Arsenic & Old Lace

Arsenic & Old Lace (1962)

1962 telefilm adaptation of the classic American play about a deranged family and the string of murders they flippantly commit

Date of release
1962-02-05
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 16m
Genres
Drama, Thriller, Comedy
Director
George Schaefer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic & Old Lace is a 1962 television film directed by George Schaefer and starring Tony Randall, Dorothy Stickney, and Mildred Natwick. It first aired as the 3rd episode of season 11 of the NBC anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. It is an adaptation of Joseph Kesselring's 1939 play Arsenic and Old Lace.

Production

Boris Karloff reprised his role as Jonathan Brewster (who is described by the other characters as resembling the Frankenstein star), which he had originated on Broadway. He had been unable to appear in Frank Capra's 1944 film because of a scheduling conflict, but had played Jonathan on television once before, in a 1955 adaptation for the CBS anthology series The Best of Broadway.

Karloff and director Schaefer had previously performed the play during World War II, touring Pacific islands such as Kwajalein to entertain troops for Special Services. Karloff reportedly tried to cajole Schaefer into playing the role of Teddy in the television adaptation as well, but he declined and the part went to Tom Bosley.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended