May 16th      
Arsenic and Old Lace**    

(US 1944)                       

Two spinster aunts who benevolently murder old gentlemen and bury them in the cellar, find the unwelcome return of another relative with rather more obvious murder motives.
An eccentric black comedy for all concerned - based on a very successful stage play - affected somewhat in mid-production by the attack on Pearl Harbour (with Capra diverting to make the Why We Fight series), leaving some rather over-the-top acting in places, making the film not quite a clsssic but certainly an amusing oddity.

Written by: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, from the play by Joseph Kesselring.
Producer/Director: Frank Capra.
Starring: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, John Alexander, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Carson, James Gleason.
Photography: Sol Polito.
Music: Max Steiner.

+ MORTIMER BREWSTER: "Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."

++ Bob Hope and Jack Benny were among those considered by Capra before Cary Grant was cast. Boris Karloff was unable to reprise his original stage role (played instead by Raymond Massey) at the insistence of the stage play's producers.