Movie · 1944 · Comedy, Crime · 1h 58m · NR · English
Curator score: 8.3/10 (141.4K ratings)
She Passed Out On Cary! No Wonder . . . She's just discovered his favorite aunts have poisoned their 13th gentleman friend!
Overview
Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!
Ratings
Curator score: 8.3/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Letterboxd: 3.97/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Frank Capra
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast
Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey, John Alexander, Peter Lorre, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason, Grant Mitchell, Edward McNamara, Garry Owen, John Ridgely, Vaughan Glaser, Chester Clute, Charles Lane, Edward McWade, Hank Mann, Spencer Charters
Where to watch
TCM
Curator Review
Verdict
A brisk, macabre farce that turns murder into screwball chaos, powered by Cary Grant’s escalating panic and a wonderfully deadpan supporting cast. Its stagebound setup is part of the charm, and the jokes still land if you enjoy old Hollywood wit with a dark streak.
Best for
Classic comedy fans
Viewers who like dark humor and crime capers
Cary Grant admirers
Fans of theatrical, dialogue-driven farce
People who enjoy black comedy with a vintage feel
Skip if
You want realistic crime drama
You dislike stagey, dialogue-heavy comedies
Dark jokes about death and murder put you off
You prefer fast-cut modern pacing over classic studio-era timing
Overview
Arsenic and Old Lace is one of Hollywood’s great examples of taking a wildly unhinged premise and playing it with immaculate comic control. Frank Capra keeps the machinery moving, but the real pleasure is watching Cary Grant spiral from polished leading man into a man trying to survive his own family’s secrets without losing his mind.
Worth noting
The film’s humor comes from contrast: cheerful domesticity against serial murder, civic respectability against lunacy, and Grant’s increasingly expressive face against the aunts’ calm, murderous hospitality. It’s very much a product of its era, with a theatrical, talky rhythm, but that also gives the jokes room to breathe and build.
Bottom line
If you like black comedy that stays light on its feet, this is a delight. It’s less about suspense than about timing, performance, and the absurdity of trying to keep a straight face while everything collapses around you.
Top Letterboxd reviews
eely (4.5★) · 2161 likes
cary grant shows all seven stages of grief on his face in the span of 60 seconds and can do more with his left eyebrow than every actor in hollywood put together
sarah (4★) · 1801 likes
BUT DARLING, NIAGARA FALLS
IT DOES? WELL LET IT
mia lee vicino (3.5★) · 1223 likes
me in 1944 when i try to distract myself from the horrors of WWII by going to the local Cinema to see the latest Cary Grant Picture and realize it’s about how Women Be Poisoning: gee ........... hope this doesn’t ..... awaken anything in me ...........
lucy (4★) · 1073 likes
i never knew cary grant had so many facial expressions
Erin 🍺 (4★) · 1050 likes
The part when Cary Grant stops to smoke a cigarette and bitch to himself amid all the chaos is me
Another elegant murder story from the classic era, but played with a chillingly controlled, high-concept style that makes the dark humor and tension feel unusually modern.