It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

From my favorite movies..

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Amazing...amazing...amazing movie. Terrific story-telling, each dialogue delivered to perfection, superb acting, laced with arsenic-humor. I have never seen any better-crafted humor film. Capra at his frenetic best. And almost everything happens inside a sitting-room. Yet the pace never slackens; there is not a single dull moment. Even if it is a theatrical adaptation of a very successful play, Capra nails it perfectly. I have seen it how many times now...don't remember...but must have crossed twenty times at least!! I would like to watch it at least once every year till I die...it is that good!

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944): Dir: Frank Capra / Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey: Overrated piece of junk that looks like something Frank Capra shat out of his ass after having made worthy films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It Happened One Night. Well, what happened one night is this sh*t was conjured up and labeled as a classic. It stars Cary Grant who goes hopelessly over the top as a newly wed whose two nut job aunts mercy kill lonely men by poisoning their wine. Grant discovers a body in the window seat that Capra was too cheap to actually show the audience because apparently this garbage is a comedy. Apparently everyone in this house belongs in an insane asylum. His brother thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt and yells, "Charge!" He barges up the stairs about fifty times to the point where a well placed trap door would have been appreciated. Then we have Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre as villains who resemble Frankenstein and Igor in performances best left on the cutting room floor. The worst scene has Grant tied to a chair while some half wit cop fails to see the obvious, and this goes on and on until the viewer goes as mad as the characters. Pointless drivel with production values that resemble a cheap stage play and characters that are complete morons. This film should be laced with gasoline and a match. Score: 1 / 10

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'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.