look-joseph-kesselring-bethel-college-and-the-origins-of-arsenic-and-old-lace/ |title=Another Look: Joseph Kesselring, Bethel College, and the Origins of ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' |website=] |date=May 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224134601/http://mennonitelife.bethelks.edu/2013/05/another-look-joseph-kesselring-bethel-college-and-the-origins-of-arsenic-and-old-lace/ |archive-date=February 24, 2014}}</ref> Capra scholar Matthew C. Gunter argues that the deep theme of both the play and film is the United States' difficulty in coming to grips with both the positive and negative consequences of the liberty it professes to uphold, and which the Brewsters demand. Although their house is the nicest in the street, there are 12 bodies in the basement. That inconsistency is a metaphor for the country's struggle to reconcile the violence of much of its past with the pervasive myths about its role as a beacon of freedom.{{sfn|Gunter|2012|pp=}}
*Veteran character actor ] appears as a photographer at City Hall trying to get a picture of Mortimer Brewster getting a marriage license at the beginning of the film.


The set used for the Brewster home in ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' was reused in the 1942 film '']''. To ensure it looked the part of a dilapidated farmhouse in the latter film, ] crews knocked out bannisters, rafters and floors on the set.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/168/George-Washington-Slept-Here/notes.html |title=George Washington Slept Here (1942) – Notes |publisher=] |access-date=December 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816184447/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/168/George-Washington-Slept-Here/notes.html |archive-date=August 16, 2016}}</ref>
==Reviews==
The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive. ''The New York Times'' critic summed up the majority view, "As a whole, ''Arsenic and Old Lace'', the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun."<ref>P.P.K. ''The New York Times'', September 2, 1944.</ref> ''Variety'' declared, "Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script. Capra's own intelligent direction rounds out."<ref> ''Variety'', December 31, 1943.</ref>


==Reception==
Twenty-four years after the film was released, ] and Joel Greenberg wrote ''Hollywood in the Forties'' where they stated that "Frank Capra provided a rather overstated and strained version of ''Arsenic and Old Lace''".<ref>Higham and Greenberg 1968, p. 161.</ref>
===Box office===
]
]
According to Warner Bros. records, the film grossed $2,836,000 domestically and $1,948,000 internationally.<ref name="warners"/>


===Critical response===
'''] recognition'''
The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive. '']'' critic summed up the majority view, "As a whole, ''Arsenic and Old Lace'', the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun."<ref name="nyt" /> '']'' declared, "Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script. Capra's own intelligent direction rounds out."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/variety155-1944-09/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Film Reviews |magazine=] |volume=155 |issue=13 |date=September 6, 1944 |page=10}}</ref> '']'' wrote: "An hilarious entertainment, it should turn out to be one of the year's top box-office attractions."<ref>{{cite magazine |date=September 2, 1944 |title='Arsenic and Old Lace' with Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre and Priscilla Lane |magazine=] |page=143}}</ref> ] of '']'' called the film "practically as funny in picture form as it did on the stage, and that is very funny indeed."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lardner |first=John |author-link=John Lardner (sportswriter) |date=September 9, 1944 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=] |page=51}}</ref>
* 2000: ] #30


Assessing the film in 1968, ] and Joel Greenberg state in ''Hollywood in the Forties'' that "Frank Capra provided a rather overstated and strained version of ''Arsenic and Old Lace''".{{sfn|Higham|Greenberg|1968|p=161}}
==Radio adaptation==
''Arsenic and Old Lace'' was adapted as a radio play for the November 25, 1946, broadcast of ] with Boris Karloff and ], and the January 25, 1948, broadcast of the ].


