Frank Capra’s 1944 film version of “Arsenic and Old Lace,’’ released 70 years ago and showing Saturday (Oct. 18) at Film Forum, is one of the most beloved and popular comedies from Hollywood’s Golden Era.
But it wasn’t a laughing matter to Cary Grant, who long maintained he gave his “worst performance’’ as a Broadway drama critic who flips out when he learns his sweet old aunts in Brooklyn have been poisoning boarders.
“ ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ ” made him shudder,” the screen icon’s daughter Jennifer Grant wrote in a memoir. “Why? It’s a hilarious, sweet, madcap, thoroughly memorable movie,” she said to him. “Egads, all the overwrought double takes, all the gags . . . I’m way over the top,” he replied. Jennifer adds, “It worked beautifully.’’
Here are some other things you may not have known about “Arsenic and Old Lace’’ — the movie and the original stage version:
The movie had to wait its turn
The film was shot in Hollywood in late 1941 but didn’t premiere until Sept. 1, 1944, at New York’s old Strand Theatre. The delay resulted because Warner Bros. agreed to a demand by the play’s producers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, that the film not open until their highly popular play completed its Broadway run.
The Broadway version was too good for his own good
The main draw on Broadway was Boris Karloff as the critic’s homicidal brother, who is described as looking “like Boris Karloff’’ because of botched plastic surgery.
Much to Karloff’s chagrin, the producers insisted that he remain on Broadway while Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, as the aunts, and John Alexander, as their brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, reprised their roles in the movie.
Legal preparations had to be made
Director Capra insisted that Raymond Massey, who has Karloff’s part in the movie, be made up to look like Karloff. Warner Bros.’ legal department was so concerned that Karloff would sue over the likeness that they urged the studio to get him to sign a release.
He did, at least partly because he was an investor in the play, and thus stood to make a lot of money from the movie version, which turned out to be even more popular than the play.
Scenes of NY were added
Like the play, most of the action in the movie takes place in the aunts’ home and in a churchyard just outside. Twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein added brief scenes set at a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game in Ebbets Field and at the marriage bureau in Manhattan, as well as a sequence deleted from the final movie in the aunts’ basement where the bodies are buried.
The ending got a switch-up
The original ending of Joseph Kesselring’s play — the aunts poisoning a man who’s taking them to a sanitarium — was changed in the film at the insistence of Hollywood censors, who also wouldn’t let Grant’s character say, “I’m a bastard!’’
It brought old friends together again
“Arsenic and Old Lace’’ was a reunion between Grant and character actress Jean Adair, who had nursed him back to health when he contracted rheumatic fever during a theatrical tour 20 years earlier.
Grant almost didn’t have the part
Grant wasn’t the first choice for the film, but Bob Hope wasn’t available because of a schedule conflict (Capra needed to shoot the film just before reporting for World War II military duty).
Grant, who donated his entire $100,000 salary to wartime charities, insisted, “Jimmy Stewart would have been much better [than me] in the film.’’ Stewart later starred opposite Josephine Hull in “Harvey’’ — for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
An auteur filled Karloff’s shoes
When Karloff left to head up a road company of “Arsenic and Old Lace,’’ he was replaced on Broadway by Erich von Stroheim. Karloff’s rival Bela Lugosi played the part for five weeks onstage in Los Angeles.
Our men in arms got a special performance
Karloff reprised his role for an audience of GIs in the South Pacific during the war. He also appeared in TV productions in 1955 (with Orson Bean in Grant’s role) and 1962 (opposite Tony Randall). Three months after Karloff’s death in 1969, Fred Gwynne of “The Munsters’’ played the role in a TV film with Bob Crane, Lillian Gish and Helen Hayes.
The show has been brought back to life over the years
Abe Vigoda and Tony Roberts starred in the most recent Broadway revival, in 1986. Michael Richards of “Seinfeld’’ played the Karloff role in a London revival in 2003.
A planned remake never happened
Richard Pryor was announced for the Cary Grant role in a film remake of “Arsenic and Old Lace’’ in the late 1970s. It never happened.
Smaller productions of the show are always popping up
“Arsenic and Old Lace’’ remains one of the most popular pre-war comedies for both professional and amateur theater groups — especially during the Halloween season.
Where can you see it?
The movie has been playing in heavy rotation on TV since 1955, with its next showing on TCM scheduled for Nov. 8. It’s also available on DVD from Warner Home Video and is streaming on Amazon Instant.