Episode 570: Arsenic & Old Lace (1944)

Special Guests: Joseph McBride, Charles Dennis
Guest Co-Hosts: Sylvia Hubbard, Kat Ellinger

We’re wrapping up Screwball month with a look at Frank Capra’s Arsenic & Old Lace. Released in 1944, though shot several years before that, the film stars Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic and avowed bachelor who has found the love of his life in Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) who lives right next door to his kind-hearted aunts, Abby and Martha. There’s just one thing…. Abby and Martha have a terrible habit of poisoning their single, lonely old men boarders.

Sylvia Hubbard and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss the film while special guest Joseph McBride (Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success) talks about Frank Capra while Charles Dennis reveals just a few of the things he's uncovered for his upcoming book There's a Body in the Window Seat!: The History of Arsenic and Old Lace.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 570: Arsenic & Old Lace (1944)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Arsenic & Old Lace on DVD
Buy Unmasking Frank Capra by Joseph McBride

Music:
"End Titles" - Max Steiner
"There Is A Happy Land" - Lewis Family
"Run Runaway" - Slade

Watch:

Episode 233: The Black Cat (1934)

Special Guests: Noah Isenberg, Edward G. Pettit
Guest Co-Host: Maitland McDonagh

The first big American studio film -- and last big American studio film - directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, The Black Cat is, uh, "inspired" by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story and stars Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in a taut game of life and death.

We talk with Noah Isenberg, author of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins and the "Philly Poe Guy", Edward G. Pettit to compare the film with the Poe story. And, we're joined by special guest co-host Maitland McDonagh.

Superstitious? Perhaps... Baloney? Perhaps not.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 233: The Black Cat (1934)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Black Cat on DVD
Buy The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Buy Edgar G Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins by Noah Isenberg
Read For Criterion Consideration: Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat by Joshua Brunsting
Visit Maitland McDonagh's 120 Days Books website
Buy books by Maitland McDonagh
Follow the Philly Poe Guy on Twitter
Listen to our episode on Ulmer's Detour
Hear more Maitland McDonagh
Hear more Ed Pettit

Music:
"Allegro Moderato" - Franz Schubert
"Andante Con Moto" - Franz Schubert
"The Cat Came Back" - Sonny James

Watch: