Press Release Criterion Press Release: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Richard M S]

well, seeing as Edward is in the Trailer for this release, let's hope that it was finally added back into the film!!

Edward's in the existing film; his part was not removed.....just his original fate. Also, if Criterion doesn't mention outtakes, there won't be any.

 

[darkrock17]

This site talks about some of the deleted scenes.

https://forums.lostmediawiki.com/thread/2989/evidence-deleted-scene-arsenic-lace

 

[Jack P]

That must of been quite the performance with Edith Bunker, Flo "Kiss My Grits", and Fish. Was Fish (Abe) playing Mortimer or Johnathan or was he one of the victims?

We did that same curtain call gimmick at our final show and a good amount of those 12 victims were people I knew. I originally auditioned to be in the production, but didn't get any role and was offered to be a victim instead; I however was asked to join tech and I had more fun doing that and I would have being a dead body.

Abe was Jonathan and Tony Roberts was Mortimer. A number of other familiar TV names later came on in the run as replacements (James MacArthur, Jonathan Frid, Larry Storch, Marion Ross).

 

[jayembee]

And after more than 23 years, the LAST snapper case in my collection can be disposed of!

I still have Frank Darabont's The Majestic.

I still have several dozen. Most of them are Warner discs, but there are more than a few Image releases.

 

[darkrock17]

Abe was Jonathan and Tony Roberts was Mortimer. A number of other familiar TV names later came on in the run as replacements (James MacArthur, Jonathan Frid, Larry Storch, Marion Ross).

Barnabas Collins as Jonathan, I can easily see that, Mrs. C however I can't see that, murder isn't her thing. That would be like having Betty White and Carol Burnett playing the aunts, you just can't picture it.

 

[cadavra]

The reason Cary Grant disliked his performance is that it was way over the top--all arm-flapping, eye-popping and whinnying. He trusted Capra the one time he shouldn't have. He may also have been aware that he was grossly miscast. Mortimer is supposed to be a schlub, not the handsomest man in the movies. Eddie Bracken, Red Skelton or even Bob Hope would have been a much better choice.

I believe the 12 corpses taking the curtain call was part of the original production, but I'm not 100% on this.

The movie itself is amusing enough, but anyone familiar with the play realizes just how much they messed with it. Aside from being far less dark and hobbled by the Code-enforced new ending, Warner wanted it to be more of a romantic comedy--so the fiancée, who's a very minor character onstage, is elevated to co-star status, dragging us away from the main plot. I've always wanted to film the play as is, so people can see what it actually is. (Tony Shalhoub would have made a perfect Mortimer, but he's too old now.)

 

[Robert Crawford]

The reason Cary Grant disliked his performance is that it was way over the top--all arm-flapping, eye-popping and whinnying. He trusted Capra the one time he shouldn't have. He may also have been aware that he was grossly miscast. Mortimer is supposed to be a schlub, not the handsomest man in the movies. Eddie Bracken, Red Skelton or even Bob Hope would have been a much better choice.

IMO, he was right! It took me decades to warm up to this movie because I thought Grant's performance was over-the-top. My negative slant towards the movie has lessen over the years, but it's more to do with the supporting cast. Particularly, Lorre, Alexander, Carson and Gleason's performances.

 

[RobertMG]

Posts removed. Do not post full paywalled articles, duh

 

[RobertMG]

Posts removed. Do not post full paywalled articles, duh

This one should be okay https://store.tpr-world.com/mm5/graphics/TPRarticles/cary-grant.pdf

 

[Richard M S]

The reason Cary Grant disliked his performance is that it was way over the top--all arm-flapping, eye-popping and whinnying. He trusted Capra the one time he shouldn't have. He may also have been aware that he was grossly miscast. Mortimer is supposed to be a schlub, not the handsomest man in the movies. Eddie Bracken, Red Skelton or even Bob Hope would have been a much better choice.

I believe the 12 corpses taking the curtain call was part of the original production, but I'm not 100% on this.

The movie itself is amusing enough, but anyone familiar with the play realizes just how much they messed with it. Aside from being far less dark and hobbled by the Code-enforced new ending, Warner wanted it to be more of a romantic comedy--so the fiancée, who's a very minor character onstage, is elevated to co-star status, dragging us away from the main plot. I've always wanted to film the play as is, so people can see what it actually is. (Tony Shalhoub would have made a perfect Mortimer, but he's too old now.)

