Like a Fine Wine

It is usually quite easy to spot a film that is based on a stage play, as the movie is generally set in one, never-changing location. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and Gene Saks’ The Odd Couple are just two examples of iconic films that originally came from the stage, and the same can be said for the movie being reviewed here today – the 1944 Frank Capra black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace.

Based on playwright Joseph Kesselring’s 1939 play, Frank Capra (using the sharply written script of Julius and Philip Epstein) deftly takes us along for a ride as we follow flamboyant drama critic and famed bachelor Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), who shockingly, at the beginning of the movie, has married pretty Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). They promptly return to her home in Brooklyn, where, down the street, Mortimer’s spinster aunts also reside in a large property beside a graveyard. As we enter the house (which is where most of the action takes place) we meet the genteel women who spend their time baking, hosting the local Reverend, donating toys to policemen to distribute to the poor children of the area, and taking in poor lonesome men who have no place to go. . . then killing them. To add to the absurdity, the aunts take care of their brother, who believes himself to be President Teddy Roosevelt.

When Mortimer enters to tell his aunts the good news, he stumbles upon the body of their twelfth and latest victim. Cary Grant is in fine form; his face and eyes stretching this way and that (in a farcical style of comedic overacting) as he discovers the body, does a second take and then must deal with his aunts’ proclamation that they are doing these drifters a noble service. They continually have their brother dispose of the bodies (tricking him into thinking that the graves he is digging in their basement is the Panama Canal, as well as telling him that the bodies had Yellow Fever – clever odes to the history of the real life of President Roosevelt).

To continue with the revolving door absurdity, Mortimer’s psychotic brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey looking strikingly like Boris Karloff, yet taking offence any time someone observes the similarity – a humourous touch as the play starred Karloff) and his phony doctor, Einstein (the always enjoyable Peter Lorre), enter the house without permission. Einstein humorously compares Jonathan to his aunts when he realizes that both have killed twelve people.  As would be expected, Elaine, as well as the officers from the beginning of the film, flit in and out of the house, adding to the mayhem.

As with most legendary stage plays, this adaptation is sharp, quick, witty and entertaining. Some standout moments include Grant’s character mocking the idiocy of leading men in horror pictures, spelling out how they are easily nabbed and never witness the dangerous happenings around them, while at the same time Massey’s Jonathan is doing the exact things that he is describing. It is also enjoyable to watch the insane lengths Mortimer will go to in order to get Roosevelt committed so that he can cover up the double digit body count in the home.

The acting must be exact in this type of motion picture for it to work. Though the premise is very dark, the characters have to be light and entertaining, while bringing forth the right amount of quirkiness to make it funny – and they succeed. Grant is, as always, charming, but also does an excellent job bringing forth that fish-out-of-water vibe. There is also a feeling that his character breaks the fourth wall – glancing at the camera so that we are part of the ridiculous gags. Lane is bewitching as the pretty, doe-eyed gal. Massey and Lorre are the perfect scary duo that you would not want breaking into your house; an odd blend of creepy madness that works well together on many levels. John Alexander is excellent as the man believing he is Teddy Roosevelt. The way history is woven into his depiction is highly entertaining (at least to a history major). Aunts Abby and Martha (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) are utterly enjoyable as the women who see nothing wrong with the charitable murders they are committing. It is reminiscent of Maggie Smith’s sharp portrayal in Keeping Mum. Alexander, Hull and Adair are actually all from the original stage play – probably a huge factor as to why they are so crisp in their roles.

Arsenic and Old Lace is an unusual movie that is able to walk the dangerously fine line of doing a comedy about murders. It is both entertaining and unorthodox, something that would rarely be seen in this day and age – especially not from Hollywood. This is one of the more comedic Capra films, having less emotional weight than many of his other movies (It’s A Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) have. So, don’t be afraid of entering the house along with the rest of the cast – just make sure not to sample the wine.