On the ] website ], the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arsenic_and_old_lace |title=Arsenic and Old Lace |website=] |access-date=31 August 2023}}</ref>
==See also==
* ]—nursing home owner accused of murdering elderly men in her care 1910–1917
* ]—a real murder case whose events were compared to the fictional murders in the film


The film is recognized by ] in ] ({{Abbr|No.|Number}} 30) in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |publisher=] |access-date=2016-08-05 |archive-date=2016-06-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624052741/http://afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf}}</ref>
==References==
'''Explanatory notes'''
{{reflist|group=N}}


==Radio adaptations==
'''Citations'''
''Arsenic and Old Lace'' was adapted as a half-hour radio play for the November 25, 1946, broadcast of '']'' with Boris Karloff and ].<ref>{{cite news |title=Boris Karloff to Repeat 'Arsenic' Role Monday, WHP |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3217330/harrisburg_telegraph/ |newspaper=Harrisburg Telegraph |date=November 23, 1946 |page=19 |via=]}} {{open access}}</ref> A one-hour adaptation was broadcast on January 25, 1948, on '']'', with Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander reprising their roles.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oHpIAAAAIBAJ&pg=4106%2C3341477&q=Arsenic+Lace |title=Horace Heidt's Talent Search Will Bring District Artists to Network Tonight |page=C-12 |newspaper=] |date=January 25, 1948 |via=]}}</ref>
{{Reflist|2}}


==See also==
'''Bibliography'''
* ]
{{Refbegin}}
* ]
* Capra, Frank. ''Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-306-80771-8.
* ] – a nursing home owner accused of murdering elderly men in her care 1910–1917
* {{cite book|author=Gunter, Matthew C.|title=The Capra Touch: A Study of the Director's Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934-1945|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XLD--w2GHrkC&pg=PA45|year=2012|publisher=McFarland|pages=45–51}}
* ] – a real murder case whose events were compared to the fictional murders in the film
* Higham, Charles and Joel Greenberg. ''Hollywood in the Forties''. London: A. Zwemmer Limited, 1968.

* McGilligan, Pat, ed. ''Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age.'' Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN 0-520-05689-2.
==Notes==
*{{cite book|author1=Stout, Kathryn |author2=Richard Stout|title=Movies as Literature|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M4b7qsTt8HAC&pg=PA41|year=2002|publisher=Design-A-Study|pages=41–46}}, study questions on the plot
{{reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}


===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book| last=Capra| first=Frank| author-link=Frank Capra| title=The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography| location=New York| publisher=]| year=1971| url=https://archive.org/details/nameabovetitleau00capr| url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book| last=Gunter| first=Matthew C.| title=The Capra Touch: A Study of the Director's Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934–1945| location=Jefferson, North Carolina| publisher=]| year=2012| isbn=978-0-7864-6402-9}}
* {{cite book| last1=Higham| first1=Charles| author-link1=Charles Higham (biographer)| last2=Greenberg | first2=Joel | title=Hollywood in the Forties| location=New York| publisher=]| year=1968| url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodinforti00high| url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book| editor-last=McGilligan| editor-first=Pat| title=Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age| location=Berkeley| publisher=]| year=1986| url=https://archive.org/details/backstoryintervi0000unse| url-access=registration| isbn=978-0-520-05666-4}}
* {{cite book| last1=Stout| first1=Kathryn| last2=Stout| first2=Richard| chapter=Arsenic and Old Lace| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4b7qsTt8HAC&pg=PA41| title=Movies as Literature| location=Wilmington, Delaware| publisher=Design-A-Study| year=2002| pages=41–46| isbn=978-1-891975-09-7}}
{{refend}} {{refend}}


==External links== ==External links==
{{wikiquote|Arsenic and Old Lace}} {{wikiquote|Arsenic and Old Lace}}
* {{imdb title|id=0036613|title=Arsenic and Old Lace}} * {{IMDb title}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
* {{Amg movie|id=2908|title=Arsenic and Old Lace}}
* {{AFI film}}
* {{tcmdb title|id=577|title=Arsenic and Old Lace}}
* {{TCMDb title}}
*
*
* on ]: November 25, 1946


{{Arsenic and Old Lace}}
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{{Frank Capra}}

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Latest revision as of 17:00, 21 December 2024

1944 film by Frank Capra

Arsenic and Old Lace
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Capra
Screenplay by
Based onArsenic and Old Lace
by Joseph Kesselring
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySol Polito
Edited byDaniel Mandell
Music byMax Steiner
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • September 1, 1944 (1944-09-01) (New York City)
  • September 23, 1944 (1944-09-23) (United States)
Running time118 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million
Box office$4.8 million

Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 American screwball black comedy crime film directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant. The screenplay by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein is based on Joseph Kesselring's 1941 play of the same name. The contract with the play's producers stipulated that the film would not be released until the Broadway run ended. The original planned release date was September 30, 1942. The play was hugely successful, running for three and a half years, so the film was not released until 1944.

