#my aunt also staunchly refuses to celebrate halloween

[movieswithkevin27]

Arsenic and Old Lace

Cary Grant and director Frank Capra team up to bring Arsenic and Old Lace to the big-screen. Shot in 1941 only to get a release in 1944 due to the studio’s obligation to wait for the play to close on Broadway, Arsenic and Old Lace may lack Capra’s typical political bend and sentimental instincts but replaces it with an absolutely hysterical screwball comedy. With the comedic talents of Grant and the impeccable cast on full display, Arsenic and Old Lace is focused on a quaint old family, the Brewster’s. Nephew Mortimer (Grant) is a playwright who boasts about his status as a bachelor, only for him to go and quietly wed Elaine (Priscilla Lane). Coming over to visit his staunchly Christian aunts, Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair), Mortimer plans to celebrate until he discovers that his Aunts have a dirty secret that they seem to not be aware should actually be a secret. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy (John Alexander) is a mental patient who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt. Trying to balance the truth about his Aunts, get Teddy committed as an attempt to cover-up for his Aunts, the fact that he is now married to Elaine, and the sudden arrival of his murderous and violent brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) who is accompanied by fake doctor Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre), no one can blame Mortimer for going a bit crazy. Once police Officer Patrick O’Hara (Jack Carson) drops in, things only continue to spiral out of control. However, the only certainty is that nobody, absolutely nobody, should go down into the basement. Uproariously funny and absurd, Arsenic and Old Lace is one of Capra’s best films and a perfect embodiment of the joy his films can create.

As with many adaptations of plays, Arsenic and Old Lace often feels like a play with a very stagey atmosphere to the proceedings as characters go behind doors, disappear, and later come back a few scenes later. With much of the action set in the foyer of the home of Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha, this conveyor belt of appearances keeps the film’s staging quick and fast-paced. There are a sort of manic energy to the film that Capra really helps as he lets the action unfold rapidly with quick dialogue and constant visual gags - namely around the window seat - that allows the film’s pacing and staging to be truly in-tune and become rather infectious. For Capra, many of his film have this giddy and upbeat feeling with Arsenic and Old Lace certainly not being an exception to this and being, perhaps, one of his most upbeat films. It is a film that seems to happen at a 100 MPH, rarely taking a moment to catch its breath. The performance of Cary Grant often mirrors this pace, especially once he learns the secret about his Aunt’s. With a befuddled look on his face, a refusal to believe it, and overwhelmed by this feeling that he has to try and fix this issue, Grant races around the screen, runs around the home, sputters and squeals with his words, and seems to be everywhere at once. As a phenomenal physical comedian - as he had established in films such as Holiday - Grant is right at home with this role, while taking and blending it with his sharp and quick wit from films such as His Girl Friday to turn in one of his finest roles. A lot of this is due to how his performance works with the rest of the film’s pace and manic energy with the end result being a film that delivers a joke-a-minute. Often times, its comedy is upfront and at others it is more subtle, relying upon a witty sense of dramatic irony.

Yet, what often makes Arsenic and Old Lace so funny are the performances of Josephine Hull and Jean Adair. As a tremendously well-written work, Arsenic and Old Lace first introduces us to these elderly sisters in a conversation between Officer O’Hara and Officer Sanders (John Ridgeley). Retiring, Sanders is giving up his beat to the younger O’Hara and stops in to visit the sisters to pick up some toys for donation. Outside their home, we see a sign that says “Room for rent”, which Sanders explains is to attract wayward travelers for these two deeply Christian film to help. As they approach the door, Sanders warns O’Hara to watch his language as he would be surprised by what they find to be a curse word. It is with this that the door opens, we see the sisters, and eventually learn their dark secret later on. The way in which the film creates fantastic comedy from this absurdity - two quaint old Christian women who, on the side, kill lonely old men with arsenic in their wine as a perceived act of charity only to then have Teddy bury them in the basement (aka Panama) under the guise of the dead bodies being victims of yellow fever - is really what makes the film so effective. It goes so out of its way to establish them as these good-hearted people who would give the shirt of their back to anybody, only to then pull the rug out from under the audience and Mortimer alike. In selling this as a completely natural turn from faithful churchgoers to killers who celebrate how many bodies they have buried yet still insist on proper Christian burials for their victims, the film relies upon the performances of Hull and Adair. Together, these small powerhouses paint their actions as the work of somebody who is totally sane. In fact, to find it wrong at all is quite absurd. Gliding gently about the home with the look and dialogue of somebody’s grandmother, both Hull and Adair’s committed comedic performances allow the juxtaposition created by the script to really hit all of its comedic notes. It is absurd to see these two little women as serial killers and, yet, Hull and Adair make it seem so normal that it is hard not to believe that, well, maybe it is charitable to kill lonely old men.

