What's In My Wine?

Arsenic And Old Lace(1944)

Ah,Arsenic And Old Lace a story about two old ladies who euthanize old men. What a charming tale. Well,not really, But there is plenty of comedy here.It's another Cary Grant picture and it's today's movie.

The film takes place mostly in one house and it's a refreshing way to tell the tale. It keeps the story centralized and I'd imagine it would be cheaper to film this way. Also, it's not surprising it's in one house the whole time because it's easier to do a play that way(The film was based on a play.).

Cary Grant is a comedic goldmine in this picture. It's seems that he spouts off a funny comeback in almost every scene in the film. The only thing I dislike is his apparent protectiveness of his aunts. Sure they raised him, But they are also murders and should be sent to the big house for the rest of their short life's.

The aunts do their job well. Their job however is to annoy the piss out of the viewer and they do it so well that I was hoping they'd get their comeuppance more than the despicable Johnathan Brewster and Dr. Einstein. Seriously they couldn't have picked more annoying old ladies.

Peter Lorre is quite good in his role as the doctor here also. It's strange how within two films you can go from hating a actor(Lorre was the killer in M.) to looking forward to his scenes.He is just surprisingly funny here and he plays the evil doctor role quite well. It's not surprising that he was often typecast as a villain because he fits the role well.

John Alexander is also quite good here as Teddy. He does a really good impression of what I imagine Roosevelt would be like and his craziness offer the backbone of quite a few scenes.

Overall,a pretty good comedy and probably Grant's best comedy. I would probably watch it again and was thoroughly entertained throughout.