Arsenic and Old Lace Halloween appreciation post

It's Halloween. Most people are watching ghost movies or slasher flicks or creature features but in my house, we sit with a glass of elderberry wine and watch the 1944 classic Arsenic and Old Lace.

For those who don't know it, Cary Grant plays recently-married critic Mortimer Brewster who returns home to his elderly aunts on Halloween only to discover that they've been poisoning lonely old men in the neighbourhood. Complications arise from his brothers (one who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and the other who looks like Boris Karloff).

Taking place in (more or less) a single set, it's a wonderful screwball comedy. Completely over the top acting, especially from Grant. I know that he wasn't fond of his performance, but I think he's got the perfect mix of serious and madcap. The deadpan delivery from much of the supporting cast sells the comedy.

The MO of the aunts is incredible: they are perfectly believable as serial killers who murder out of misplaced mercy. In a time before formal criminal profiling, their behaviours seem exceedingly accurate.

The plot doesn't meander much, although there are a few extraneous characters, such as the Reverend living next door (Mortimer's new father-in-law), who only appears in a single scene. He could have been cut or else developed further.

Overall, a wonderfully silly alternative Halloween movie.