[Correlating with the Indianapolis Museum of Art's 2010 Winter Nights Film Series, ZapTown will be publishing essays each week on the films that will be shown in the series.  The museum will be presenting Arsenic And Old Lace on Friday, January 22. The show at 7 p.m. - $9 Public/ $5 Members/ $7 students with ID. For a full schedule, visit the IMA's website (http://www.imamuseum.org/toby) or our Lead Story on The Toby (http://www.zaptownmag.com/2009/12/lets-go-out-to-the-movies-the-toby - film schedule is located at the bottom of the article).]

Past Essays on Zaptown:

The Blue Angel
Nashville

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) is perhaps one of the best known dark comedies from Hollywood’s Golden Era.  It is full of endlessly quotable lines, memorable characters, and insanely (no pun intended) over-the-top performances.  The American Film Institute recognized it as one of the 100 funniest films ever made; placing it at number 30 on their list in 2000.[1] Yet, this movie proved to be very difficult to get onto theater screens.  Contract negotiations, censorship, and the original play’s Broadway run all interfered with the movie’s premiere.

The movie was filmed in 1941, but was not actually released to American audiences until 1944.  The original play was a huge hit on Broadway and Warner Bros.’ contract with the play’s producers stipulated that the movie could not be released to the American public until after the play closed on Broadway.[2] The play ran until June 17, 1944.  As a result, the movie, though scheduled for release in 1942, was held until September of 1944.  Interestingly enough, while stationed in London in 1943 during World War II, Frank Capra, the movie’s director, overheard some American and British soldiers shouting “Charge!” in the same manner as Teddy when running up the steps of “San Juan Hill.”  After hearing this, he learned that Warner Bros. had released the movie to the armed forces overseas almost a year before its release to the general public. [3]  In other words, Warner Bros. found a loophole in the contract.

A large part of the play’s success was attributed to its star Boris Karloff.  One of the running gags in the play is that the character Jonathan, played by Karloff, looked like Boris Karloff due to a botched plastic surgery procedure.  People flocked to the theater to see Karloff in this sinister role.  Because of this, the play’s producers were extremely apprehensive about letting any of the original cast members, but especially their star, reprise their roles on the big screen.  Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander, who originated the roles of Aunt Abby, Aunt Martha, and Teddy “Roosevelt” Brewster respectively, were given time off from the Broadway production to reprise their roles in the movie.  However, Boris Karloff volunteered to stay in the play and not reprise his role in the movie to appease the play’s producers concerns over a drop in ticket sales.[4]  Raymond Massey was cast as Jonathan in the movie and wore heavy makeup in order to resemble Karloff.  According to publicity items from 1944, it took two hours to apply and then another two hours to remove.[5]

Another headache-inducer for the film and Warner Bros. was the Production Code Administration.  At that time, all scripts had to be submitted to the PCA for approval before the movies could be filmed and there were several elements to the movie’s script that the PCA did not like.  The PCA was in the midst of Joseph Breen’s death grip in 1941 and all rules and regulations of the Code were to be strictly enforced.  Arsenic and Old Lace had several elements in the script that directly violated the first two applications: murder and sex.[6] Murder was not to be depicted in a way that could inspire imitation.  Therefore, PCA requested that all references to any actual poisons, with the exception of arsenic, be eliminated from the script as well as a recipe for the poisoned wine for fear that it may be replicated by “unstable viewers.”[7]  This request may seem quite silly today, yet the PCA often worried about corrupting moviegoers.

Another element in the script that the PCA had problems with was the “sexual frustration” between Cary Grant’s Mortimer and Priscilla Lane’s Elaine. [8]  The PCA did not approve of scenes of passion that involved several lusty kisses between any couple regardless of marital status and that passion in general should not arouse baser emotions. [9]  This would explain the reason why almost all of Mortimer’s and Elaine’s supposed heavy petting was either in a taxi cab or behind a tree.  It was implied but never shown.  This concept differs greatly from many of the movies that are now considered “Pre-Code.”  Before Joseph Breen took charge, the censorship guidelines were essentially ignored by filmmakers and many scenes made it to print that never would not be tolerated under Breen’s reign. [10]  One only needs to compare the scene in The Public Enemy where Jean Harlow puts James Cagney’s face between her breasts to the awkward staging of Mortimer and Elaine kissing behind the tree in the graveyard to understand just how much of a strangle hold Breen had over the content of motion pictures at that time.

Despite Breen’s insistence that movie makers follow the Code to the letter, it should be noted that only some of the PCA’s suggestions were taken under advisement, while others, such as the poisoned wine recipe, were ignored entirely.[11]  Interestingly, even though the studio refused to remove the wine recipe from the script, the script was approved, the movie was filmed, and after sitting on the shelf for several years, it finally was released to a very receptive audience.

Arsenic and Old Lace is now considered a classic and also one of Cary Grant’s more iconic roles.  However, the journey from pre-production to filming to releasing it in theaters was a rocky one that probably made at least a few people wish for a glass of Aunt Martha and Aunt Abby’s special elderberry wine.

Sources:

[1] 100 Years… 100 Laughs. (2000)  American Film Institute. http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/laughs.aspx” http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/laughs.aspx (Last accessed on January 19, 2010).

[2-5, 7-8, and 11] Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), American Film Institute Catalog. http://gateway.proquest.com/
openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri: pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:afi& rft_id=xri: afi:film:27697 (Accessed through Proquest database).

[6 and 9] Hayes, David P., The Motion Picture Production Code, 2009. http://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php.

[10] LaSalle, Mick.“Pre-Code Hollywood.”  (GreenCine.com, 2005). http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/precode.jsp.