Wikipedia

Arsenic and Old Lace(film)

Arsenic and Old Laceis a 1944 Americanscrewballblack comedycrime filmdirected byFrank Capraand starringCary Grant.The screenplay byJulius J. EpsteinandPhilip G. Epsteinis based onJoseph Kesselring's 1941play of the same name.[3]The contract with the play's producers stipulated that the film would not be released until theBroadwayrun ended. The original planned release date was September 30, 1942. The play was hugely successful, running for three and a half years, so the film was not released until 1944.

Arsenic and Old Lace
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Capra
Screenplay by
Based onArsenic and Old Lace
byJoseph Kesselring
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySol Polito
Edited byDaniel Mandell
Music byMax Steiner
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • September 1, 1944(1944-09-01)(New York City)[1]
  • September 23, 1944(1944-09-23)(United States)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million[2]
Box office$4.8 million[2]

The lead role of Mortimer Brewster was originally intended forBob Hope,but he could not be released from his contract withParamount Pictures.Capra had also approachedJack BennyandRichard Travisbefore learning that Grant would accept the role. On the Broadway stage,Boris Karloffplayed Jonathan Brewster, who is said to "look like Boris Karloff". According toTurner Classic Movies,Karloff, who gave permission for the use of his name in the film, remained in the play to appease the producers, who were afraid of what stripping the play of all its primary cast would do to ticket sales.[4]Raymond Masseytook Karloff's place on screen.[5][Note 1]The film's supporting cast also featuresJack Carson,Priscilla Lane,Peter Lorre,andEdward Everett Horton.

Josephine HullandJean Adairportray the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Hull and Adair, as well asJohn Alexander(who played Teddy Brewster), reprised their roles from the 1941 stage production.[4]Hull and Adair both received an eight-week leave of absence from the stage production, which was still running, but Karloff did not, as he was an investor in the stage production and its main draw. The entire film was shot within those eight weeks. The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce.[7]The cost of the filming rights was $175,000.[8]

Plot

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The Brewster family ofBrooklyn,New York City, is descended fromMayflowersettlers. Several illustrious forebears' portraits line the walls of the ancestral home.

Elaine (Priscilla Lane) and Mortimer (Cary Grant) waiting for a marriage license

Mortimer Brewster, a theater critic and author who has repeatedly denounced marriage as "an old-fashioned superstition", falls in love with Elaine Harper, his neighbor and a minister's daughter. OnHalloweenday, Mortimer and Elaine get married. Elaine goes to her father's house to share the news of her marriage with him and pack for the honeymoon, while Mortimer visits his aunts, Abby and Martha, who raised him in the old family home. Mortimer's disturbed brother, Teddy, who believes he isTheodore Roosevelt,resides with them. Each time Teddy goes upstairs, he yells "Charge!" and runs up the stairs, imitating Roosevelt's famous 1898charge up San Juan Hill.

Jean Adair, Josephine Hull, and Cary Grant inArsenic and Old Lace

Searching for the notes for his next book, Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in thewindow seat.He assumes in horror that Teddy's delusions have led him to murder. Abby and Martha cheerfully confess to murdering Mr. Hoskins and explain that they minister to lonely old bachelors by ending their "suffering". They post a "Room for Rent" sign to attract a victim, then serve a glass ofelderberry winespiked witharsenic,strychnine,andcyanidewhile getting acquainted with them. In addition to Mr. Hoskins, the aunts have murdered eleven other men; the bodies are buried in the cellar by Teddy, who believes they areyellow fevervictims who perished in the building of thePanama Canal.

While Mortimer digests this information, his brother Jonathan arrives with his alcoholic accomplice,plastic surgeonDr. Herman Einstein. Jonathan is a serial murderer trying to escape from the police and dispose of his latest victim, Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan's face, altered by Einstein while drunk, resemblesBoris Karloff'sFrankenstein monstermakeup.[Note 2]Jonathan learns his aunts' secret and proposes to bury his victim in the cellar. Abby and Martha object vehemently because their victims were "nice" gentlemen while Jonathan's victim is a stranger and a "foreigner". Jonathan also declares his intention to kill Mortimer.

Elaine is impatient to leave on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls but is concerned about Mortimer's increasingly odd behavior as he frantically attempts to control the situation. He unsuccessfully tries to alert the bumbling police to Jonathan's presence. To draw attention away from his aunts and deprive them of their willing but uncomprehending accomplice, Mortimer tries to file paperwork to have Teddy legally committed to a mental asylum. Worrying that the genetic predisposition for mental illness resides within him, Mortimer explains to Elaine that he cannot remain married to her.

Eventually, Jonathan is arrested, Einstein flees after signing Teddy's commitment papers, Teddy is safely consigned to an institution, and his aunts insist on joining him. Upon hearing that Mortimer signed the commitment papers as next of kin, Abby and Martha are concerned they may be null and void; they inform Mortimer that he is not a Brewster after all: his mother was the family cook and his father was a chef on a steamship. Relieved, he kisses Elaine and whisks her off to their honeymoon.

