ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 343, 18 January 1946, Page 18

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

(Warner Bros.)

HE original, record-break-ing stage play of Arsenic and Old Lace was a comedy, perhaps a farce, about murder and insanity. It was not,

I suggest, intended as a wild burlesque on these two rather dubious subjects, But that is what it has become in this screen version, The result is not a happy one; though admittedly there are some very bright lines and a few hilarious incidents, and the two Brewster sisters, those dear old spinsters who murder lonely old gentlemen out of sheer kindness of heart and bury the bodies in their cellar, are interestingly played by the original members of the stage cast (Josephine. Hull and Jean Adair), But for the story to be effective, indeed in order for it to keep on the right side of good taste, it is essential that there should be some restraint, some light and shade, in the narration. The whole point of the joke is that on the surface everything about the Brewster household appears so eminently respectable: the shock comes when you discover that, with only one exception, all the Bréwsters are as crazy as coots. In the film, however, there is no contrast whatever; nothing to focus on. The whole of the action is wildly extravagant, and the one character, Mortimer Brewster, who should put the thing in perspective by behaving sanely gives the impression here of being crazier than anybody. Cary Grant plays Mortimer and I doubt if I have ever seen a more deplorable example -of over-acting. But the fault goes deeper than this one performance; it goes deeper even than the direction of Frank Capra; it is a fault that is almost fundamental to Hollywood--~a. failure to understand the precept "Nothing in excess."