Frank Capra, one of my favourite directors from the west surprised me with this brilliant comic masterpiece revolving around a crime plot, superbly directed by the maestro. Featuring the famous Cary Grant in a fabulous performance along with a hilarious act by two ladies Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre, this is surely a not to be missed fast paced comedy with many enjoyable sequences. The ladies have a dark, scary secret to hide and Grant plays a man who hates getting married. But he doesn’t know about the insanity running in his family which further leads to many complex and unpredictable events happening around him.
If you are a fan of Cary Grant, then you would admit that he has never been so hysterical, energetic and hyper-active in his entire career as in “Arsenic and Old Lace”. Many may like to call it over the top, but I really enjoyed watching him in this rare kind of appearance a lot. So that should give you enough reason to watch the film at the earliest. But here I would like to mention two more unique reasons especially for the Indian viewers that why they should essentially watch this classic for sure.
Firstly, I have always felt like calling Hrishikesh Mukherjee as the Frank Capra of Hindi Films and vice versa. So keeping that in mind you can easily imagine “Arsenic and Old Lace” as a crime comedy movie directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee of the west. Hence consider it having all those trademark light-hearted well written scenes with loving coming touches as seen in the famous Hrishi Da films. But since the Indian maestro never attempted a murder or crime drama so this needs to be seen by all Hrishi Da’s fans as a must.
Secondly most of the readers might be aware that in our part of the world, the veteran Dev Anand was also popularly called the Cary Grant of India (many compared him to Gregory Peck too) in his era of the last century. So if you ever wondered why he was referred to as Grant then just watch this movie and you will clearly find the glimpses of Dev Anand in Grant’s performance from start to finish. Here the reference is not for any negative comparison but its more like a compliment to both the great legendary actors from the East and the West.
Thus if the above description interests you and the rare genre of a comic crime drama further adds to the excitement, then do go for “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the earliest. It’s a film perfectly adapted from a stage comedy (majorly shot at a single indoor set) with few eccentric but pretty interesting characters providing a perfect entertainment package for your fine weekend evening. A must watch for all the fans of Frank Capra, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Cary Grant and Dev Anand all together.
Directed by Frank Capra
Starring : Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre.
