October Horror Challenge 2017 #49: "Arsenic and Old Lace"

This has been one of my favorite movies since I was a kid. My mom wouldn't let us watch horror movies unless they were older, but she was excited to introduce us to this movie because it was one of her favorites too. She thought we would find it scary, but while I didn't think it was scary, I did think it was hilarious. I wanted to watch it again because I haven't seen it in years, and I'm happy to report that it's as good as I remember.

In case you're a poor, deprived soul who hasn't heard of this movie (or the play on which it's based) it's about a famous writer who is planning to get married, but he has a dilemma. He's famous for writing books denouncing the institution of marriage, but his bigger problem is that the only family he knows are several cans short of a six pack. His uncle is delusional and thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, and his great aunt's seem like sweet old ladies, but they are hiding a murderous secret in the basement. What is it with me and basements today?

Back in his day, Cary Grant was very handsome back in his day, and he's very charming here as Mortimer, the young man who's life seems to be falling apart in this movie. He's decided that since the members of his family that he knows seem to be crazy that insanity must run in his family, so he shouldn't get married and pass the insanity on to a future generation. I can kinda see his point, but it seemed a little silly to me as a kid, and it still does now, but I guess he has enough reason to be worried he had bad genes. Plus while his aunts are sweet old ladies and his uncle seems harmless, he has a long-lost brother who is much more sinister and dangerous. Definitely don't want more of those creepy guys running around.

It's surreal revisiting this movie again after all these years. I've seen it enough times to have large portions of the dialogue memorized  even now. I keep mentally finishing the character's sentences for them and it amuses me. It's nice coming back to a movie like this that I've known for so many years. Movies are some of the only happy memories I have of my childhood, so it's nice for me to come back to them now and again. I think I said before that it's kind of like coming home, and it makes my heart happy.