This hilariously droll black comedy is one of the most successful adaptations of theater to film. The deft portraits of two classically sweet little old ladies (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) who invite bachelors to dinner and then poison them with spiked elderberry wine are at the center of the increasingly frantic proceedings. A homicidal nephew and another who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt add to the fun. Frank Capra coaxes over-the-top performances from a cast that includes Cary Grant as a clueless drama-critic nephew and Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre as villains. The film's cavalier attitude toward death was well-suited to its World War II release. It was actually shot in 1941, and Capra's family lived off his salary from it while he served in the war. It's one of Capra's best. A cinematic evergreen, Arsenic and Old Lace has never lost its appeal, as new generations of audiences keep discovering its lunatic charms.
