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How others will see it. This film is a boon for classic movie fans, who get a laundry list of familiar Hollywood supporting actors, plus major star Cary Grant. As screwball comedies go, Arsenic and Old Lace is exceptionally screwy, and the madcap action continues throughout the film.
Audiences will love it, except, of course, for those who can't imagine why they made black and white movies in the first place. They look so much better in color.
How I felt about it. The core of the story is that these two nice charitable old ladies are pre-meditated murderers. This is basis enough for a movie, but for Arsenic and Old Lace, it is only the beginning. Excitable Cary Grant is added, as well a series of preposterous coincidences.
On the same day that Grant discovers his aunt's methods of solving Brooklyn's lonely old man problem, Grant gets married, Jack Carson takes over the neighborhood beat, and malevolent Raymond Massey shows up afer a twenty-year absence. Things sure are hopping at the Brewster mansion.
The one real surprise is that Peter Lorre gets away. The production code of the day frowned on criminals escaping justice, and here is a mass murderer (in the eyes of the law) sneaking off scot-free. I guess clubbing Massey over the head makes up for all those killings and tortures he helped Massey with earlier, similar to Darth Vader's validation after tackling the lightning-generator evil emperor in Return of the Jedi.
It's also something of a surprise that cop Jack Carson sees Cary Grant tied up, accompanied by two strange-looking men he's never seen before, and accepts at face value Lorre's lame explanation without even removing Grant's gag.
Well, that, and Priscilla Lane putting up with outrageously rude behavior from Grant, beginning with the opening scene where he wears dark shades as if he's ashamed to be with her. She tells him he was nearly strangled by Massey, and Grant remains concerned only with sending Teddy Roosevelt to the nuthouse.
But it's a good film despite its problems of an overly complex plot and dubious character motivation. This has much to do with Grant, who is at his most ridiculous, and his A-list supporting cast. Plus, a few droll lines, usually supplied by the smiling, saintly aunts who believe their poisoning of house visitors provides a social good.