Twenty-two years ago Alec Baldwin did a staged reading of Arsenic And Old Lace at City Center in New York; he played the Cary Grant role, Celeste Holm and Joanne Woodward played the Aunts. The play was cute, with more political jokes than the film, including one line which stopped the show as it seemed to have been written for the-then Bush-Gore election dispute. However as I recall, it was thought the movie "got it right" as the play certainly never inspire a NY-revival (too large a cast, maybe?)

 

[lark144]

The reason Cary Grant disliked his performance is that it was way over the top--all arm-flapping, eye-popping and whinnying. He trusted Capra the one time he shouldn't have. He may also have been aware that he was grossly miscast. Mortimer is supposed to be a schlub, not the handsomest man in the movies. Eddie Bracken, Red Skelton or even Bob Hope would have been a much better choice.

I believe the 12 corpses taking the curtain call was part of the original production, but I'm not 100% on this.

The movie itself is amusing enough, but anyone familiar with the play realizes just how much they messed with it. Aside from being far less dark and hobbled by the Code-enforced new ending, Warner wanted it to be more of a romantic comedy--so the fiancée, who's a very minor character onstage, is elevated to co-star status, dragging us away from the main plot. I've always wanted to film the play as is, so people can see what it actually is. (Tony Shalhoub would have made a perfect Mortimer, but he's too old now.)

I saw the play before I saw the movie, so I have the same perspective. The play is much darker, and also, because of that, a lot funnier. The two seem to go together. The play is also perfectly constructed, and the film alters that to its detriment. In the film, Capra seems to try to replace the missing humor from the play with Cary Grant's mugging, which doesn't really work. Also, as you pointed out, Priscilla Lane takes all the oxygen away from the main characters of the play, the two ladies, who become an afterthought. The film takes something really original and turns it into formula--a very slicky directed and beautifully paced formula--but it pales in comparison. As a teenager, I especially found it unfortunate that Karloff wasn't in the film, though I understand why. But it must have been really funny for the audiences of the original production to hear Boris Karloff complaining he looked like Boris Karloff. I always considered the film a misfire on Capra's part, but now that I'm older, I like the film better, partly because I've grown to appreciate Warners films from this period, in terms of the way they were produced, and this happnes to be a sterling example, in spite of the fact that it changes what was best about the play, and also because this was the favorite film of a beloved Aunt, who thought Cary Grant was hilarious, and I now try to see it through her eyes.

 

[RobertMG]

IMO, he was right! It took me decades to warm up to this movie because I thought Grant's performance was over-the-top. My negative slant towards the movie has lessen over the years, but it's more to do with the supporting cast. Particularly, Lorre, Alexander, Carson and Gleason's performances.

SPOT ON --- but Grant does the same here as he did in Bringing Up Baby

 

[darkrock17]

SPOT ON --- but Grant does the same here as he did in Bringing Up Baby

Cary played the helpless innocent bystander who gets dragged into madness every well.

 

[RobertMG]

Cary played the helpless innocent bystander who gets dragged into madness every well.

NYT's Review - Not Crowther do not know who PPK was - pretty good review with Grant some praise not much -- maybe why he disliked the film

As a whole "Arsenic and Old Lace," the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun. That it is not one of the top-ranking pictures of the year is attributable to two or three outstanding faults, any one of which could wreck a less sturdy vehicle. Frank Capra has put into the picture all of the riotous farce, gentle naivete and broad melodrama that Messrs. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse put originally into the Joseph Kesselring stage play.That Mr. Capra wasn't satisfied with the stage product and insisted on adding a few camera capers of his own doesn't do the picture any good. Fact is it does the picture some harm because it not only pads out an already-padded play but it also adds length to a picture which was built for speed rather than heavy hauling.As an example, the picture opens on a now fairly tiresome note about strange and unpredictable Brooklyn, and nurses the laugh along with a riot scene at Ebbets Field, a scene which has no apparent reason for being in the picture at all. From there it switches to a high-octane schmaltz sequence in the marriage license bureau, where, above all things, people are getting marriage licenses, Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane among them. Then there is another sequence of fancy chasing and necking in a Brooklyn cemetery, and, finally, guess what, the story of "Arsenic and Old Lace."Mr. Grant, as usual, turns in a creditable performance although his energy is likely to wear down, eventually, the stoutest spectator. As a hyper-vitaminized drama critic, he bounds, bellows, howls and muggs through practically two hours and that, combined with the inevitable mugging of Jack Carson, makes those two hours long ones indeed. To offset this, practically all the efforts of Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, as the two gentle poison-cup artists, are required to keep the show on an even keel. They're delightful in their roles.The picture serves to welcome back Raymond Massey after an extended leave. While it is a little breath-taking to hear "Honest Abe" shambling around sounding like Lincoln but looking like Boris Karloff, that's the condition that prevails. John Alexander doesn't seem to wring the full flavor from his Teddy Roosevelt Brewster role, and, speaking of Roosevelt, the numerous political gag lines which went over so well in the stage play seem to fall more or less flat with the picture audience.As it stands, "Arsenic and Old Lace" offers a large number of laughs and some genuine melodramatic thrills along with some cut-rate hokum. If you can be comfortable through the latter, the former will furnish a fair-to-middling reward.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Enough! Read our posting guidelines and adhere to them. Posts have been deleted! Stop questioning and discussing a moderator’s action openly on the forum. Such posts will not be tolerated.

