Arsenic and Old Lace/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion:
    • The Boris Karloff Casting Gag below (which was only for the original run of the play).
    • For the movie, Cary Grant leans against a tombstone with the name "Archibald Leach".
    • The casting of Peter Lorre as a crazed German surgeon may be a callback to Mad Love.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: You might not recognize Mr. Witherspoon's face, but you've probably heard Edward Everett Horton narrating "Fractured Fairy Tales" on Rocky and Bullwinkle.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Inverted-- Cary Grant was so dissatisfied with his performance in this movie that he donated his entire salary from it to charity rather than profit from it at all.
  • Playing Against Type: Cary Grant, who usually plays suave and sophisticated characters, in the movie plays a character who starts out like that, but becomes increasingly panicked and flustered as the story goes on.
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