A Pinch of Arsenic

One of my favorite movies of all time is Arsenic & Old Lace. I first saw it when I was around 13 years old, staying up late and watching some TV around 2 a.m. (remember, before they played the National Anthem and the test pattern would come on...whenever I'd find my Dad asleep in the chair with the TV on he'd tell me that was his favorite show).


I recall thinking the movie was the funniest show I'd seen and it's stayed with me through the years as I enjoyed catching it occasionally on TV. I rented it from Netflix the other day, and was surprised to see it was actually a Halloween movie; it's even mentioned in the opening graphics and kids come by trick-or-treating. I had never noticed that about the movie before, but then again I wasn't into Halloween as much as I am these days.

Of course, I'd wonder about houses that give out entire jack-o-lanterns as treat, but maybe that's what they did back then. There are few movies I can watch over and over again, particularly black-and-white ones (it's heresy, I tell you, what Ted Turner's doing to old movies by colorizing them!) but Arsenic & Old Lace happens to be one of them. I mean, who wouldn't want to be Teddy Roosevelt and charge up San Juan Hill every time you had to go upstairs?