That was an excellent one.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

Director Frank Capra is most famous for movies that combine humor with human drama and sweet morals, but in his adaption of Arsenic and Old Lace he just goes for the laughs, and winds up with one of the funniest and most frenetic movies of the 40s.The film's linchpin is Cary Grant as a panicked writer who discovers his sweet aunts have a very, very bad secret. It's a manic, expressive performance full of double takes, bemused looks, hysterical shouting, and stunned, quizzical silence. It is the funniest he has ever been.The rest of the cast is excellent as well, although the great tragedy of Arsenic and Old Lace is the absence of Boris Karloff, who appeared in the Broadway production as a criminal who became furious whenever people told him his latest plastic surgery made him look like ... Boris Karloff. It's a brilliant in-joke the movie loses. Apparently Karloff did reprise the role in several TV adaptations, but alas, they seem to have all vanished from the face of the earth.Anyway, watch this movie. It's amazing.

Cary Grant believes he overplayed his character in 'Arsenic and Old Lace', and I agree, he's over-the-top. At times his frantic jumping around and shocked facial expressions are funny, such as when he tells his aunts early on that they really oughtn't to be poisoning their visitors by saying "Look, you can't do things like that! Now, I don't know how I can explain this to you, but it's not only against the law, its wrong! It's not a nice thing to do. People wouldn't understand. He wouldn't understand. What I mean is, well, this is developing into a very bad habit!" … all while hunched over and gesticulating. This is a loud movie, with one brother believing he's Teddy Roosevelt yelling 'Charge!' as he runs up the stairs and slams his bedroom door repeatedly, characters rapidly entering scenes in a pell-mell confusion of trying to hide bodies, threaten each other, commit others to mental institutions, etc etc. It's also all over the map. At first I thought Capra may have threaded the needle and been able to deliver both a dark comedy and a drama, since Raymond Massey's glowering and Peter Lorre's simpering are quite sinister, and a nice counterpart to Cary Grant and the sweet old ladies played so wonderfully by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair. However, the movie dragged on, and was far too long at 118 minutes. Some may like the madcap frenzy Capra created based on the stage play, and I have to say there are some nice moments and lines ("Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."), but overall the movie gets to be a little much, and doesn't stand the test of time, at least for me.

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".

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.