Post by klep on Feb 11, 2019 7:45:51 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/11: Arsenic and Old Lace
1940s WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is provided by a guest contributor.
With their lightning-fast patter, dazzling wit, and happy romantic endings, it's easy to forget that the classic screwball comedies take place in and reflect a world that is unforgiving and often brutal, and the archetypes of the genre (sarcastic, tough men with a cynical streak and independent, resourceful women) evolved as a response to those conditions. I bring this up not because Arsenic and Old Lace is a screwball (though as a farce it shares a border), but because the play premiered on the heels of the Great Depression in the United States (January 10, 1941) and it's a certainty those decades of scarcity and darkness had an impact on Abby and Martha Brewster.
If you haven't seen the movie (unlikely, but just in case) it's about Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a drama critic who, on his wedding day, discovers that his lovely little aunts have been killing people for years. More specifically, they've been taking in lonely old men as borders and poisoning them, burying them in the basement. (They outsource this job to their brother, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, telling him the men have died of Yellow Fever) Mortimer decides they need to be committed, a process that is complicated by all number of factors, but most harrowingly by the arrival of his brother Jonathan, a sociopathic criminal who got a new face to evade the authorities (unfortunately, that new face looks a lot like Boris Karloff's).
Of course, the movie itself draws the connection between the the Aunts and Jonathan, especially when it turns out they have an identical body count. Part of the genius of the movie is getting us to root for one set of killers and hate another. Of course, Abby and Martha are two warm and compassionate old women (brought to wonderful life by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair), and their method of choice is described as painless. More than that they're familiar; everyone has an aunt like Abby or Martha. Their kookiness just so happens to allow them to step beyond traditional morality. (One of the great running gags of the movie is their insistence that not only what they are doing is excusable, but is a kindness. After all, all their gentlemen are so lonely, and they do give them a fine funeral. To tie it back into that first paragraph, one could almost say they're trying to spare them the suffering of scarcity of attention.)
Jonathan, though... Jonathan practically comes from a whole other movie. It's not just the monstrous face, or his horror staple sidekick Peter Lorre, but that the cinematography changes when he's around. The lighting is high contrast and the shadows are an overpowering, jagged abyss, recalling the cinematography of Universal's classic monster movie period. It's a genre invasion, and the stark juxtaposition adds some genuine fright to a movie that is otherwise consistently hilarious.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/18: Malcolm X
BLACK FILM WEEK!
For Black Film Week we'll be watching Spike Lee's famous biopic about one of the seminal figures of the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Join us next week as we discuss the life and times of Malcolm X. Malcolm X is available for rent on Google Play, Vudu, and iTunes.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/12: Fyre
Chris Smith's latest film concludes this edition of the Next Picture Show Podcast, and while it's similarly about something of a boondoggle, it's a far more malicious one than Coven. Join us Wednesday for our discussion; Fyre is available on Netflix Instant.
1940s WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is provided by a guest contributor.
With their lightning-fast patter, dazzling wit, and happy romantic endings, it's easy to forget that the classic screwball comedies take place in and reflect a world that is unforgiving and often brutal, and the archetypes of the genre (sarcastic, tough men with a cynical streak and independent, resourceful women) evolved as a response to those conditions. I bring this up not because Arsenic and Old Lace is a screwball (though as a farce it shares a border), but because the play premiered on the heels of the Great Depression in the United States (January 10, 1941) and it's a certainty those decades of scarcity and darkness had an impact on Abby and Martha Brewster.
If you haven't seen the movie (unlikely, but just in case) it's about Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a drama critic who, on his wedding day, discovers that his lovely little aunts have been killing people for years. More specifically, they've been taking in lonely old men as borders and poisoning them, burying them in the basement. (They outsource this job to their brother, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, telling him the men have died of Yellow Fever) Mortimer decides they need to be committed, a process that is complicated by all number of factors, but most harrowingly by the arrival of his brother Jonathan, a sociopathic criminal who got a new face to evade the authorities (unfortunately, that new face looks a lot like Boris Karloff's).
Of course, the movie itself draws the connection between the the Aunts and Jonathan, especially when it turns out they have an identical body count. Part of the genius of the movie is getting us to root for one set of killers and hate another. Of course, Abby and Martha are two warm and compassionate old women (brought to wonderful life by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair), and their method of choice is described as painless. More than that they're familiar; everyone has an aunt like Abby or Martha. Their kookiness just so happens to allow them to step beyond traditional morality. (One of the great running gags of the movie is their insistence that not only what they are doing is excusable, but is a kindness. After all, all their gentlemen are so lonely, and they do give them a fine funeral. To tie it back into that first paragraph, one could almost say they're trying to spare them the suffering of scarcity of attention.)
Jonathan, though... Jonathan practically comes from a whole other movie. It's not just the monstrous face, or his horror staple sidekick Peter Lorre, but that the cinematography changes when he's around. The lighting is high contrast and the shadows are an overpowering, jagged abyss, recalling the cinematography of Universal's classic monster movie period. It's a genre invasion, and the stark juxtaposition adds some genuine fright to a movie that is otherwise consistently hilarious.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/18: Malcolm X
BLACK FILM WEEK!
For Black Film Week we'll be watching Spike Lee's famous biopic about one of the seminal figures of the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Join us next week as we discuss the life and times of Malcolm X. Malcolm X is available for rent on Google Play, Vudu, and iTunes.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/12: Fyre
Chris Smith's latest film concludes this edition of the Next Picture Show Podcast, and while it's similarly about something of a boondoggle, it's a far more malicious one than Coven. Join us Wednesday for our discussion; Fyre is available on Netflix Instant.