Arsenic and Old Lace poster

Arsenic and Old Lace

She Passed Out On Cary! No Wonder . . . She's just discovered his favorite aunts have poisoned their 13th gentleman friend!

7.6(1,087)19441h 58m6

Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!

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Status
Released
Budget
$1.1M
Box office
—
Language
English
  • poison
  • cemetery
  • insanity
  • cellar
  • marriage
  • murder
  • serial killer
  • writer
  • corpse
  • critic

Top billed cast

Behind the camera

Director

Frank Capra

Produced in

United States of America

Gallery

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Videos

Release dates

  • United StatesUS

    • Theatrical (limited)New York City, New York1 Sept 1944
    • TheatricalNR23 Sept 1944
  • CanadaCA

    • Theatrical31 Dec 1944
  • AustriaAT

    • Theatrical1217 Oct 1952
  • BelgiumBE

    • Theatrical141 Sept 1944
  • BrazilBR

    • Theatrical144 Dec 1944
  • DenmarkDK

    • Theatrical5 Aug 1948
  • FranceFR

    • TheatricalU20 Dec 1946
  • GermanyDE

    • Theatrical1212 May 1952
  • GreeceGR

    • TheatricalΚ-1212 May 1952
  • ItalyIT

    • Theatrical26 Jun 1945
    • TVByoblu31 Dec 2022
  • JapanJP

    • TheatricalG28 Sept 1948
  • NetherlandsNL

    • Physical12DVD6 Mar 2008

Frequently asked questions

Arsenic and Old Lace was released on 1 September 1944.

Audience reviews

3
  • J

    John Chard

    7/1/2019

    9/10

    Frenetic roller-coaster ride - Capra style! The Broadway show this film is based on ran for something like four years, such was the yearning for riotous rompathons in the 40s, and thus here the Capra adaptation is pretty much non stop mania. Led by the perfectly cast Cary Grant, the film barely pauses for breath, stopping only briefly to put a bit of creepy menace into the otherwise insane plot. Oh yes the plot, t…

  • B

    barrymost

    1/19/2020

    10/10

    There are thirteen bodies in the cellar! Oh, piffle. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster has just gotten married. But his newfound wedded bliss is interrupted by the disturbing discovery that his sweet old spinster aunts have been murdering lonely old men with their homemade elderberry wine, and burying the bodies in the cellar. This demented screwball comedy was the film that introduced me to Cary Grant. The utter…

  • F

    Filipe Manuel Neto

    12/3/2023

    10/10

    **An extraordinary comedy that stands out for its unpretentiousness.** I didn't have high expectations when I decided to watch this film, and I think this increased the impact it ended up having even more: based on a successful play, the film is an extraordinary comedy full of bizarreness and mischief, without a single dead moment and full of twists and turns that make us laugh and amuse us. The script begins w…

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