The lead role of Mortimer Brewster was originally intended for Bob Hope, but he could not be released from his contract with Paramount Pictures. Capra had also approached Jack Benny and Richard Travis before learning that Grant would accept the role. On the Broadway stage, Boris Karloff played Jonathan Brewster, who is said to "look like Boris Karloff". According to Turner Classic Movies, Karloff, who gave permission for the use of his name in the film, remained in the play to appease the producers, who were afraid of what stripping the play of all its primary cast would do to ticket sales. Raymond Massey took Karloff's place on screen. The film's supporting cast also features Jack Carson, Priscilla Lane, Peter Lorre, and Edward Everett Horton.

Josephine Hull and Jean Adair portray the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Hull and Adair, as well as John Alexander (who played Teddy Brewster), reprised their roles from the 1941 stage production. Hull and Adair both received an eight-week leave of absence from the stage production, which was still running, but Karloff did not, as he was an investor in the stage production and its main draw. The entire film was shot within those eight weeks. The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce. The cost of the filming rights was $175,000.

Plot

The Brewster family of Brooklyn, New York City, is descended from Mayflower settlers. Several illustrious forebears' portraits line the walls of the ancestral home.

Elaine (Priscilla Lane) and Mortimer (Cary Grant) waiting for a marriage license

Mortimer Brewster, a theater critic and author who has repeatedly denounced marriage as "an old-fashioned superstition", falls in love with Elaine Harper, his neighbor and a minister's daughter. On Halloween day, Mortimer and Elaine get married. Elaine goes to her father's house to share the news of her marriage with him and pack for the honeymoon, while Mortimer visits his aunts, Abby and Martha, who raised him in the old family home. Mortimer's disturbed brother, Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, resides with them. Each time Teddy goes upstairs, he yells "Charge!" and runs up the stairs, imitating Roosevelt's famous 1898 charge up San Juan Hill.

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

Searching for the notes for his next book, Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in the window seat. He assumes in horror that Teddy's delusions have led him to murder. Abby and Martha cheerfully confess to murdering Mr. Hoskins and explain that they minister to lonely old bachelors by ending their "suffering". They post a "Room for Rent" sign to attract a victim, then serve a glass of elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide while getting acquainted with them. In addition to Mr. Hoskins, the aunts have murdered eleven other men; the bodies are buried in the cellar by Teddy, who believes they are yellow fever victims who perished in the building of the Panama Canal.

While Mortimer digests this information, his brother Jonathan arrives with his alcoholic accomplice, plastic surgeon Dr. Herman Einstein. Jonathan is a serial murderer trying to escape from the police and dispose of his latest victim, Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan's face, altered by Einstein while drunk, resembles Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster makeup. Jonathan learns his aunts' secret and proposes to bury his victim in the cellar. Abby and Martha object vehemently because their victims were "nice" gentlemen while Jonathan's victim is a stranger and a "foreigner". Jonathan also declares his intention to kill Mortimer.

Elaine is impatient to leave on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls but is concerned about Mortimer's increasingly odd behavior as he frantically attempts to control the situation. He unsuccessfully tries to alert the bumbling police to Jonathan's presence. To draw attention away from his aunts and deprive them of their willing but uncomprehending accomplice, Mortimer tries to file paperwork to have Teddy legally committed to a mental asylum. Worrying that the genetic predisposition for mental illness resides within him, Mortimer explains to Elaine that he cannot remain married to her.

Eventually, Jonathan is arrested. Teddy is safely consigned to an institution, and his aunts insist on joining him. Einstein flees after signing the aunts' commitment papers. Upon hearing that Mortimer signed the commitment papers as next of kin, Abby and Martha are concerned they may be null and void; they inform Mortimer that he is not a Brewster after all: his mother was the family cook and his biological father was a chef on a steamship. Relieved, he kisses Elaine and whisks her off to their honeymoon.

