Posted on 03/08/2012 10:08:38 AM PST by Vision
This is your Turner Classic Movie channel alert!
Tonight...Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), 8pm est
"A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family."
Haven't seen this one before. Hope it's funny.
Wow! Never seen it? I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched it during my life, and still enjoy it!
Just a note to remember as you watch it: Boris Karloff played the roll in the original play that Raymond Massey plays in the movie. “He looks like Boris Karloff!”
That’s ROLE not roll! (Bah. Too much on my mind!)
Hollywood did have to censor the last line of the play when they made this into a movie. On stage, he said something a bit stronger than "I'm the son of a sea cook!"
it is great! i am envious of you.
Thanks for the heads up!! Full of funny characters!!
I love the ones he did with Irene Dunne too.
Chaaaarge!
One of my Favorite Flicks..Along with “Some Like It Hot”!
You forgot Peter Lorre! He is the mad doctor who keeps talking about “poor Mr. Spinalzo” who is recently “deceased.”
This is a timeless classic and I would get it on DVR if possible.
Time to dig another lock for the canal.
Thanks for the ping. I’ll be watching.
This play used to be performed by many high schools back in the day.
As others have said, a classic.
I’d also like to commend the supporting characters of the two old aunts, Teddy and Cary’s new bride. She is great, but seems to have not had much of a career.
How about "It Happened One Night" (1934) - Not Cary Grant but another guy with the initials of CG, Clark Gable with a sizzlin' Claudette Colbert showing how to stop traffic.
As for "Arsenic and Old Lace", watching the hero trying to keep it together when his entire world is collapsing into chaos on his wedding night is WOW! This is a comic tour-de-farce!
Interestingly enough, both the star(Grant) and director(Frank Capra “It’s A Wonderful Life”) were staunch Republicans and American patriots who would be blacklisted by the Hollywood of today.
I love that hitch-hiking scene! :-)
On second thought, don't tell me.
I saw Grant in the 80s, when he was going around the country on a lecture series, in which he’d take questions from the audience. Someone asked him about “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and he seemed particularly sour on the topic of his performance, feeling he played it too broadly. Funny film, and I think he was fine in it, despite his misgivings.
Mortimer!
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