Comedy can be described as macabre or absurd. This is a film that manages to combine the two with uncanny perfection. From two sweet old aunties that turn out to be kindly serial killers, to an uncle that thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and yells "CHAAAAARRRRGE!!!!!" as he runs up the homestead's stair case because, to him, it is San Juan Hill, to a brother that's a certifiable psychopath and has as his unhappiest life moment the fact that his aunties are 1 ahead of him in the murder department, Arsenic and Old Lace never seems to run out of ways to make things more and more ridiculous.
Yet with all the implausibility of the plot line, it never fails to hold one's attention. I found the most driving force in the film was simply that I had to know how the story could possibly untangle enough to deliver an ending that didn't feel forced. It managed it quite nicely.
Cary Grant is terrific. Everyone in the film is. Peter Lorre is magnificent in what I think is an unusual comedic role as the violently homicidal brother's flunky.
The mood of this gem of a film simply can't be described sufficiently in words. It must be experienced. So go watch it. NOW! Really. You won't regret it.
Yet with all the implausibility of the plot line, it never fails to hold one's attention. I found the most driving force in the film was simply that I had to know how the story could possibly untangle enough to deliver an ending that didn't feel forced. It managed it quite nicely.
Cary Grant is terrific. Everyone in the film is. Peter Lorre is magnificent in what I think is an unusual comedic role as the violently homicidal brother's flunky.
The mood of this gem of a film simply can't be described sufficiently in words. It must be experienced. So go watch it. NOW! Really. You won't regret it.