Jonathan's face, altered by Einstein while drunk, resembles Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster makeup. Jonathan learns his aunts' secret and proposes to bury his victim in the cellar. Abby and Martha object vehemently because their victims were "nice" gentlemen while Jonathan's victim is a stranger and a "foreigner".
Jonathan also declares his intention to kill Mortimer. Elaine is impatient to leave on their honeymoon but is concerned about Mortimer's increasingly odd behavior as he frantically attempts to control the situation. He tries unsuccessfully to alert the bumbling police to Jonathan's presence. To draw attention away from his aunts and deprive them of their willing but uncomprehending accomplice, Mortimer tries to file paperwork to have Teddy legally committed to a mental asylum. Worrying that the genetic predisposition for mental illness resides within him "Insanity runs in my family; it practically gallops" , Mortimer explains to Elaine that he can't remain married to her.
Eventually Jonathan is arrested, Einstein flees after having signed Teddy's commitment papers, Teddy is safely consigned to an institution, and his aunts insist upon joining him. Upon hearing that Mortimer signed the commitment papers as next of kin, Abby and Martha are concerned they may be null and void; they inform Mortimer that he is not a Brewster after all: his mother was the family cook and his father had been a chef on a steamship.
Relieved, he lustily kisses Elaine and whisks her off to their honeymoon while yelling, "Charge! The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script.
Capra's own intelligent direction rounds out. Twenty-four years after the film was released, Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg wrote Hollywood in the Forties where they state that "Frank Capra provided a rather overstated and strained version of Arsenic and Old Lace".
For several months, that newspaper did a vigorous investigation of the deaths at the Archer Home. Their investigations eventually provided the basis for a year-long police probe. Two years after his death, the body of Franklin Andrews was exhumed at the request of the local authorities. The subsequent autopsy of his body found enough arsenic in it to kill several men. Amy Archer-Gilligan was arrested, had her trial by jury, and was convicted of multiple murders.
There was ample evidence against her. Her defense statement that she purchased large quantities of arsenic to kill rats on her property did not win over the jury members to her side. Originally sentenced to death, her conviction was overturned and she was retried two years later, with her lawyers pleading insanity.
This resulted in a sentence of life in prison. But, Amy did not spend the rest of her life in prison. Similar to the story end for Martha and Abigail Brewster, the deadly but good-intentioned sweet ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace, Amy Archer-Gilligan was transferred to a mental hospital. The two fondly tolerate Teddy's firm belief that he is President Roosevelt, even to the extent of allowing him to dig the Panama Canal in their Cellar.
Their domestic bliss is enhanced by the increasingly regular visits of Teddy's brother Mortimer as Mortimer's grows ever more fond of Elaine Harper, who lives next door with her father. Mortimer is very fond of his aunts, and fonder still of Elaine and it seems that these domestic arrangements will lead to the inevitable happy conclusion. But when Mortimer makes a disturbing discovery the path to a happy ending becomes anything but clear.
After the period piece 'Charley's Aunt' it was "no more large sets". So now I find myself directing 'Arsenic and Old Lace' and there are a whole bunch of things about this play that I can say never again about! As usual I haven't so much notes, as reasons why Why choose 'Arsenic and Old Lace to perform? Why Not? The film has been a firm favourite of mine since my youth, it's very funny and challenging to do and also my friend Janet Simpson encouraged me.
Abby: Oh, no! Martha: Oh, he's so happy being Teddy Roosevelt. Abby: Oh, do you remember, Martha, once a long time ago, we thought if he'd be George Washington, it might be a change for him, and we suggested it.
Martha: And do you know what happened? He just stayed under his bed for days and wouldn't be anybody. The Aunts assure the Reverend that Mortimer has made arrangements for Teddy to be institutionalized in the Happydale Sanitarium after their passing.
The newlyweds take a taxicab to Brooklyn to briefly tell their families his aunts and her father about their recent marriage, and their intentions to set off on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls: "We're gonna go whole hog. Niagara Falls - everybody ought to go to Niagara Falls We've got a drawing room on the train, the bridal suite in the hotel, and tomorrow morning, we go over the falls in a barrel.
With a lascivious look on his face, he chases after Elaine for a playful tryst in the cemetery "right out here in the open with everyone looking.
Elaine: But Mortimer, you're going to love me for my mind, too? Mortimer: One thing at a time. To celebrate the news of Mortimer's marriage, his thrilled, match-making aunts who had long ago predicted he would tie the knot propose opening a bottle of wine, singing, inviting over a few of the neighbors, and having some wedding cake. He inquires about the whereabouts of the notes for his new anti-marriage book, Mind over Matrimony that Abby had hidden from him.
While searching for his papers, Mortimer opens up the window seat where he stumbles upon and discovers the results of his spinster aunts' latest charity act - a dead body. In one of the film's classic scenes, a flabbergasted Mortimer does multiple double-takes and eyeball rolls. He wrongly believes that Teddy, who is happily digging in the cellar thinking he is digging locks for the Panama Canal , is responsible, and is determined to get him promptly committed in the Happydale Sanitarium: "Teddy's got to go to Happydale now, at once!
When he informs his aunts that Teddy's "killed a man," they react with laughter: "Nonsense! Hoskins,' he is shocked and mortified to discover their secret - and actually doubts his own sanity:. Mortimer: But there's a body in the window seat! Abby: Yes, dear. We know. Mortimer: You know?? Martha: Of course. Abby: Yes, but it has nothing to do with Teddy. Mortimer: But, but Abby: Now Mortimer, you just forget about it. Forget you ever saw the gentleman. Mortimer: Forget?
Abby: We never dreamed you'd peek. His inquisitiveness forces them to explain their own "little secret" - they poison unsuspecting old men who seek lodging with their special homemade elderberry wine a gallon mixed with a teaspoonful of arsenic, a half-teaspoon of strychnine and a "pinch of cyanide" as a charity act - to end their loneliness and find ultimate peace: "If we could help other lonely old men to find that same peace, we would.
Abby also delivers one of the film's most memorable lines - a sentimental remembrance of the last words of one of their victims:. When Mortimer insists that they must do something, Abby reprimands him for acting crazy: "Now Mortimer, you behave. You're too old to be flying off the handle like this. Meanwhile, Elaine has become impatient for being held up and delayed after repeatedly signaling with a sexy whistle Here Comes the Bride for Mortimer. She is surprised by his weird behavior, appearance and angered by his desire to get rid of his new bride because he cannot explain what he has learned to her :.
Mortimer: Oh, Elaine, I'm so sorry but something happened. Elaine: What'd you do? Lose your nerve? Hey, where's that look I was gonna see so often? She whistles into his ear Mortimer: Whoa, no, stop.
Don't whistle in my ear, please. Elaine: Mortimer, what is wrong? Look at your hair. To protect his two aunts with a plausible coverup plan - a responsibility that takes precedence over his duty to his new wife - Mortimer phones Judge Cullman Vaughan Glaser to try to have an obviously-crazy Teddy blamed for the murders and legally committed to the state institution: "We've got to do something about Teddy immediately.
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