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched this film for the first time about 3 1/2 years ago while I was following Josh’s Cary Grant thread, watching all of Cary Grant’s films.

It was the first I’d ever seen it. I had no idea what to expect. Though I’d seen many of Cary Grant’s more well known films prior to this, this was an unexpected and different bit of fun. So I have no reference to the play or how it was constructed. My main recollection of seeing the film was to see how hard Grant was working. I could see the sweat on his face from how hard he was working! And as I was watching the film, without knowing about the play, I was thinking too bad they didn’t really cast Boris Karloff.

I’ll look forward to revisiting this film when the Criterion disc comes out.

 

[jayembee]

Man, I stay away from recommending comedies due to the extreme subjectivity regarding comedy. Sense of humor is a weird thing that can't be predicted in how one will respond to comedy. Another thing, Grant is usually a cool customer in many of his films. He's far from that in this movie so I don't know how you would take that different screen performance from him.

I'm something of the opposite in this respect. I really appreciate an actor stretching into something outside of their wheelhouse. Like Robin Williams doing serious dramatic roles, or dramatic actors going for slapstick. Part of what made George C. Scott's comic performance in Dr. Strangelove so spectacular, for example, was exactly because it wasn't something one would expect of Scott.

Cary Grant certainly wasn't new to comedy, but the excessive mugging in AaOL wasn't something he did before (at least, not in any of his films I've seen; there are a number of his early films I haven't). Still, I found it fun.

 

[jayembee]

I saw the play before I saw the movie, so I have the same perspective. The play is much darker, and also, because of that, a lot funnier. The two seem to go together. The play is also perfectly constructed, and the film alters that to its detriment.

I suppose in many ways, it's similar to films adapted from books in that people familiar with the source material tend to find the film adaptations wanting.

Me, I saw AaOL (the film) for the first time as a teenager decades ago. I think I mentioned in some thread here before that I discovered that this was why my father had an old, beat-up bugle sitting around -- he'd played Teddy in a community theater production and still had the prop. I'd seen him in several plays over the years, but not AaOL, so it must've been from before I was born, or too young to have seen it.

I never saw a performance of the play until circa 1990, when a housemate starred as Mortimer in a community theater production. He was a fan of the movie, but he didn't try to channel Cary Grant. He did, however, display touches of several of his favorite comedians.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think Grant is wonderful in the film, and I agree that it’s a little more over the top than his usual screwball persona - but that’s also the point. He’s been driven past the point of rationality and it’s hilarious watching this careful, composed person coming apart at the seems trying to contain an unfathomably awful thing his beloved aunts have gotten into. They simply don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong so they cannot wrap their heads around Grant’s objections, which just pushes him further into the stratosphere.

The film is definitely a different experience than the play, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. The play still exists. If someone decides to make a new version that adheres more closely to the play one day, that’s fair game too.

It’s true that Grant didn’t like his performance here, but that’s okay. Artists are rarely the best judges of their own work. There are films Grant truly believed in that turned out terribly, too. I think of opinions like that as being historically interesting footnotes but not necessarily relevant to the question as to whether or not the work itself stands. That we’re still talking about the film nearly a century after it was made proves that there is something to it - there are plenty of movies from this era that haven’t endured in the way this one has.

 

[Jack P]

I think the fact that Grant is not being typical Grant is why the film is fun. That's not to say Grant would have been right to do a stage performance of the show, but for a *film* performance I think it worked.