Arsenic & Old Lace

Mortimer Brewster (Tony Randall) is about to get married to Elaine Harper (Dody Heath.) he knew his family was a little eccentric; however, he had no idea how eccentric they could be. If the cute little Brewster sisters offer you their homemade elderberry wine, I suggest you decline or at least watch this movie first.

I have seen the movie with Cary Grant and Raymond Massey a gazillion times and can quote from most of the characters.

I have always wanted to see the play. The original stage production ran on Broadway for 1444 performances, from January 10, 1941, to June 17, 1944. As with many of the movies that are based on plays you can never tell whether the play will exceed the movie and it's just a reflection or the rebalance produced as a movie adds a dimension that the play cannot.

This is as close as I can come to the play as it has not been rendered in the area that I know of.

There've been several recorded versions; none of them are commercially available on media except for this 1962 made-for-the-television.

Director: George Schaefer Writers: Robert Hartung (adaptation), Joseph Kesselring (play)

As a recorded version from the time, one will have to overlook the graininess and the audio distortions from the recording. However, once you get into the play all of this seems to mysteriously disappear.

My only personal problem was getting used to Tom Bosley (Happy Days) as Teddy Brewster.

Tony Randall ("Mortimer") is great as the nephew who returns to his family home, and to his two maiden aunts "Abby" (Dorothy Stickney") and "Martha" (Mildred Natwick) who look very much the refined, gracious, butter-wouldn't-melt type. Shortly afterwards, however, he discovers that these two elderly spinsters have a grisly secret in their basement and when his long-lost brother "Jonathan" (Boris Karloff) arrives; he discovers that this runs in the family! It hasn't quite the charm of the 1944 iteration, and the theatrical staging - and frequently annoying interventions of "Teddy" (Tom Bosley) do detract a bit from the comedy, but the principals are on good form and all in all it's quite a charming outing for Karloff, especially, who plays his menacing, comedic, part as much to camera as to his partners on the "stage". Luckily, I've never been partial to elderberry wine...

I've never seen Arsenic & Old Lace (A&OL) on stage where it originated, but as a big fan of the 1944 feature film, I feel you'd be best off watching that version before trying this 1962 TV movie.

(Note: The 1944 film is currently listed as 1942 on IMDb, because its release was complicated.)

I suppose if you haven't seen A&OL in any form, the '62 will make some impact because the plot will be entirely new. But if you're experiencing A&OL for the first time, why not do it with the best production values you can find? You'll get those from the '44, a true classic of black screwball comedy that comes with the quality of Hollywood A-list movies. Frank Capra directed, and legendary Cary Grant was the lead, in the tradition of his energetic comic performances in other screwball comedies like His Girl Friday and The Awful Truth. Rounding out the cast were some of the best supporting actors of that era, like Peter Lorre, Edward Everett Horton, and James Gleason.

In the early 60s, there were no streaming services, and people couldn't just go out and borrow or rent a 1944 film. Under those circumstances, people probably liked how NBC and Hallmark made a new A&OL for TV, but today it's not your best option, or even a very good one. This appears to have been a live broadcast, which is impressive except for how the technical standards of live early 60s TV were primitive. The inferior staging, sets, direction etc. dampen the comic energy. I even had to turn on closed captions to hear the dialogue.

At 90 minutes, this must've been cut considerably from the play. (The '44 Grant/Capra version was almost 2 hours, and was adapted by the talented Epstein twins.)

Historical value is the only thing going for the '62. It shows you what old live TV was like, but this is now hard to watch. Most significant is the chance to watch horror legend Boris Karloff reprise the villainous role he originated in the first stage production. (His popular Broadway performance kept him in New York, unable to join the Grant/Capra film.)

The cast is notable, too. No one can fill Cary Grant's shoes, but Tony Randall (The Odd Couple) was a catch. Mildred Natwick (The Trouble with Harry) plays one of the sweetly dangerous aunts, and a few classic TV/film buffs will recognize Dorothy Stickney as the other one. A younger Tom Bosley (Happy Days) is game to play Teddy, the deluded brother who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt. As plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein, George Voskovec, with his big glasses and messy character, is unrecognizable compared to his appearance in 12 Angry Men, when he played the clean-cut watchmaker from Europe.

The principal entertainment value of this old chestnut is as a nostalgic curio from a bygone age of live television plays. They definitely don't make them like this any more - probably for the best! It's mildly amusing, but the acting is so over-the-top and hammy that you can't even consider it as a proper farce. It's only slightly amusing on its own merits and most of the laughs come from viewing it through the telescope of time. For cinema and TV history enthusiasts only.