Though you may tire of Cary Grant's frenetic behavior and exasperated exclamations ("ow"'s and "oh dear"'s) while watching it, this is a very funny Frank Capra (produced and directed) film starring Grant as famous writer-critic Mortimer Brewster, formerly a confirmed bachelor, and his newlywed wife Priscilla Lane.It features an excellent supporting cast that includes Raymond Massey (playing the 'inside-joke' role that Boris Karloff originated on Broadway) and Peter Lorre, and Josephine Hull (known best for her Oscar winning role in Harvey (1950)) and Jean Adair. Additionally, Jack Carson, John Ridgely, Edward McNamara and James Gleason play police officers; Grant Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton and Charles Lane also appear.Just after Grant marries Lane, he discovers that his sweet ole Aunts (Hull and Adair) have been bumping off unsuspecting lonely old gentlemen with elderberry wine and burying them in their basement (!), to which he later remarks: "Insanity runs in my family ... it practically gallops."John Alexander plays another Brewster residing in the otherwise quiet (next to a cemetery) residence; convinced that he's President Teddy Roosevelt, he runs up the stairs (e.g. San Juan Hill) yelling "Charge!" every 15 minutes or so throughout the movie.Massey plays Mortimer's long lost crazed and murderous brother Jonathan; Lorre is "Johnny's" accomplice and plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein.Scripted by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein, from the successful (and long-running) stage play written by Joseph Kesselring, this comedy was completely ignored by the Academy (in part because it was released in theaters almost 3 years after it was filmed, per contract until the play had closed), though it's 30th on AFI's 100 Funniest Movies list.

Having first watched this 20 years ago, I saw this again recently on TCM at a friend's house in Katy, Texas. It's still quite hilarious seeing Cary Grant playing a character who discovers a couple of relatives doing something not quite legal with some visitors. I know he thought his performance was one of his least believable in the film but I thought he acquitted himself quite well with the rest of the cast. I also know about Boris Karloff being the originator of the role of Jonathan and his being the one who was most suitable to play it because of the in-joke of his character's resemblance to him, but Raymond Massey taking over was still pretty funny enough especially with Peter Lorre playing alongside him. Frank Capra did very well adapting this stage comedy to the screen so kudos to him for taking the assignment. Anyway, that's a high recommendation for Arsenic and Old Lace. P.S. Since I'd always like to cite when players from my favorite movie-Capra's It's a Wonderful Life-are in others, here it's Charles Lane as one of the reporters in the beginning of the movie and Gary Owen as the cab driver Grant keeps avoiding who eventually appeared in that particular classic-as the guy who says to Potter he may eventually work for George Bailey and the person who helps Bert the Cop decorate the Baileys' honeymoon suite, respectively-I always like to watch every year during December.

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.

Not the happy movie I was hoping to watch. Killing aunts, killing Jonathan, Teddy a schizophrenic thinking he is a president.. Not my cup of tea. Didn't like it! I'm sure this movie was great 50 years ago, but it did not stand the test of time. Having watched lots of movies, I find a lot of old movies surprisingly good, but this is not one of them. There were a couple good "situational" jokes, and Cary Grant did a good job.Real rating: 6.7MY RATING SYSTEM:9.4 - 10 = rating 10 ***** 8.9 - 9.3 = rating 9 ***** 8.3 - 8.8 = rating 8 ***** 7.7 - 8.2 = rating 77.0 - 7.6 = 6 6.0 - 6.9 = 5 5.0 - 5.9 = 4 4.0 - 4.9 = 3 3.0 - 3.9 = 2 1.0 - 2.9 = 1