Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Arsenic and Old Lace is a darkly comic crime thriller set in a small Brooklyn house beside a cemetery. On the day he marries, drama critic Mortimer Brewster discovers that his sweet-seeming maiden aunts, Abby and Martha, have a macabre hobby: they poison lonely old men “as charity” and bury them in the cellar. What starts as a shocking family secret quickly turns into escalating farce when Mortimer must hide a corpse in the parlor, keep his new bride from fleeing, and cope with two even more unstable relatives — the bugle-blowing nephew who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt and the psychopathic brother who uses corpses and a dubious plastic surgeon to change his face. Watching the film, you’ll experience brisk, theatrical comedy built on misunderstandings and improbable situations, punctuated by genuine suspense and dark humor. The tone flips between warm domesticity and absurd menace: the aunts’ gentle manners contrast with the grimness of their “charity,” while Mortimer’s frantic attempts at cover-up create slapstick moments and rapid-fire dialogue. The plot keeps piling on complications, so the laughs come with mounting tension until everything erupts in chaotic resolution. If you enjoy tightly plotted, stage-like farce with a moral twist — a mix of wit, creepiness, and wholesome-turned-sinister characters — this vintage black comedy delivers both laughs and chills.

Actors: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey

Director: Frank Capra

Runtime: 118 min

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Thriller

7.9 /10 7.9 /10