funnystrange.com

August 31 movie: Arsenic and Old Lace. This was a bit -- actually a lot -- zanier than I typically prefer, and I'm also not crazy about play adaptations that still feel stagey (all the action in one room, everyone projecting to the balcony, etc). But Cary Grant makes just about anything worth watching. Plus a great role for Peter Lorre, whose character has more sense of humor than in any other movie I've seen. The constant reminders that it was originally a play actually increased the humor in Grant's job as a theater critic. (Though I can't help thinking that they could have made him a movie critic -- did they have movie critics back then?) And the last line -- "I'm not a Brewster! I'm the son of a sea cook!" -- is, if not quite as good as the last line in Some Like it Hot, still up there.