Arsenic and Old Lace

(Frank Capra, US 1942, 118 min., 35mm)

This charmingly morbid screwball comedy teams director Capra and leading man Cary Grant for their only film together. The complex story involves two elderly sisters (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, who originated the roles on Broadway) who commit “mercy” killings of lonely old men. Grant is their drama critic nephew, who stops in with his new bride (Priscilla Lane) when he discovers their latest victim. Adding to the chaos are Grant’s uncles, one who is convinced he’s Teddy Roosevelt and the other, a serial killer on the run with a drunken plastic surgeon played by Peter Lorre.