Arsenic And Old Lace: 13 Things You Don't Need to Know

well it's October which is the start of the best month of the year because for me October is basically a 31-day build-up to my favorite holiday Halloween and to celebrate every episode this month will feature movies that have a connection to Halloween and I'm gonna start with one of my favorites a movie set on Halloween night that doesn't feature killer Klowns zombies or guys wearing William Shatner masks in fact this movie has very little violence in it at all except of course for the 12 guys who were poisoned and then buried in the basement so join me as I dig up 13 facts about the 1944 classic Arsenic and Old Lace well and sanity runs in my family and practically gallops before it hit the big screen Arsenic and Old Lace started as a play by Joseph kesselring and while the story is a work of fiction the inspiration for a pair of sweet murderous old ladies was likely a real murder case between 1907 and 1917 60 deaths occurred at the archer home a nursing home run by Amy Archer Gilligan in Windsor Connecticut now a relative of one of the men who died in the home grew suspicious when their previously healthy brother died suddenly letters from the brothers showed that he died shortly after being pressured to give Amy money when relatives of other people who died also reported that Amy Archer Gilligan received money from them shortly before they died the families pressured the local da to launch an investigation the investigation found that the borders and even Amy's late husband had all been poisoned with either arsenic or strychnine poisons all purchased by or for Amy Archer Gilligan with their evidence the police were able to arrest and convict her ultimately leading to a life sentence Kesselring's play opened a Broadway in January 1941 and it was an immediate hit running for a total of fourteen hundred and forty-four performances and many of the cast members from the play were asked to reprise their roles in the movie including Josephine hole and Jean Adair as Abby and Martha Brewster and John Alexander as Teddy Roosevelt Brewster another cast member from the play who wanted to be in the movie was Boris Karloff as the black sheep brother Jonathan Brewster unfortunately for Karloff he was the headliner for the show and the show's producers didn't want to let him leave the production so he could film the movie to free him up Warner Brothers even offered Humphrey Bogart to replace Karloff temporarily in the play but the play's producers turned the offer down so since they couldn't get Karloff for the movie director Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the karlof was disappointed he wasn't allowed to be in the movie which was awesome a blow since there are several jokes in the script about how botched plastic surgeries have left Jonathan looking like Boris Karloff he looks like Boris Karloff the references to Karloff are such a big part of the script that Warner Brothers lawyers were nervous that Boris Karloff would sue them if he wasn't in the movie but Karloff was a good sport about it and he signed the release letting them use his name and likeness in the movie production on Arsenic and Old Lace began in October of 1941 to keep the movie from cannibalizing ticket sales for the Broadway show the movies producers agreed not to release the movie in the theaters until the broadway show closed which finally happened nearly three years later on june 17th 1944 when the play closed the movie was released in the theaters just three months later in September 1944 now that's not to say no one saw the movie before 1944 Jack Warner actually released the film in 1943 to show two American and British troops stationed overseas during World War two director Frank Capra wasn't aware that Jack Warner had released the film to the Armed Forces until he was in London and he hurts soldiers yelling charge like Teddy does when he heard the soldiers quoting that line he guessed that they had somehow seen the film something the team at Warner Brothers confirmed did happen speaking to Frank Capra he saw Arsenic and Old Lace as a chance to shift gears before this film he made a series of films focused on serious and moral issues like lost horizon mr. Smith goes to Washington and meet John Doe as quoted as saying that Arsenic and Old Lace was no great document to save the world and it contained no worries about whether John Doe should or should not jump it was just good old-fashioned theater he also said it was the most fun making a movie since he shot it happened one night in 1934 Frank Capra may have had a ball making Arsenic and Old Lace but his star Cary Grant had a very different experience Capra encouraged grant to play the part big and with lots of energy but as the production went along grant and screenwriter Julius Epstein both felt he was overacting Capra agreed and he told them that he downplay any over-the-top moments either in editing or with some reshoots unfortunately production ended on Arsenic and Old Lace on December 16th 1941 just nine days after the attack on Pearl Harbor would the