A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his belo... Read allA Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to "Dear Boris" biographer Cynthia Lindsay, Josephine Hull and Jean Adair went to their graves believing that Boris Karloff had been so saintly as to agree to let them go to Hollywood to make this film while he stayed on Broadway doing the play. Nothing could have been further from the truth: Karloff was very angry and disappointed that he was the only cast member not allowed out of his contract to do the film.
- GoofsThe movie opens with the Brooklyn Dodgers winning a baseball game on Halloween, weeks after the end of baseball season. This is a gag to suggest that the only time the Brooklyn Dodgers could win is on Halloween, similar to saying when pigs fly.
- Quotes
Mortimer Brewster: Look I probably should have told you this before but you see... well... insanity runs in my family...
[he hears Abby and Martha singing]
Mortimer Brewster: It practically gallops.
- Crazy creditsThis is a Hallowe'en tale of Brooklyn, where anything can happen -- and it usually does. At 3 P.M. on this particular day, this was happening. [Scene of Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees baseball game, irate fans and brouhaha between teams on the field, then...] While at the same time across the river in the UNITED STATES PROPER there was romance in the air. [Scene of cruise ship on the river with NY City skyline in the background, then...] And now, back to one of Brooklyn's most charming residential districts -- [Scene of old gabled Brewster house next to a cemetery, then...] -- From here on you're on your own.
- Alternate versionsAlso available in a computer colorized version.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970)
- SoundtracksThere Is a Happy Land
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard P. Breedlove
Arranged by Max Steiner
[quoted in score]
Cary Grant motors the piece along at a terrific pace. He's a joy to watch, with his double-, triple-, even quadruple- and quintuple-takes. Hull and Adair are equally wonderful in their different ways, the former all floaty and tip-toe, the latter hysterically earnest - one of my favourite moments is Adair's superb double-take when she notices, on the dining-room table, a shoe she doesn't recognise.
Peter Lorre, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason, and the rest, are all everything they should be, and Priscilla Lane is splendidly dewy-eyed and pouty as the love-interest.
I've seen Arsenic and Old Lace countless times. I've never tired of it, always look forward to it, and highly recommend it.
- gsygsy
- Apr 1, 2007
Details
- Release date
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- Also known as
- Frank Capra's 'Arsenic and Old Lace'
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,164,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 58 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1