Grant hated his performance as Mortimer Brewster, but audiences loved it. Although he is known best as the supreme lead romantic actor (the man every man wish to be and the man every woman wanted to be with), his first love was doing comedy. Even in a Hitchcock thriller like "North by Northwest", Grant relished the chance to evoke laughter in his scene as a drunk.
Based on the hit stage play, "Arsenic and Old Lace" is the quintessential dark comedy of its era. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair are priceless as the well-meaning sisters whose "ministry" is mercifully ending the lives of their lonely, elderly guests and burying them their basement. Raymond Massey is the menacing Johnathan Brewster. Pricilla Lane is winningly cute as Mortimer's confused bride-to-be. Peter Lorre is the shifty but sympathetically conflicted Dr. Einstein. And if you haven't seen John Alexander as the delusional Teddy Brewster, you're in for an unforgettable treat!
Enjoy the Brewster sisters' hospitality, but I don't advise drinking the wine!!!
Based on the hit stage play, "Arsenic and Old Lace" is the quintessential dark comedy of its era. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair are priceless as the well-meaning sisters whose "ministry" is mercifully ending the lives of their lonely, elderly guests and burying them their basement. Raymond Massey is the menacing Johnathan Brewster. Pricilla Lane is winningly cute as Mortimer's confused bride-to-be. Peter Lorre is the shifty but sympathetically conflicted Dr. Einstein. And if you haven't seen John Alexander as the delusional Teddy Brewster, you're in for an unforgettable treat!
Enjoy the Brewster sisters' hospitality, but I don't advise drinking the wine!!!