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Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace, the classic 1944 Frank Capra family relationship mental illness murder mystery black comedy ("From the stage play by Joseph Kesselring"; "Screen Play by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein"; about a man with two crazy brothers, and people start dying, and he assumes it is his brothers, but he quickly finds out his kindly aunts are actually the culprits!) starring Cary Grant (as Mortimer Brewster), Raymond Massey (awkwardly playing the role written for Boris Karloff, who played it on the stage; as Jonathan Brewster), Jack Carson, Priscilla Lane (as Elaine Harper), Peter Lorre (as Dr. Einstein), Edward Everett Horton (as Mr. Witherspoon), James Gleason, Josephine Hull (as Aunt Abby Brewster), Jean Adair (as Aunt Martha Brewster), and John Alexander (as Theodore Brewster, who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt!). Note that this classic was actually filmed in 1941, but due to contractual agreements with the producers of the Broadway version (see below), it wasn't released to theaters until 1944 (though, interestingly enough, the film was still released to U.S. troops between 1941 and 1944!). The "contractual agreements" referred to above was with star Boris Karloff, who owned a portion of the Broadway version. He rightly assumed that releasing the movie version would hurt the box office of the Broadway version, so he wisely had written into the contract that the movie could not be released until the Broadway play stopped running (which usually lasted at most six months). But because this play was so incredibly popular, it ran on Broadway for three years, which meant the movie could not be released for those three years! Finally, note that during those three years, Warner Bros. had parted ways with star Priscilla Lane, so when the movie was finally released in 1944, they barely mentioned her on the U.S. advertising for the movie (she is given small third billing on the one-sheet, behind Jack Carson, and she is not billed at all on several other posters)!
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: What a wonderful candid publicity photo this is! It shows Cary Grant, Jack Carson, and director Frank Capra on the set of the movie, and they are posing with baseball legend Joe DiMaggio! This is especially interesting because, as noted above, this 1944 movie was actually filmed in 1941, and that was the year that Joe DiMaggio had his likely never-to-be-broken consecutive hitting streak of 56 games! Finally, note that there is a fifth man in the photo, but we don't know who that is (but we are sure someone will contact us and identify him). Note that this still is a key book still, mounted to a linen backing. Many studios spent extra money to have their most special photos, the key book stills, either backed with linen or printed on a heavy paper, both of which enhanced their durability. They had an extra 1" at the left or top, with punch holes, because of how they were stored. Key book stills are far more rare than regular stills, which has increased their popularity among collectors, since only a few keybooks were manufactured per film, and a key book still is guaranteed to be authentic.

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