Arsenic And Old Lace

For our next Masters of Hollywood film we revisit the 1944 classic black comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Grant.

I have a vague memory of seeing this film before on television but could not remember many details. I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was. The comedy is very broad and is backed up by an excellent story. I am a big fan of black comedies and this one revels in the idea of two sweet old ladies killing old men. It is only the backbone to the real story of a man finding out about his family history. Many films like to milk the idea of someone hiding something from someone else and this film certainly does that. It is mostly physical comedy that drives the film and it is really funny stuff. This is where the films funniest moments come from and are truly hilarious. My only one complaint is that the second half of the film dragged a bit. I think it could have been edited a bit to make it a bit more tighter. While not necessarily a complaint the film does suffer from being an adaptation of a play. It was filmed all in a studio and so did not look very dynamic. But it does not diminish from the comedy.

Cary Grant is certainly an excellent actor. I'm ashamed to say that I have not seen many of his films but I hope to see more soon. As mentioned above there is lots of physical comedy which comes mostly from Grant as he tries to hide his aunts secret. He is not above throwing himself around in the pursuit of a laugh. Something I really admire in an actor. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair make a wonderful pair of old ladies with a deadly secret. The naive nature makes them more sweet and endearing than homicidal. Raymond Massey is excellent as Mortimer's demented brother. A running joke in the film is that everyone mistakes him for Boris Karloff. I thought at first that perhaps it was Boris Karloff. He is wonderfully creepy in a comedic way. His excellent partner in crime is the naturally creepy Peter Lorre. He makes for a good side-kick. In a little bit of trivia: when I first saw the film the voice of Mr. Witherspoon sounded very familiar. Checking the credits I found it was Edward Everett Horton who played that role. He was the narrator of the 'Fractured Fairytales' in one of my all time favourite TV series 'Rocky And Bullwinkle'.

I'm really surprised that no one has tried to remake this film yet. Maybe it is one of those classics that no one is brave enough to update. Well we can admire and laugh ourselves silly at this brilliant comedy.