Arsenic and Old Lace

Other authorsFrank Capra (Director), Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre

DVD, 1944

Status

Available

Call number

DVD 32

Collection

1st floor Fountainside

Rating

(42 ratings; 4.2)

Description

An easy going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle Aunts Abby and Martha have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar.

Language

English

Original publication date

1944-09-23

Local notes

Black & white. Run time 118 minutes.

Media reviews

New York Times

Mr. Grant, as usual, turns in a creditable performance although his energy is likely to wear down, eventually, the stoutest spectator. As a hyper-vitaminized drama critic, he bounds, bellows, howls and muggs through practically two hours and that, combined with the inevitable mugging of Jack

Carson, makes those two hours long ones indeed. To offset this, practically all the efforts of Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, as the two gentle poison-cup artists, are required to keep the show on an even keel. They're delightful in their roles.The picture serves to welcome back Raymond Massey after an extended leave.... As it stands, "Arsenic and Old Lace" offers a large number of laughs and some genuine melodramatic thrills along with some cut-rate hokum. If you can be comfortable through the latter, the former will furnish a fair-to-middling reward.

Show Less

— 1 more

Variety

Despite the fact that picture runs 118 minutes, Frank Capra has expanded on the original play [by Joseph Kesselring] to a sufficient extent to maintain a steady, consistent pace. With what he has crammed into the running time, film doesn’t seem that long. The majority of the action is confined to

one set, that of the home of the two amiably nutty aunts who believe it’s kind to poison people they come in contact with and their non-violently insane brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt.