SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

A lot of fun.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Two seemingly sweet little old ladies bump off their lonely male lodgers much to the horror and surprise of their newlywed nephew Mortimer (Cary Grant).What I had hoped would be a charming American comedy classic turns out to be amongst the most tortuous two hours of cinema I have ever sat through. Directed by Frank Capra, the film stars Cary Grant as Mortimer, a writer renowned for his anti-marriage diatribes, who has just done the unthinkable and got hitched to beautiful blonde Elaine (Priscilla Lane). But before Mortimer can leave with his wife for their honeymoon, his discovery of a dead body at his aunts' Brooklyn home throws him into disarray.With zero concern for subtlety from either Capra or his star, Arsenic and Old Lace is a loud, repetitive, drawn-out exercise in absolute tedium, the plot going round and round in circles until the viewer is finally put out of their misery with a really dumb ending. Grant over-acts like his life depends upon it, mugging and doing double takes whenever possible, as though this is all that is needed to drum up laughs; it isn't. The majority of the supporting cast are just as insufferable: the guy who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt really grates, the old ladies are far from endearing, Raymond Massey (as Mortimer's escaped criminal brother Jonathan) glares a lot, and Peter Lorre merely plays a caricature of himself.Somehow this movie has earned itself a solid reputation and a high IMDb rating (8.0), which confuses me just as much as It's a Wonderful Life's place at #25 in IMDb's Top Rated Movies. What is it that others see in Capra's films that I don't?

There obviously was something alluring about Boris Karloff that film makers took advantage of. He's referenced by name in at least two other movies I'm aware of - "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" (1947) and "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (1936) - and he's actually in both of those! Unfortunately he wasn't available to appear in this picture, but Raymond Massey's makeup job was pretty credible; the fist thing I thought of when I saw him was Boris Karloff! Director Frank Capra had a wonderful touch for his screwball comedy projects. Though viewers will find favorable comparisons to other Cary Grant films like "His Gal Friday" and "Bringing Up Baby", the picture I thought of while watching this was another Capra picture, "You Can't Take it With You". That one also featured a dysfunctional family, though with a larger and more disparate cast, and fortunately, no one gets murdered!What gives this story it's surreal comic edge is the vitality of the Brewer Sisters (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair), whose approach to putting elderly gents out of their misery is handled with genuine nonchalance and sincerity. As Mortimer Brewster, Grant has all he can do to maintain some semblance of sanity with all the lunacy surrounding him and his new bride. The only downside to the story for me was the short shrift given to the character of the new Mrs. Brewster (Priscilla Lane). Had her part been written to take advantage of the hysteria surrounding the Brewster household, I think audiences might have appreciated it even more.Even so, repeat viewings are probably in order to fully appreciate the zany antics of 'Teddy Roosevelt' (John Alexander), Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre), Officer O'Hara (Jack Carson) and all the rest. For his part, Cary Grant was never more expressive than he was here, with each new turn of the story dealing yet another blow to his fractured psyche. His best scene for me was when he simply gave up the pretense of being surprised any more, and just sat down on the staircase with all the mayhem swirling around him while peacefully lighting up a cigarette - "Amazing, amazing, amazing".

Over a drinking conversation, a friend asked me what was the darkest film ever made. Instinctively, I said Arsenic and Old Lace - a film I hadn't seen in over twenty years. My friend had never seen the film, and asked general questions about it. When I told him that it was a Frank Capra film he seemed incredulous. I guess he couldn't peg the director of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington with making a dark film.To tell the truth, neither could I - not on recall alone. That weekend, I plopped a borrowed copy into my DVD player, and watched the film again. After the first reel, which now seemed plodding, it all rushed back to me why this film was dark: It seemed that Mr. Capra had lost his naïveté, and filmed why he lost it.Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) is a famed drama critic for a New York paper. But mostly, he is known for his stance against marriage and the many books he has written mocking the institution. One Halloween, in which the Brooklyn Dodgers get into a real row of a fight, Mortimer and the love of his life - the girl next door, Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) - get married. Mortimer, fearing the deluge of negative comments of the famed bachelor tying the knot, brings Elaine by their folks' houses to announce their marriage before they sail away for a two-month voyage. It is here where Mortimer's life falls off the cliff. When he tells the kindly old Aunts that raised him, Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair) Brewster, the news, he discovers that the nicest people in Brooklyn have been putting arsenic in their homemade elderberry wine, and knocking off lonely old gentlemen. The news gets worse. It seems that Mortimer has repressed memories of the violence that was done to him by his brother, Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey), when he was a child. Plus, there is the delusional uncle who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt. In all, after a half-hour, Mortimer now fears for Elaine's safety, for he believes he is as loony as the rest of the Brewsters.By the way, this is a comedy. It was adapted from a hit Broadway play starring Mr. Frankenstein himself, Boris Karloff. He actually was supposed to be in the movie also, but couldn't leave the play. Frank Capra directed Arsenic and Old Lace in the genre of the screwball comedies of the thirties. He shot it five months after the play premiered. He had previous success in the field of screwball comedies with It Happened One Night. Old Lace also could be considered a film noir piece with the abundant nighttime location shoots, and very dark interiors. The Brewster house provided for very ominous, long shadows. But if this was a noir film - I say it is - then it would be Capra's first. And the question would be "Why"?It was an obvious choice to cast Cary Grant, who had drawn crowds to several screwball comedies since his first screen role in She Done Him Wrong. In every one of these genre roles, he played the straight, sane one - the one who gets more insane as the plot progresses. (Of particular note, in later years, Grant held a very low opinion of both She Done Him Wrong and Arsenic and Old Lace. He found She Done Him Wrong and Mae West to be too sexual. And he found Arsenic and Old Lace to be too dark and cynical.) At the time of the play's release, America was in the beginnings of WWII. And maybe dark themes were all that could be tolerated by an entertainment seeking public. It and Sweeny Todd are definitely the darkest of the light theatrical subjects. And strangely enough both plays were released around American wars. Maybe funny comedies had to show a dark sense of humor. Or light musicals for that matter had to explore horror. Unlike Sweeny Todd the movie, Arsenic and Old Lace was a hit - mainly because it was shot within months after it opened, and released soon after it closed. By that time Europe was close to D-Day.

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.