Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Free Movie ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
https://archive.org/details/ArsinicAndOldLace ^ | n/a | n/a

Posted on 09/18/2023 12:27:16 PM PDT by V K Lee

This is one of the greatest movies ever made. There
isn't a single bad part in the entire thing. The
actors were absolutely fantastic, as was the directing
Cast: Raymond Massey, Cary Grant, Jack Carson,
Edward Everett Horton, Priscilla Lane.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: comedy; lookslikekarloff; movie; sonofaseacook
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
Delightful film.

1 posted on 09/18/2023 12:27:16 PM PDT by V K Lee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Cary Grant is a masterful Lite Comedy Actor.

Comes right across the screen.

Few have that ability.


2 posted on 09/18/2023 12:31:30 PM PDT by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

One of the first ‘grown-up’ movies I ever saw and it probably affected my perception of reality from that point on.


3 posted on 09/18/2023 12:31:43 PM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Great! But based on a delightful play!

I always get a kick out of how the police officer describes what we consider a low crime rate in Brooklyn.


4 posted on 09/18/2023 12:32:31 PM PDT by vaskypilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee
So funny. Just wonderful. Good God but they don't make anything half that good these days. Let Hollyweird stay on strike forever.

5 posted on 09/18/2023 12:42:44 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

The first time I saw it I was well under age 10, any time it’s on I’ll still watch it. What a great film! But, that happens with any Cary Grant movie.

Hubba hubba, wink wink nudge nudge know what I mean?


6 posted on 09/18/2023 12:44:20 PM PDT by CaptainPhilFan ( Bring back insane asylums)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Qiviut

Bkmk


7 posted on 09/18/2023 12:50:06 PM PDT by Qiviut (To the living, we owe respect. To the dead, we owe the truth (Voltaire) $hot $hills: Sod Off)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Hilarious movie.

“I’m the son of a sea cook!”

L


8 posted on 09/18/2023 12:56:41 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Great film directed by Frank Capra.


9 posted on 09/18/2023 1:12:01 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee
This is one of the greatest movies ever made. There isn't a single bad part in the entire thing. The actors were absolutely fantastic, as was the directing Cast: Raymond Massey, Cary Grant, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, Priscilla Lane.

I've seen it. When I ran across it I wanted to watch it because I had seen the play at my school theater when I was in high school, and it was excellent.

Oddly enough, the movie with Carry Grant playing the lead role was a paler imitation of what I saw produced by a high school theater. A lot of the lines I thought uproariously funny at the play, fell flat in the movie.

It just wasn't as good, and I was shocked and surprised. I thought it would be better than a high school play.

10 posted on 09/18/2023 1:35:38 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp
Thanks to the Production Code, quite a few aspects of Kesselring's play had to be watered down for the movie. The other problem with the movie is that the laughter is forced in many scenes. It's not one of Capra's best.
11 posted on 09/18/2023 1:38:25 PM PDT by Publius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Yessssss!!! Thank you!


12 posted on 09/18/2023 1:47:49 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (In my defense, I was left unsupervised.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

I love that movie.


13 posted on 09/18/2023 1:51:03 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("Normal" is never coming back. But Jesus is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Publius
Thanks to the Production Code, quite a few aspects of Kesselring's play had to be watered down for the movie.

That may have been it. The movie just wasn't as funny as was the play.

The other problem with the movie is that the laughter is forced in many scenes. It's not one of Capra's best.

Yeah, that's what it felt like to me too.

It's been awhile since I saw it, but I remember Cary Grant lines that I felt fell flat, and the crazy guy yelling "Bully" also fell flat.

It was mildly humorous, not uproariously humorous as I remember it.

14 posted on 09/18/2023 1:51:41 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp

I would have to rank Capra’s best as “It Happened One Night” for Columbia in 1934.


15 posted on 09/18/2023 1:52:45 PM PDT by Publius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

Too bad Karloff was not allowed to reprise his role as Jonathan Brewster for the movie. Otherwise it is a very fun movie.


16 posted on 09/18/2023 2:01:38 PM PDT by yuleeyahoo (“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” - the deepstate)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

A favorite of mine as well.

CHARGE!!!!!!


17 posted on 09/18/2023 2:06:28 PM PDT by left that other site (Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V K Lee

excellent


18 posted on 09/18/2023 2:08:36 PM PDT by mylife (I was a sort of country boy, a cockeyed optimist, wrapped in international intrigue and espionage)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Publius
I would have to rank Capra’s best as “It Happened One Night” for Columbia in 1934.

I've heard of it, but I don't think i've seen it. I'll have to check it out.

Oddly enough I like a lot of old movies. I just watched "The Day" with Humphrey Bogart last Saturday.

I've taken to watching old movies with my mom, who actually lived through that era. I thought she would get a kick out of seeing this stuff from her lifetime.

19 posted on 09/18/2023 2:28:34 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: CaptainPhilFan; Mr. K; V K Lee
The first time I saw it I was well under age 10, any time it’s on I’ll still watch it.

Yeah, my Dad and Mom took me with them to see it. Dad had just received his B. Div. fom Colgate-Rochester Divinity School that year, and after the graduation being ordained an Elder in the Methodist Church, the Bishop because of it advanced my Dad to a newer bigger church in Angelica, New York, in the eastern part of the state, a town of population about 500. Wow! Big (for us and for Dad's career)!

The nearest theater was in Belmont, the County Seat, about 10 miles away. I'm guessing that we went as my 8th birthday treat on November 1.

You will recall that we were in the middle of the really hot part of WWII, with battles in the Pacific islands and advances in Europe toward the Rhine--The Battles of the Bulge and Iwo Jima yet to come. Because of the war rationing, We were limited in travel by the "A" gas rationing ticket, that--IIRC--only gave us only five gallons a week, so traveling to and from Belmont, whilst paying the 50 cents each for he movie ticket, was a pretty big thing on a minister's pay and ability to use the car for visiting parishioners.

I remember but little of the movie except the two seemingly "innocent" well-mannered elder ladies, and Cary Grant. He seemed to be always in a fix. It was so hard for me to believe that the nice ladies were actually poisoners with their tea parties. That was not comedy to me, but rather pretty scary, considering from the viewpoint of a preacher's kid that with a lot of the village men going off to war, and the young women starting to behave more worldly, most of our supporting church congregation was nice old ladies and men far too aged (more than age 45) to be drafted.

Maybe I'll try to find this movie in the DVD archives of the Delaware Library system, where I now live. I'm glad to find a few folks on FR as old as us guys. Thinking of this movie brings up a lot of memories from long ago. What an age that we have lived in, and seen the whole culture be changed!

How many people alive today can imagine a very active bustling society, a Radio-soaked society but without the distracting TV option, let alone the overwhelming internet or smartphone involvements that have so mightily consumed peoples' attention away from each other.

Too much for me!

20 posted on 09/18/2023 2:39:06 PM PDT by imardmd1 (To learn is to live. To live is to teach another. Fiat Lux!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson