Arsenic and Old Lace
Directed by Frank Capra
- comedy
- crime
The story
Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!
What it’s like
Bright, theatrical studio lighting over a cluttered Brooklyn parlor, with sharp black-and-white photography, busy staging, and quick, flustered camera moves that keep the whole family in view at once. Frank Capra keeps the frame crowded and the pace brisk, so the comedy comes from rapid-fire dialogue, slammed doors, and an escalating run of double-takes rather than from anything lingering or moody. The sound is talk-heavy and percussive, a stage-farce rhythm of overlapping voices, with a light, jittery score that nudges the chaos along. Its vibe is giddy and absurd, a screwball caper with a dark-chocolate center. Murder and corpses are the premise, but the violence stays offscreen or cartoonish: a few poisonings, bodies stashed in a cellar, a grisly-looking but unthreatening madman, with no real gore and little real menace. The emotional register is light and romantic, following a newlywed trying to keep his secret from his bride and his hair-trigger family. It suits a rainy-afternoon comedy, a classic-film night, or anyone who wants dark jokes without dread. Recommended for fans of fast, hammy farce and of 1940s romantic comedy who want macabre humor with a gentle, safe heart.
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