Arsenic and Old Lace

Year: 1944

Actors: Cary Grant, Peter Lorre, Priscilla Lane, Jack Carson

Duration: 118 min

The year is 1941. The location is a small house next to a cemetery in Brooklyn. In this house live two kind, thoughtful, sweet old ladies, Martha and Abby Brewster who have developed a very bad habit. It appears that they murder lonely old men who have some sort of religious affiliation and they consider doing it a charity. They then leave it to their bugle blowing nephew Teddy (who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt) to take them to the Panama Canal (the cellar) and bury them. In this instance, the "poor fellow" suffers from yellow fever found in the window seat. It is another of their nephews Mortimer Brewster, a dramatic critic, who returns home only to find the man in the seat by mistake. Another nephew, Jonathon, returns to the home after years of fleeing the authorities due to his "unofficial practice" of killing people and using their faces to change his. However the results cause him to look like Boris Karloff (this angers him upon the mention of his similarity to the actor) due to the poor craftsmanship of his German accented, alcoholic sidekick Dr. Einstein. As the story continues, we see each character trying to find resolve in their suddenly been flipped upside-down lives. Mortimer tries to keep his aunts safe and prevent them from continuing their nasty habit while trying to stay sane with the woman he loves (Elaine Harper), the aunts try to continue their "charities", and Jonathon tries to make a wealthy practice that is stationed inside the home.—Andrew G. Wallace -- Mortimer Brewster -- Bergen Community College Theater Production, 2003

Genre: Action   Comedy   Crime   Thriller