attack the United States entered into the war Frank Capra enlisted in the Army and he asked for six weeks to finish this movie before reporting to duty he spent those six weeks getting the footage he shot edited and locked in but he didn't have time to edit out all the over-the-top moments or schedule any reshoots so all those moments stayed in Cary Grant said he felt miss casting the role and that this was one of his least favorite performances he thought Allen Jocelyn who played the role on Broadway or even Jimmy Stewart would have been a better fit he didn't do much to hide his irritation during the production either he often complained about the set the props and the wardrobe he also was heard saying he'd rather appeared in the film version of noël Coward's blight spirit instead now even though he wasn't thrilled with the film some good did come out of Cary Grant's performance he donated at least $100,000 of his salary for doing the film to war relief cherries including the British war relief the u.s. oh and the Red Cross Arsenic and Old Lace was also something of a reunion for Cary Grant 20 years before production on the film began grant was a young vaudeville performer and while on a theatrical tour he got rheumatic fever now another member of the tour of gene Adair took care of him and nursed him back to health gene of course played Cary Grant's Aunt Martha in Arsenic and Old Lace over the time it took Aunt Martha and a tabby to commit the 12 murders they did they continued to reef find the recipe for the poison they gave to their victims for a gallon of elderberry wine I take one teaspoon full of acid then add half a teaspoon full of strychnine and then just a pinch of Sun should have quite a kick the production code administration sent a recommendation that this sequence not be included in the film they were concerned that audience members might try to make and use the recipe themselves the recommendation was heard it was ignored and the sequence was left in the film the brewster house was built on a soundstage at Warner Brothers and at the time it was the largest set built on the lot the house was designed from sketches by Frank Capra and it allowed him to shoot both exteriors and interiors on the same stage now a couple of the scenes like the one at the baseball game and at the marriage license office were shot either on location or on different stages but nearly all the rest of the movie was shot on this one stage and for the exterior scenes in the graveyard and around the house bags of leaves were actually brought in and swirled around by three wind machines to give the set a real autumn Halloween look and if you look closely in this graveyard scenes you might spot a gravestone with Archie leach engraved on it Archie leach of course was Cary Grant's real name and having a tombstone with his name on it was kind of an inside joke a year earlier while shooting his girl Friday grant said this and to complete the gag the unfortunate mr. leach was buried in the graveyard in Arsenic and Old Lace for the interior shots be sure to look out for the telephone the family uses the phone was Bell's new French model that combined the microphone and the earpiece into the same unit now this is a very early example of product placement typically the Bell company would have paid for some of the advertising cost of the movie in exchange for them showcasing their products like this French phone in the film and finally there are several great ad-libs in Arsenic and Old Lace but for me I like to see the goofs that got left in and my favorite goof is towards the end of the movie when mr. Witherspoon from the asylum heads upstairs to help teddy pack as he picks up the bugle he also straightens up a glass that has fallen over and if you listen carefully you can hear Cary Grant off-camera ask if you are supposed to do that and there you have it my list of some great useless trivia about Arsenic and Old Lace as always if you have a favorite piece of trivia about this movie that I didn't include please let me know in the comments below and don't forget I sewed every Monday morning so please be sure to subscribe if you'd like to get an alert when my new videos go live and finally thank you again for watching a million movies and I hope to see you again here soon

Channel: A Million Movies

Views: 110,550

Rating: 4.9323549 out of 5

Keywords: movies, Cary Grant, Murder, Poison, Trivia, Arsenic and Old Lace, Broadway

Id: xxFodb3Q0HE

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/AMillionMovies]

For this week's video, I decided to kick off October with lots of great (and useless) facts about one of my favorite Halloween movies - Arsenic and Old Lace. I cover how Cary Grant felt about his performance, a special tombstone in the graveyard, and the real-life murders that are thought to have inspired the story... plus lots more.

As always, I'd love to get any feedback or suggestions anyone here has. Thanks.

[u/OldSoulSpeaks]

Great video! One of my favorite older Hollywood flicks. No wonder there were several direct Karloff jokes. Makes much more sense now.