Arsenic and Old Lace
According to "Dear Boris" biographer Cynthia Lindsay, Josephine Hull and Jean Adair went to their graves believing that Boris Karloff had been so saintly as to agree to let them go to Hollywood to make this film while he stayed on Broadway doing the play. Nothing could have been further from the truth: Karloff was very angry and disappointed that he was the only cast member not allowed out of his contract to do the film.,The movie opens with the Brooklyn Dodgers winning a baseball game on Halloween, weeks after the end of baseball season. This is a gag to suggest that the only time the Brooklyn Dodgers could win is on Halloween, similar to saying when pigs fly.,Mortimer Brewster: Look I probably should have told you this before but you see... well... insanity runs in my family...
[he hears Abby and Martha singing]
Mortimer Brewster: It practically gallops.,This is a Hallowe'en tale of Brooklyn, where anything can happen -- and it usually does. At 3 P.M. on this particular day, this was happening. [Scene of Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees baseball game, irate fans and brouhaha between teams on the field, then...] While at the same time across the river in the UNITED STATES PROPER there was romance in the air. [Scene of cruise ship on the river with NY City skyline in the background, then...] And now, back to one of Brooklyn's most charming residential districts -- [Scene of old gabled Brewster house next to a cemetery, then...] -- From here on you're on your own.,Also available in a computer colorized version.,Featured in The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970),There Is a Happy Land
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard P. Breedlove
Arranged by Max Steiner
[quoted in score],Arsenic and Old Lace, the tale of two spinster ladies who innocently decide to kill single lonely old men to `put them out of their misery' is an absolute comedy classic. There is not one character in this film that doesn't illicit at least a few laughs throughout the film. Cary Grant once again displays his comedic chops and plays the role of the nephew brilliantly. His two brothers are also hilarious, one who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt and the other who `bears a strange resemblance to Boris Karloff'. It is sheer brilliance when actors expand from their usual genre, so Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre's performances are a sheer delight.

This is one of those films that everyone should see once in their lifetime. Not for its profundity or for its message, but because it is a diagram for how comedies should play out.

--Shelly,