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Arsenic and old lace

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

A hilariously absurd story, Arsenic and old lace tells of Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a newlywed dramatic critic in the big city who lives with his two aunts, Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair), and an uncle, (John Alexander). Uncle Teddy is bonkers and thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. The aunts think that Teddy is the only one who's gone mad but, in fact, they have lost the plot themselves... for they have been murdering lonely elderly gentlemen in their own home and burying them in the cellar.

When Mortimer finds out, he goes a little weird himself in his attempt to figure out what to do about it. Everything gets worse when long, lost delinquent brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) returns home after a prison escape and is looking for a place to live and bury his most recent victim.

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Comedy romance insane family murder serial killer classic black and white

Persons of interest

Priscilla Lane .... Elaine Harper
Jack Carson .... O'Hara
Edward Everett Horton .... Mr Witherspoon
Peter Lorre .... Doctor Einstein
James Gleason .... Lieutenant Rooney
Grant Mitchell .... Reverend Harper
Edward McNamara .... Brophy
Garry Owen .... the taxi cab driver
John Ridgely .... Saunders
Vaughan Glaser .... Judge Cullman
Joseph Kesselring .... Playwright
Julius J Epstein .... Screenwriter
Philip G Epstein .... Director
Frank Capra .... Director

Non-agency intellgence sources

Studios and distributors:

Warner Bros * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Ah... so that's the reason Oleg in 15 minutes worships Frank Capra. Frank's a genius, though that stems from being born in Italy, not from working in Hollywood.

Arsenic and old lace combines two impossible-to-combine genres: comedy and thriller. For anyone else, the comedy elements would undercut the thriller elements, resulting in an unfunny, unthrilling piece of meaningless blah, but Frank and Cary weave a brilliant path from humour to fear and back again. Cary Grant reveals himself to be a comic genius, not just a romantic heart-throb. I can't praise him highly enough. Frank, as already mentioned, is a genius.

Jean and Josephine are charming and outrageous, you'd sit down and drink their elderberry and arsenic wine without a moment's hesitation. Raymond is a great kook and his part is particularly well written, given the stereotypes of insanity that rule Hollywood. Referring to himself in the future tense, and from the point of view of a historian, is a touch of genius.

Arsenic and old lace is both a classic comedy and a piece of art. If you can appreciate either you'll love it.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Audio: Mono 1.0
Disc: Single layer, single side
Picture: Fullscreen 1.33:1
Languages: English, Italian
Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian, Italian and English captions