And it doesn't even gallop, it's like roadrunner's running style. Indeed, this is one of the craziest movies you'll ever experience, even by today's standards. Yet it is so confident in its material that it embraces it with wide open arms and squeeze the most out of it… sometimes a little more than needed.Roger Ebert said that no good film is too long, no bad film is short enough, but I think there should be an exception with screwball comedies, because they're fast-paced and rely on plots that are the densest in terms of twists and situations' reversals, so that eighty non-stop comedic minutes have the same two-hour feel than thrillers. "Arsenic and Old Lace" would have benefited from a wiser editing, and Cary Grant's performance should have taken a significant part of it. The star himself disliked his performance saying it was too over-the-top, and "Casablanca" writers Epstein brothers, who adapted the play, expressed similar concerns.Director Capra agreed to make a few changes but the call of World War II left the initial production unaltered and some notable irony in Grant's acting as Mortimer Brewster: the straight-man of perhaps the most lunatic movie family ever being no less lunatic in his own reactions. His two aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) have discovered an unorthodox way for euthanizing old and lonely men: some glasses of wine mixed with arsenic, strychnine and a pinch of cyanide. It's less the fact that they just 'relieved' their twelfth victim from the burden of life that is funny in its wicked way but their total obliviousness to it, and this is where Grant's acting doesn't match the actresses' performances.The two aunts are funny because they are exactly as you would expect two old ladies to behave: sweet, smiling and cheerful, thus contributing to the funniest running-gag when no one, not even cops, believe they really buried corpses in the cellar. Someone acting ridiculously isn't funny, but someone being ridiculous in all seriousness can be. So while the aunts play their part with the perfect dose of nuance, cluelessness and a pinch of detachment, Grant's reactions when he discovers the corpse, learns about their actions, tries to reason them or to get his newlywed wife Elaine (Priscilla Lane) out of the house, are so over-the-top that they undermine the plot's credibility.What can be so credible about two old ladies who kill men and get away with it? Well, even the zaniest screwball classics had order within their chaotic story-line. "Arsenic and Old Lace" follows a clear plot line, Grant must prove that the acts of killings are from his crazy brother who pretends he's Teddy Roosevelt, so he has to keep the lowest profile. Yet his hysteria has side-effects and raises more suspicion and troubles than his brother's antics and aunts' behavior. In the end, he's as crazy as everyone else, one can blame it on the shock but he never feels like recovering from it and plays Mortimer Brewster in the same note. Now, is he funny? Yes, even hilarious. On its own, Cary Grant is unforgettable with all his screams, charges, howls and mimics to the camera, Grant really takes you off-guard and proves that he has the comical timing of the greats. It is just that he's not in-line with the other performers. And what was just a feeling in the beginning was confirmed when the two villains made their entrance: Raymond Massey as brother Jonathan and Boris Karloff's lookalike (another funny leitmotif) and his diminutive companion, Dr. Einstein, played by Peter Lorre). In the scene where the two men discover the macabre truth about the cellar, they don't overreact, but they simply compare their tallies and have a similar argument about one who didn't technically die by being killed till 'Johnny' points out that if the ill-fated man hasn't been shot, he wouldn't have died of that pneumonia.So, I'm torn between two attitudes when it comes to Grant's over(re)acting. I love to think that Mortimer wouldn't be so "crazy" if he wasn't surrounded by such crazy people, and his attitude is precisely the one of a sane person, but I'm pretty sure there was a way to tone it down. His character wasn't far from his Dr. Huxley from "Bringing up Baby" who also had a lot to deal with, and Huxley had an interesting line, he said he felt some attraction toward Hepburn's Susan during quiet moments, but there were no quiet moments. I wish Brewster went into quieter phases and not just when he was gagged.Now, the film had all the ingredients to the perfect screwball classic, using every kind of humor, and some great meta-referential jokes, exploring the profession of Brewster as a critic, it just tried to be too funny for its own good while a little less would've been better. But I'm being too harsh on the film; overall, I think it's a very nice moment you spend watching it, its length doesn't ruin the enjoyment and it has aged well, like a good wine... without any lethal addition of course.

The stage roots of "Arsenic and Old Lace" are clearly visible in the film, but Frank Capra does a good job of expanding some of the action beyond the interior of the Brewster home, where the two spinster sisters, Abby and Martha, reside with Teddy, who thinks he is President Roosevelt. The format is a farce, complete with surprises, misunderstandings, and timely entrances, mostly through the front door. But this unusual comedy set on Halloween evening is much more.Though others reviewers may reveal twists and the writers' intentions, I will only say that this is an unusual comedy that is appropriately called "dark".Cary Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, nephew of the two elderly sisters. When the film opens, he has just--unexpectedly--married Elaine Harper (glowingly played by Priscilla Lane). The couple drops by the house to announce their big news and gather their belongings for a honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls. But circumstances derail their plans and what ensues is a night of absurd hilarity.The supporting cast is wonderful and wonderfully recognizable. Frank Capra may have directed some of them to play their parts over the top, but the wacky spirit of the story shines through. This is a comedy classic.

I saw this play in the theater years ago and thought it was a masterpiece.The cast of this movie is first-rate, and includes many of my favorite actors.Frank Capra is one of my favorite directors, in both comedy - *You Can't Take It with You* - and drama - *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*, etc.Why, then, did this movie seem so flat to me? Cary Grant, whom I have enjoyed in many comedies, seems to ham it up far out of all proportion.The timing often seems bad.And nothing explains how Mortimer, on his wedding day, can completely forget about his attractive bride - in an era when the audience could well have assumed that they had not already spent the night together.I watched this whole movie - at 118 minutes, it's long for a comedy - in the hopes that something would work for me. It just didn't.I must have been in the wrong mood, but I was really in a very good mood.

I'm not going to go overboard here because there really is no reason to; otherwise I'd be repeating most everybody's reviews on here. It truly is a funny movie. Not one joke or gag has died over the years. The acting is wonderful, from the two old ladies (reprising their roles from the Broadway play) to (of course) Cary Grant (whether he thinks so or not). This movie is simply a masterly-structured comedy and the way it's set up it practically does feel like a filmed play (but with occasional brief scene changes and that wacky baseball game at the beginning). Anyway, I highly recommend it. I made my high school creative writing teacher show this film to our class and everybody loved it. This film truly goes to show how well a movie can hold up.....except for that lawn jockey. Besides that, it feels like it can very well be present-day.