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- Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - Arsenic and Old Lace
Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - Arsenic and Old Lace
| October 23, 2009 There will be no movie tomorrow night because the girls and I will be dining with Prince Albert of Monaco. But we’ll be here on Sunday with a new film: Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor and Richard Gere in “AMELIA.” Plus a new episode of “The Girls Next Door.” Next Friday: Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb and Linda Blair in “THE EXORCIST.” And on Saturday—Halloween night—Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in “INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE.” Tonight: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson and Peter Lorre in Frank Capra’s ***** comedy “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.” In the 1930s, Frank Capra had, almost single handedly, turned Poverty Row Columbia Pictures into a major studio, with films such as “IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT,” “MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,” “LOST HORIZON” and “MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.” At the end of the decade, Capra left Columbia and Harry Cohn, the least liked studio head in Hollywood. He made “MEET JOHN DOE” for Warner Bros., but he didn’t like Jack Warner any more than he did Harry Cohn, so he began negotiating with Charlie Chaplin to make a film titled “THE FLYING YORKSHIREMAN” at United Artists...with Chaplin to star. It never happened. In Capra’s view, Chaplin was “A great actor, a funny man, but as a human being—a shit! The only person I can say is a complete shit is Charlie Chaplin,” said Capra. On January 10, 1941, “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE” opened on Broadway. This macabre comedy was a smash hit. Capra saw and loved it! The crazy family that is the key to this story was something Capra could relate to, because he had a crazy family of his own. Capra’s mother died in May. He had once described her as “Nuts!" Capra’s interest in “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE” came at a time when he was trying to make some sense out of the end of his relationship with his own mother. As a boy, he had been terrorized by her. Capra called the home in which he grew up, “a house of pain.” In the basement of that home, Capra’s mother made wine, too, just as in the play. Capra also had an older brother who tormented him as a boy, just as the Karloff-like older brother tormented the hero in the play. Capra tried to acquire the rights to the play and learned they had already been purchased by Warner Bros., so he agreed to make another film for Jack Warner. “I owe myself a picture like this,” Capra said. “I’m not going to try to reform anybody (with this one). It will be a picture without a sermon, and I’m going to have a lot of fun (making it).” Capra signed the contract to produce and direct the film on August 1, 1941. He was paid $125,000, plus 10% of the gross over $1,250,000—the budgeted cost of the film. The picture began principle photography on October 20 and wrapped eight weeks later, on December 16, 1941—nine days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The film could have been one of the big hits of 1942, but it wasn’t. A stipulation in the contract with Warner Bros. specified that the film could not compete with the play, meaning it could not be released until after the show closed on Broadway. An unexpected smash, “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE” ran almost four years. The movie was not released until September, 1944. Cary Grant’s role in the film, the one normal member of a deranged family, was played by Allyn Joslyn on Broadway. Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope and Jack Benny were all considered for the role before Capra chose Grant. Cary wasn’t sure he was right for the part, but accepted it for $100,000. He thought Jimmy Stewart should have played the role. For the rest of the cast, Capra borrowed the principles from the play. Josephine Hull, Jean Adair and brother John Alexander as “Teddy”—all performed the roles they were simultaneously playing on Broadway. The one actor they did not get—the actor around which so much of the play was built—was Boris Karloff. Without Karloff’s spoof of his own Karloff—Frankenstein monster persona, the producers felt they had no play. And so, Raymond Massey was substituted. And made up to look as much like the Karloff creature as possible. Sam Jaffe was also tested. He had played the High Llama in Capra’s “LOST HORIZON,” and he had been chosen over Massey for that earlier role. The Epstein brothers wrote the screenplay for “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.” Their next project was “CASABLANCA.” This was Capra’s last film before the war. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, he was drafted into the Signal Corps, where he produced the highly regarded “WHY WE FIGHT” series. His first film after his return from service was the Jimmy Stewart classic “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.” At the end of the play, the superintendant of the Happy Dale Sanitarium sits down with the ladies to enjoy a final glass of elderberry wine laced with Arsenic. Not in the movie. Preview audiences didn’t want to see loveable Edward Everett Horton die. The biggest laugh in the play was also cut by the censors. In the play, when Cary Grant’s character realizes he isn’t related to the crazy family, he gleefully announces, “I’m not a Brewster, I’m a bastard!” In the movie, the line had to be changed to “I’m the son of a sea cook!” So now—from 1941—or 1944, depending on how you look at it—“ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.” |
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Mar 21, 2010
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