Furthermore, Arsenic and Old Lace’s aforementioned great script comes into play both in the dialogue and in the progression of jokes. The dialogue features a lot of classic Golden Age Hollywood wit and zip that, as I work my way through classics, has become a defining feature of many comedies I love. Here, the wit from Julius and Philip Epstein’s script really shines through thanks to great delivery from the game cast, while also playing perfectly with the aforementioned pacing and staging installed by Capra. This is a fast-paced, heavy-hitting comedic work with the script to match this pace as jokes come fast and heavy. However, it is not just the jokes. It is also the great visual gags included in the film. As characters stumble about in the night to bury a body or as Mortimer races and checks the window seat every five seconds or as Mortimer unwittingly sets himself up to be strangled by Jonathan, Arsenic and Old Lace hits on great and consistently funny jokes that are as funny as they are due to both the marriage between the great comedic lines and the way in which the action is put together. However, one real highlight comes towards the end of the film. As the home is crowded with cops and the Brewster family, Lieutenant Rooney (James Gleason) is elated to learn that Jonathan is an escaped convict who, as his description says, looks like Boris Karloff (another great visual touch). In reading his description, Rooney looks at the description of his partner-in-crime, Dr. Einstein, who also escaped. As he does so in the background, Peter Lorre stands in the foreground and reacts to every bit of his description. For example, as Rooney says Einstein has protruding eyes, Lorre closes his eyes defeatedly. As he mentions his short stature or his German accent, Lorre slouches further. However, as Rooney comes to shake his hand and wishes him a good night, Lorre comically slinks his way out of the home in case the cops woke up and used their eyes.

Though Capra is often not known for outstanding visuals or great tricks of lighting - namely because his films are often so flush with light they practically glow - Arsenic and Old Lace often delivers some great shots and atmosphere as a result. Set on Halloween night next door to a graveyard with bodies buried in the basement, it is not hard to see where Capra is able to elicit this undercurrent of tension and mystery, but the visuals certainly help particularly once Jonathan arrives. Not only does he look like Karloff, but as Jonathan and Dr. Einstein approach the front door, Abby and Martha rush to shut off the lights inside. The end result is that all we seem of them, at first, is their shadows through the glass paneling of the door. Looming ominously in front of the door like a pair of dastardly hand-puppets, the lankiness of Jonathan and the portly-ness of Einstein creates a terrific image that serves as a great visual cue to the fact that these are not welcome guests by any stretch of the imagination. Later, as Jonathan plans to kill Mortimer in a long, slow, and painful way, Capra opts to show nothing but Jonathan’s shadow looming over the reluctant and good-hearted Einstein who pleads with Jonathan to let Mortimer love or, at least, do it quickly so that he may go to bed soon. Earlier, as the pair of Jonathan and Einstein stumble in the dark to bring in their dead body from the car or as Teddy comes up from Panama to grab the body left behind by Abby and Martha, Capra manages to cover the whole scene in darkness yet still let the audience visualize what is occurring. There is some very minimal lighting that helps this, but using the sound, the dialogue, and our knowledge of the stage design, Capra creates a scene that allows the audience to know what is happening (and keep the fact that they are carrying mannequins remain a secret) while also creating a sequence symbolic of the moment. This is murder and these are dead bodies. It is a dastardly dead. In turning off practically all of the lights and leaving the stage entirely dark, Capra creates a scene that is the antithesis to his flush-white scenes that have made him into a Hollywood legend. Visually, it creates an exact foil to what Capra is known for and perfectly captures the ominous nature of the actions that are transpiring.

Absolutely hysterical, Arsenic and Old Lace is a fast-paced, witty, beautifully written, terrifically acted, and tremendously shot film that stands as one of Frank Capra’s very best films. Though perhaps not as theme-driven or even as good-natured as many of his other films, the subtly dark Arsenic and Old Lace nonetheless delivers great screwball laughs in a film that seems capable of turning almost anything into great comedy with nearly perfect efficiency. It is a film that tosses a lot at the wall with nearly all of it sticking, which is perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments a comedy can have. Truly one of the finest films from a legend and from the tremendous collection of stars in front of the camera.

#1944 movies #1940s movies #arsenic and old lace #film reviews #film analysis #movie reviews #frank capra #cary grant #priscilla lane #josephine hull #jean adair #raymond massey #peter lorre #jack carson #john ridgeley #john alexander