Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane star in the spooky spectacle "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944)

I wrote this for the Spooky Classic Movie Blogathon hosted by KN Winiarski Writes! 

For me, Halloween is synonymous with Arsenic and Old Lace. 

Every year I pull my copy off the shelf, blow an imaginary layer of dust from the cover, and pop it into the DVD player. I discovered this year that somehow we actually own 3 copies of this movie through a variety of giftings and inheritings from others. While I do love Arsenic and Old Lace, owning 3 copies is a bit much, even for me!

The art of dark comedy has always drawn me and you don't get much darker than this movie. There's a bit of a terrifying element underlying the whole thing for a variety of reasons.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), acclaimed dramatic critic and author, is in love. And for a man who has spent his entire adult life sarcastically decrying the idea of love and marriage, this is a stretch. But on Halloween, he finds himself and his darling bride-to-be, Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane), standing in line at the marriage license bureau in Brooklyn, New York, getting officially hitched. He even has a honeymoon to Niagara Falls all planned, tickets for the train, and orders for flowers to be delivered to his new bride at her family's residence. Elaine's father is the local minister and the parsonage and the Brewster family home bookends a very historic, and slightly spooky cemetery. 

Everything is going so well! Mortimer and Elaine are married! His maiden aunts, Aunt Abby (Josephine Hull) and Aunt Martha (Jean Adair) are practically over the moon knowing their nephew has finally, finally proposed to the girl they've adored for so many years, and pretty much watched grow up next door. But alas, not everything is as it seems. Mortimer remembers that he left notes for his latest book Mind Over Matrimony somewhere in the house and he's desperate to find them before Elaine sees them. He hunts and hunts throughout the main room of the house, lifts up the window seat, and finds a dead body! Horror!

Not knowing quite how to approach his aunts with the devastating news that their other nephew Teddy (a dear man who unfortunately believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt) has killed someone and put his body in the window seat. He approaches Abby and Martha as they're handing out goodies to the local trick-or-treaters (wow, I wish I got whole jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies when I trick-or-treated as a kid!).

He says, "Teddy's killed a man, darlings." 

They don't believe him.

"But there's a body in the window seat!"

And they respond with, "Yes, dear, we know. Of course!"

So begins Mortimer's complete and total mental breakdown. His aunts have been doing mercy killings for years of old, lonely men who come seeking a room to rent (thanks to a sign in their window). And Teddy takes them down to the basement, digs another lock for the Panama Canal, and buries them in the dirt floor. There have been 12 such gentlemen so far.

Yes, that's how Arsenic and Old Lace gets started. And I haven't even mentioned the horrifying mass murderer Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey) and his accomplice Dr. Einsteen (Peter Lorre) who show up on the run from the law. It's one insane asylum moment after another. 

And yes, it's pretty terrifying, especially when the lights go out and Elaine comes in to see what's the matter and, well, you'll just have to watch it for yourselves.

Arsenic and Old Lace is the epitome of Classic Hollywood for me. I wouldn't change or replace a single thing. Elaine's father, the Reverand Harper, is a lovely man, resulting from an era when churches and clergymen were still well-respected. Every character brought in, whether it's the two cops on the beat in Brooklyn who've known the Brewsters for years, or it's the taxi cab driver who spends his entire night waiting outside the Brewster residence for the newlyweds, every actor is PERFECT.

The setting is clearly a sound stage but brilliantly done up. Even complete with leaves blowing through the cemetery, creating that spooky effect we love so much in our favorite creepy Halloween films. Cary Grant pushed himself past endurance filming this movie, it drove him crazy he had to react to EVERYTHING, but he gave an incredible performance, one of his best. And I absolutely adore Josephine Hull since I also know her from Harvey with James Stewart. She's an absolute doll.

If you've never seen Arsenic and Old Lace, I'm sure your local library has it. Find it, watch it, love it. This is one of those timeless classics that only gets better with age. I'm falling in love with it all over again just writing this blog post.

Happy Halloween, and remember, "the spooks don't come out until Midnight!"

Remember, I wrote this for the Spooky Classic Movie Blogathon hosted by KN Winiarski Writes! So head on over and read the other posts!