Cast

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Background

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The playArsenic and Old Lacewas written byJoseph Kesselring,son of German immigrants and a former professor atBethel College,a pacifistMennonitecollege. It was written in theanti-waratmosphere of the late 1930s.[9]Capra scholar Matthew C. Gunter argues that the deep theme of both the play and film is the United States' difficulty in coming to grips with both the positive and negative consequences of the liberty it professes to uphold, and which the Brewsters demand. Although their house is the nicest in the street, there are 12 bodies in the basement. That inconsistency is a metaphor for the country's struggle to reconcile the violence of much of its past with the pervasive myths about its role as a beacon of freedom.[10]

The set used for the Brewster home inArsenic and Old Lacewas reused in the 1942 filmGeorge Washington Slept Here.To ensure it looked the part of a dilapidated farmhouse in the latter film,Warner Bros.crews knocked out bannisters, rafters and floors on the set.[11]

Reception

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Box office

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Trailer (1944)
Publicity photo of Grant and Lane

According to Warner Bros. records, the film grossed $2,836,000 domestically and $1,948,000 internationally.[2]

Critical response

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The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive.The New York Timescritic summed up the majority view, "As a whole,Arsenic and Old Lace,the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun. "[1]Varietydeclared, "Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script. Capra's own intelligent direction rounds out."[12]Harrison's Reportswrote: "An hilarious entertainment, it should turn out to be one of the year's top box-office attractions."[13]John LardnerofThe New Yorkercalled the film "practically as funny in picture form as it did on the stage, and that is very funny indeed."[14]

Assessing the film in 1968,Charles Highamand Joel Greenberg state inHollywood in the Fortiesthat "Frank Capra provided a rather overstated and strained version ofArsenic and Old Lace".[15]

On thereview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes,the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.[16]

The film is recognized byAmerican Film InstituteinAFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs(No.30) in 2000.[17]

Radio adaptations

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Arsenic and Old Lacewas adapted as a half-hour radio play for the November 25, 1946, broadcast ofThe Screen Guild Theaterwith Boris Karloff andEddie Albert.[18]A one-hour adaptation was broadcast on January 25, 1948, onFord Theatre,with Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander reprising their roles.[19]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^As stated in an episode ofThis Is Your Life,Karloff was actually an investor and a producer of the stage play who received royalties whenever it was performed.[6]
  2. ^Theself-referentialjoke highlights Karloff's portrayal of the character in the Broadway production.[6]

References

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  1. ^ab"'Arsenic and Old Lace,' With Cary Grant, in Premiere at Strand – 'Youth Runs Wild' Is New Palace Theatre Feature ".The New York Times.September 2, 1944.Archivedfrom the original on April 8, 2019.RetrievedJuly 22,2020.
  2. ^abcWarner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 25 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. ^McGilligan 1986,p. 170.
  4. ^ab"Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) – Notes".Turner Classic Movies.Archived fromthe originalon January 18, 2016.RetrievedDecember 24,2022.
  5. ^Atkinson, Brooks(January 11, 1941)."The Play; Joseph Kesselring's 'Arsenic and Old Lace' Turns Murder Into Fantastic Comedy".The New York Times.RetrievedDecember 24,2022.
  6. ^abNixon, Rob."The big idea behind Arsenic and Old Lace".Turner Classic Movies.Archived fromthe originalon April 26, 2013.RetrievedJune 25,2012.
  7. ^"Special feature section."Arsenic and Old Lace,DVD release: 65025.1B.
  8. ^"Film Rights $ Up and Up; Hollywood Gets Taken But Presitige Pix Pay." Billboard 55:49 (4 December 1943), 4.
  9. ^Sprunger, Keith L. (May 29, 2013)."Another Look: Joseph Kesselring, Bethel College, and the Origins ofArsenic and Old Lace".Mennonite Life.Archived fromthe originalon February 24, 2014.
  10. ^Gunter 2012,pp.49–51.
  11. ^"George Washington Slept Here (1942) – Notes".Turner Classic Movies.Archived fromthe originalon August 16, 2016.RetrievedDecember 24,2022.
  12. ^"Film Reviews".Variety.Vol. 155, no. 13. September 6, 1944. p. 10.
  13. ^"'Arsenic and Old Lace' with Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre and Priscilla Lane ".Harrison's Reports.September 2, 1944. p. 143.
  14. ^Lardner, John(September 9, 1944). "The Current Cinema".The New Yorker.p. 51.
  15. ^Higham & Greenberg 1968,p. 161.
  16. ^"Arsenic and Old Lace".Rotten Tomatoes.RetrievedAugust 31,2023.
  17. ^"AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs"(PDF).American Film Institute.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 24, 2016.RetrievedAugust 5,2016.
  18. ^"Boris Karloff to Repeat 'Arsenic' Role Monday, WHP".Harrisburg Telegraph.November 23, 1946. p. 19 – viaNewspapers.com.
  19. ^"Horace Heidt's Talent Search Will Bring District Artists to Network Tonight".Youngstown Vindicator.January 25, 1948. p. C-12 – viaGoogle News Archive.

Bibliography

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