Classic 40s Movie: “Arsenic and Old Lace”

September is Classic 40s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Gisela Werhl.

Movie Title: Arsenic and Old Lace

Year: 1944

Writers: Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein based on the play by Joseph Kesselring

Lead Actors: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Josephine Hull

Director: Frank Capra

IMDb Plot Summary: A drama critic (Mortimer Brewster, played by Cary Grant) learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 40s Movie

Cary Grant is for me the face of the 1930s and 40s. Despite he totally disliked himself in „Arsenic and Old Lace“ because he thought himself over-acting there I love his face freezing and freezing again over the next shocking information about his family and his mixture of laconic shock and hysteric rotating.

It‘s one of five to ten movies I‘ve seen dozen of times. Thinking of the title I hear my mother giggling and being not able to stop it. It definitely gave me a passion for dark comedy (just mentioning Fargo or In Order of Disappearance here) and perhaps the believe that even with monsters you could have a happy-ending (though it unfortunately don‘t work for world politics).

The setting is totally middle-class, a nice neighborhood, not like this more extreme milieus in Film Noir. For me (not being an American) the suburbs of the 40s had the spirit of the nice, cozy side of the Brewster-Sisters giving the children Halloween stuff, cooking soup for the policeman‘s wife and making their elderberry wine themselves. The elderberry wine, where they put “a teaspoonful of arsenic, then add half a teaspoonful of strychnine. And then, just a pinch of cyanide“. Normality and madness are sometimes just right down the cellar, where they bury their 12 victims.

Capra enlisted for the U. S. Army Signal Corps during filming in 1941, he asked for a six-week leave of absence to finish the film. It was released while World War II was still going on. Though it‘s not about WW II or Nazi-Germany (like Chaplin‘s The Great Dictator) by showing normality and madness so close together the movie still reflects the time.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie

The other lunatic in the family is Mortimer‘s brother Jonathan who already showed sadistic behavior in his childhood.

When we already know that Jonathan wants to kill Mortimer, Jonathan‘s helper and plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein tries to warn Mortimer. But Mortimer doesn‘t want to hear!

With an arrogant attitude he treats his wanna-be savior like an annoying insect and don‘t follow his advice to leave the house. To emphasize how smart he is Mortimer describes a play he saw on Broadway: The protagonist is as a „big dope“ as Mortimer will show to be, which leads to the dialogue:

MORTIMER: Now, he knows he’s in the house with murderers. So he ought to know he’s in danger. He’s even been warned to get out of the house. And does he go?
EINSTEIN: Yes.
MORTIMER: No, he doesn’t.

Mortimer describes the hole scene and inspires his brother Jonathan to tie him up with the curtain cord — as in the play.

Here is the scene:

I like the scene playing around with self-reference about good and bad writing. It also refers to self-fulfilling-prophesy.

And it‘s an excellent example for a high-low status constellation (Keith Johnstone‘s „Impro“): Mortimer behaves like if he is the smart guy, the moral guy, but despite behaving like a mouse Dr. Einstein is the smart and upright man there. He takes the risk, that Jonathan could find out about his betrayal, and that makes his deed upright tough he might just have tried to avoid a long slaughtering ceremony.

Later on the police sergeant — an aspiring play writer himself — is happy to find the critic Mortimer tied up so he can pitch him his play without interruption. He is so eager to make art that he forgets his profession being a police-officer and reading clear hints pointing to crimes.

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie

EINSTEIN: You got twelve, they got twelve.

[angrily grabs Dr. Einstein’s necktie]

JONATHAN BREWSTER: I’ve got thirteen!
EINSTEIN: No, Johnny, twelve — don’t brag.
JONATHAN BREWSTER: Thirteen! There’s Mr. Spinalzo and the first one in London, two in Johannesburg, one in Sydney, one in Melbourne, two in San Francisco, one in Phoenix, Arizona…
EINSTEIN: Phoenix?
JONATHAN BREWSTER: The filling station…
EINSTEIN: Filling station? Oh!

[slits throat]

EINSTEIN: Yes.
JONATHAN BREWSTER: Then three in Chicago and one in South Bend. That makes thirteen.
EINSTEIN: You cannot count the one in South Bend. He died of pneumonia!
JONATHAN BREWSTER: He wouldn’t have died of pneumonia if I hadn’t shot him!
EINSTEIN: No, no, Johnny. You cannot count him. You got twelve, they got twelve. The old ladies is just as good as you are!

You want to hold Dr. Einstein’s mouth to stop him going on praising the aunt because you know that Jonathan never will stay behind.

Here is the scene:

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie

Timing

In addition to the genre dark comedy „Arsenic and Old Lace“ is also an example of a Screwball Comedy. The timing fits perfect not just concerning the dialogue but also the appearance of the different characters. And every-time when Mortimer has some seconds to breath his newly married wife whistles, the signal for their departure to the Niagara falls, their honeymoon.

Low-Key-Effects

Most of the time Capra stays within one room, the Brewster sister‘s living-room. The camera uses it for great shadow play.

What is madness?

Mortimer gets more and more the feeling that he will get as mad as his hole family. And he acts more and more madly. All the people around him feels it: his wife, his crazy aunts, the taxi-driver. When Mortimer tries to redirect the police from the bodies in the cellar he copies his brother Teddy (who believes to be Teddy Roosevelt) — he storms the stairway and blows the trumpet. And mad Teddy flips him the bird.

Thanks, Gisela! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 50s movies, 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 40s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got 30 movies in the works, one for each day of the month!

Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can!!!

Act of Violence — Eric Rodriguez
Arsenic and Old Lace — Gisela Wehrl
Bicycle Thieves — Megaen Kelly
Brief Encounter — Emily Bonkoski
Casablanca — Paul Graunke
Double Indemnity — Susan Winchell
Five Graves to Cairo — Jeff Gibson
Foreign Correspondent — Doc Kane
Here Comes Mr. Jordan — Izabela Kline
His Girl Friday — John Henderson
It’s a Wonderful Life — David Laudenslager
Key Largo — Will King
Laura — Melinda Mahaffey Icden
Les enfants du paradis — Brendan Howley
Mrs. Miniver — Traci Nell Peterson
Notorious — Christine Henton
Now Voyager — Melissa Privette
Out of the Past — Brantley Aufill
Rope — Lance Morgan
The Bank Dick — Bob Saenz
The Best Years of Their Lives — Shaun Parker
The Big Sleep — Ipsita Barik
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir — Annie Wood
The Long Voyage Home — Vincent Martini
The Lost Weekend — Liz Warner
The Maltese Falcon — Roy Gordon
The Ox-Bow Incident — Clay Mitchell
The Philadelphia Story — Kristen Demaline
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock — David Joyner
The Third Man — Harry Cooke
To Have and Have Not — Felicity Flesher

Thanks to everyone who steps up for this ongoing project!

For the original post explaining the series, go here.

For all of the 40s movies featured in the series, go here.

Click REPLY and see you in comments about today’s classic 40s movie!

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