Cast

Background

The play Arsenic and Old Lace was written by Joseph Kesselring, son of German immigrants and a former professor at Bethel College, a pacifist Mennonite college. It was written in the anti-war atmosphere of the late 1930s. Capra scholar Matthew C. Gunter argues that the deep theme of both the play and film is the United States' difficulty in coming to grips with both the positive and negative consequences of the liberty it professes to uphold, and which the Brewsters demand. Although their house is the nicest in the street, there are 12 bodies in the basement. That inconsistency is a metaphor for the country's struggle to reconcile the violence of much of its past with the pervasive myths about its role as a beacon of freedom.

The set used for the Brewster home in Arsenic and Old Lace was reused in the 1942 film George Washington Slept Here. To ensure it looked the part of a dilapidated farmhouse in the latter film, Warner Bros. crews knocked out bannisters, rafters and floors on the set.

Reception

Box office

Trailer (1944)
Publicity photo of Grant and Lane

According to Warner Bros. records, the film grossed $2,836,000 domestically and $1,948,000 internationally.

Critical response

The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive. The New York Times critic summed up the majority view, "As a whole, Arsenic and Old Lace, the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun." Variety declared, "Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script. Capra's own intelligent direction rounds out." Harrison's Reports wrote: "An hilarious entertainment, it should turn out to be one of the year's top box-office attractions." John Lardner of The New Yorker called the film "practically as funny in picture form as it did on the stage, and that is very funny indeed."

Assessing the film in 1968, Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg state in Hollywood in the Forties that "Frank Capra provided a rather overstated and strained version of Arsenic and Old Lace".

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (No. 30) in 2000.

Radio adaptations

Arsenic and Old Lace was adapted as a half-hour radio play for the November 25, 1946, broadcast of The Screen Guild Theater with Boris Karloff and Eddie Albert. A one-hour adaptation was broadcast on January 25, 1948, on Ford Theatre, with Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander reprising their roles.

See also

Notes

  1. As stated in an episode of This Is Your Life, Karloff was actually an investor and a producer of the stage play who received royalties whenever it was performed.
  2. The self-referential joke highlights Karloff's portrayal of the character in the Broadway production.

References

  1. ^ "'Arsenic and Old Lace,' With Cary Grant, in Premiere at Strand – 'Youth Runs Wild' Is New Palace Theatre Feature". The New York Times. September 2, 1944. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  2. ^ Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 25 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. McGilligan 1986, p. 170.
  4. ^ "Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  5. Atkinson, Brooks (January 11, 1941). "The Play; Joseph Kesselring's 'Arsenic and Old Lace' Turns Murder Into Fantastic Comedy". The New York Times. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  6. ^ Nixon, Rob. "The big idea behind Arsenic and Old Lace". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on April 26, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  7. "Special feature section." Arsenic and Old Lace, DVD release: 65025.1B.
  8. "Film Rights $ Up and Up; Hollywood Gets Taken But Presitige Pix Pay." Billboard 55:49 (4 December 1943), 4.
  9. Sprunger, Keith L. (May 29, 2013). "Another Look: Joseph Kesselring, Bethel College, and the Origins of Arsenic and Old Lace". Mennonite Life. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014.
  10. Gunter 2012, pp. 49–51.
  11. "George Washington Slept Here (1942) – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  12. "Film Reviews". Variety. Vol. 155, no. 13. September 6, 1944. p. 10.
  13. "'Arsenic and Old Lace' with Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre and Priscilla Lane". Harrison's Reports. September 2, 1944. p. 143.
  14. Lardner, John (September 9, 1944). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p. 51.
  15. Higham & Greenberg 1968, p. 161.
  16. "Arsenic and Old Lace". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  17. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 24, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  18. "Boris Karloff to Repeat 'Arsenic' Role Monday, WHP". Harrisburg Telegraph. November 23, 1946. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  19. "Horace Heidt's Talent Search Will Bring District Artists to Network Tonight". Youngstown Vindicator. January 25, 1948. p. C-12 – via Google News Archive.

Bibliography

External links

Film adaptations of Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace
Frank Capra
Films directed
Why We Fight series
Other works
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