Frank Capra

Arsenic and Old Lace

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 who’s a dead ringer for Boris Karloff (Raymond Massey), 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.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1944
  • 118 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #1153

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • 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

    New cover by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • 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

    New cover by F. Ron Miller
Arsenic and Old Lace
Cast
Cary Grant
Mortimer Brewster
Josephine Hull
Abby Brewster
Jean Adair
Martha Brewster
Raymond Massey
Jonathan Brewster
John Alexander
“Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster
Priscilla Lane
Elaine Harper
Jack Carson
Officer O’Hara
Edward Everett Horton
Mr. Witherspoon
Peter Lorre
Dr. Einstein
James Gleason
Lieutenant Rooney
Credits
Director
Frank Capra
Screenplay by
Julius J.
Screenplay by
Philip G. Epstein
From the stage play by
Joseph Kesselring
Stage play produced by
Howard Lindsay
Stage play produced by
Russel Crouse
Cinematography by
Sol Polito
Art-directed by
Max Parker
Gowns by
Orry-Kelly
Makeup by
Perc Westmore
Music by
Max Steiner

Current

Arsenic and Old Lace: Madness in the Family
Arsenic and Old Lace: Madness in the Family

Frank Capra’s flamboyant farce—his only black comedy—finds an uncharacteristically frenetic Cary Grant surrounded by a clan of genteel maniacs.

By David Cairns

Capturing Arsenic and Old Lace, in One Macabre Image
Capturing Arsenic and Old Lace, in One Macabre Image

To capture the spirit of Frank Capra’s dark screwball classic, Criterion enlisted a longtime collaborator to create an image that combines the influences of Old Hollywood illustrator Jacques Kapralik and legendary pen-and-ink artist Edward Gorey.

By F. Ron Miller