Arsenic & Old Lace

CinemaSerf

Tony Randall ("Mortimer") is great as the nephew who returns to his family home, and to his two maiden aunts "Abby" (Dorothy Stickney") and "Martha" (Mildred Natwick) who look very much the refined, gracious, butter-wouldn't-melt type. Shortly afterwards, however, he discovers that these two elderly spinsters have a grisly secret in their basement and when his long-lost brother "Jonathan" (Boris Karloff) arrives; he discovers that this runs in the family! It hasn't quite the charm of the 1944 iteration, and the theatrical staging - and frequently annoying interventions of "Teddy" (Tom Bosley) do detract a bit from the comedy, but the principals are on good form and all in all it's quite a charming outing for Karloff, especially, who plays his menacing, comedic, part as much to camera as to his partners on the "stage". Luckily, I've never been partial to elderberry wine...