1153 Arsenic and Old Lace

[swo17]

Arsenic and Old Lace



Frank Capra adapted a hit stage play for this marvelous screwball meeting of the madcap and the macabre. On Halloween, newly married drama critic Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant, cutting loose in a hilariously harried performance) returns home to Brooklyn, where his adorably dotty aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, who both starred in the Broadway production) greet him with love, sweetness...and a grisly surprise: the corpses buried in their cellar. A bugle-playing brother (John Alexander) who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, a crazed criminal (Raymond Massey) who's a dead ringer for Boris Karloff, and a seriously slippery plastic surgeon (Peter Lorre) are among the outré oddballs populating Arsenic and Old Lace, a diabolical delight that only gets funnier as the body count rises.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring Charles Dennis, author of There's a Body in the Window Seat!: The History of "Arsenic and Old Lace"
• Radio adaptation from 1952 starring Boris Karloff
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic David Cairns

[hearthesilence]

I realize it has a lot of fans, but I've never been a huge fan even though Cary Grant's possibly my favorite actor - a little too over-the-top and broad for my tastes.

[ryannichols7]

extremely glad there's a new commentary. hopefully it's good, but seeing as Criterion hasn't been doing many at all lately, it's a nice surprise either way. I think the last title I was really looking forward to that they did a new scholar/historian track for was After Life, and what a commentary that was.

I'd like for there to be a little more, but as we know Criterion has been plowing through the Cary Grant titles and have plenty with Peter Lorre too, so maybe something on Capra could've been good? either way it's great to finally have this on BD, one of the more egregious WAC DVD holdouts, and a perfect laserdisc return choice. the new restoration, as with basically all from WB, should be a knockout

[domino harvey]

I realize it has a lot of fans, but I've never been a huge fan even though Cary Grant's possibly my favorite actor - a little too over-the-top and broad for my tastes.

You must not read this board: I’d say there’s about a 50-50 split here on those who love it and hate it, so you’re far from an outlier

[The Curious Sofa]

Count me in with the haters when it comes to this one.

[swo17]

I feel like it's closer to 90/10 here in favor of haters

[reaky]

Grant, an actor with such a fine touch usually, mugs unwatchably here. And not having Boris Karloff play the Boris Karloff figure kills it stone dead.

[ryannichols7]

i totally understand difference of opinion but it really blows me away how a classic Hollywood title like this, directed by a board favorite, lead by another board favorite, and featuring another board favorite, has been Criterion's arguable most controversial release of 2022 on this very forum! I'm sure you guys will vote it "most unnecessary release" at the end of the year even though it was surviving on an old 2001 snapper DVD...

[FrauBlucher]

It's 1944's edition of Tiny Furniture. All kidding aside I hope the folks who like it, enjoy the disc because after all we have to keep classic Hollywood alive

[hearthesilence]

Sylvia Scarlett would've been far more preferable as a Cary Grant movie in need of a BD. With Frank Capra, everything I really like from him is already on BD, but a decent version of Meet John Doe from the OCN (if it exists) would be nice - not a great film at all, but it's fascinating.

[domino harvey]

Sylvia Scarlett would've been far more preferable as a Cary Grant movie in need of a BD.

You have managed to find one of the few Cary Grant films I like less than this, so congrats on that suggestion

[hearthesilence]

Why would I suggest something you'd want? I shop for myself!

[bottlesofsmoke]

I don't like the movie either, but I would have been tempted to pick this up for any interesting extras, but since the only extras either require me to watch a movie I don't like or are freely available online...

I'm surprised they don't have anything about Capra on here, especially since he made this film at an interesting point in his career, right before joining the army. You'd think they could have at least gotten Mark Harris to talk about that. Maybe it's covered in the commentary, but it's enough of a story to have its own feature.

[cdnchris]

And not having Boris Karloff play the Boris Karloff figure kills it stone dead.

I know we apparently like piling on the film but if I recall correctly this was beyond their control because Karloff wasn't allowed to do the film based on his contract for the Broadway play.

Still, I will agree it's a shame.

[JSC]

On the other hand, I have enormous affection for Arsenic and Old Lace. First saw it
on PBS or something thirty plus years ago. Okay, so Cary Grant overacts in it. He's still
incredible to watch. And I can't ignore Peter Lorre or Raymond Massey, plus people like
Edward Everett Horton and other studio regulars.

[swo17]

And not having Boris Karloff play the Boris Karloff figure kills it stone dead.

I know we apparently like piling on the film but if I recall correctly this was beyond their control because Karloff wasn't allowed to do the film based on his contract for the Broadway play.

Still, I will agree it's a shame.

Especially since Karloff apparently really wanted to do the film. That's certainly one giant commerce-over-art mark against it, even if it's not really Capra's fault. I really wish this release had added the 1955 TV adaptation (not that I've seen it) in which Karloff finally got his wish. It would have felt vindicating to a degree, though I guess the radio adaptation is halfway there

[vsski]

i totally understand difference of opinion but it really blows me away how a classic Hollywood title like this, directed by a board favorite, lead by another board favorite, and featuring another board favorite, has been Criterion's arguable most controversial release of 2022 on this very forum! I'm sure you guys will vote it "most unnecessary release" at the end of the year even though it was surviving on an old 2001 snapper DVD...

I can actually totally understand this and this coming from the guy who is always complaining about Criterion not releasing enough canonical titles. Well if one title would fit that bill it’s certainly this one and yet I’m with the majority here that dislikes the movie even though I like Grant, classical Hollywood and at least some of the Capra titles. When I first saw it on TV I was a kid and thought it was hilarious, but when I bought the DVD later I was cringing all the way through and couldn’t understand for the life of me what I liked about it.

[Finch]

The one thing I'll say in favor of the film is that Raymond Massey is a more than adequate replacement for Karloff (who I didn't know was considered).

[knives]

He was more than considered. The role was written for him hence all of the Karloff jokes they don’t replace for some reason.

[swo17]

Karloff was in the middle of playing the role originated for him in the Broadway play, but I guess its producers thought it would hurt their bottom line to be giving that performance away in a movie. Imagine if Being John Malkovich had cast, say, Bruce Willis to play John Malkovich. That's how off this decision was

[Feego]

To be honest, the casting of Raymond Massey has never bothered me. Sure, it’s hilarious to hear a character being played by Boris Karloff being called Boris Karloff to his face. But within the world of the story (unlike Being John Malkovich), the character is not literally Boris Karloff, he just looks like him after botched plastic surgery. And I think they did a pretty good job with the makeup in the film.

[swo17]

Yeah, the joke is merely that he looks likes Karloff, but it's a million times funnier if it's actually him

[hearthesilence]

Maybe not in this case, but it can be hilariously bad if someone like, say, Malkovich was played by someone who doesn't act or look anything like Malkovich. Reminds me of an SNL sketch where Alec Baldwin plays a 6-year-old girl without any change in his appearance, voice or demeanor.

[colinr0380]

Sounds like a missed opportunity to have cast Bela Lugosi to me!

[reaky]

That would have worked beautifully - a quick find-and-replace on the script, and Lugosi could have been had for peanuts at that point.