Arsenic and Old Lace
Starring: Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair
Director: Frank Capra
Writer: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Joseph Kesselring
Producer: Jack Warner
Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 American screwball black comedy crime film directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant. The screenplay by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein is based on Joseph Kesselring's 1941 play of the same name. The contract with the play's producers stipulated that the film would not be released until the Broadway run ended. The original planned release date was September 30, 1942.
Trivia
- Based on Arsenic and Old Lace (play by Joseph Kesselring).
- Based on Lavender and Old Lace (1902 novel by Myrtle Reed).
- The play Arsenic and Old Lace was written by Joseph Kesselring, son of German immigrants and a former professor at Bethel College, a pacifist Mennonite college.
- Capra scholar Matthew C. Gunter argues that the deep theme of both the play and film is the United States' difficulty in coming to grips with both the positive and negative consequences of the liberty it professes to uphold, and which the Brewsters demand.
- The set used for the Brewster home in Arsenic and Old Lace was reused in the 1942 film George Washington Slept Here.
Previous Showings
16 Runs • 9 Festivals
21,360 tickets sold
Original Billings: 2 runs (November 5, 1944 - May 10, 1947)
Original Run: November 5, 1944 (Sunday - Wednesday)
All runs on record (16):
- November 5, 1944 (Sunday - Wednesday)Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
- May 10, 1947 (Saturday)Cary Grant
- March 23 - 25, 1990 · 2,009 ticketsw/ Meet John Doe
- September 12 - 15, 1992 · 2,542 ticketsw/ Holiday
- November 11 - 14, 1995 · 1,810 ticketsw/ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- May 31 - June 1, 1997 · 1,674 ticketsw/ Riding High
- August 12 - 15, 2000 · 2,078 ticketsSummer 2000w/ The Gay Divorcee
- May 17 - 23, 2002 · 2,220 ticketscg2-2002w/ Night and Day
- September 18 - 21, 2004 · 1,693 ticketsSummer 2004w/ Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
- December 15 - 18, 2007 · 1,080 ticketsFall 2007 The Films of Frank Capra, plus other favoritesw/ Dirigible
- October 20 - 22, 2009 · 286 tickets20th Anniversary Festivalw/ His Girl Friday
- January 22 - 23, 2014 · 498 ticketsFrank Capra Festivalw/ Dirigible
- June 2 - 4, 2017 · 1,425 ticketsClassic Comedy With Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, W.C. Fields and more!w/ Harvey
- July 3 - 5, 2018 · 714 ticketsw/ The Talk of the Town
- August 5 - 6, 2023 · 1,386 ticketsSummer 2023: The Best of Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcockw/ Monkey Business
- February 13 - 16, 2025 · 1,945 ticketsThe Films of Frank Capraw/ It's a Wonderful Life