DR JohnG, I wish Frank Capra had toned Cary Grant down a bit for at least the first half of Arsenic and Old Lace. He's working way too hard. I really do like the rest of the cast enormously. While I wish Boris Karloff had recreated Jonathan Brewater, Raymond Massey, another actor I love, is really frightening. He and Peter Lorre play well off each other. The three Broadway stars of the play, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander, are relegated to second-class in the billing, but they're so wonderful in their insane gentility. Some of the Epstein brothers' screenplay seems a bit condescending and arch, but some additions, like Edward Everett Horton's director of the Happy Dasle sanatorium, are very funny. The movie, unlike the play, makes an effort to remove the premise a bit from reality, while the play just accepts an eccentric family, like the one in You Can't Take It With You, as demented serial killers everyone in the neighborhood accepts a sweet but eccentric. Thus, it's set on Halloween night - great opening credits with jack-o-lanterens and cats - and Capra really gets much out of the scarier moments. The blasck and white transfer is really beautiful. The real problem is Cary Grant, an actor who rarely does wrong.
