Film

Arsenic and Old Lace

A screwball farce hiding a surprisingly cheerful body count: Cary Grant's newly-married drama critic discovers his sweet spinster aunts have been dispatching lonely old men out of pure civic kindness. Frank Capra directs it like a runaway train, and Grant spends most of the film doing double-takes so violent they should count as stunt work. Pure, manic, gleeful fun.

TMDb rating7.6

If you liked this

Kind Hearts and Coronets1949

The Ealing answer to Arsenic's cheerful murder — a disinherited heir picks off his relatives one by one with impeccable manners and a killer voiceover. Same dry glee about death as good manners.

But Colder and more calculating than Grant's chaos; there's no equivalent of his frantic energy holding it together.

Kind Hearts and Coronets poster

The Ladykillers1955

A sweet old landlady unknowingly houses a gang of thieves who decide she has to go — and can't manage it. Ealing comedy at its most gently macabre, with Alec Guinness deliciously sinister.

But Slower burn than Arsenic, and the humour is more polite chuckle than helpless laughter.

The Ladykillers poster

His Girl Friday1940

Cary Grant at his fastest and most caustic, trading rapid-fire insults with Rosalind Russell in a newsroom screwball classic. If you want more of Grant's comic timing at full throttle, start here.

But No murder plot, no aunts, no cellar — this is pure verbal sparring, a different flavour of chaos entirely.

His Girl Friday poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Serial Mom1994

Both hinge on the comic horror of a beloved, harmless-seeming woman turning out to be a killer for reasons she considers perfectly reasonable.

John Waters' trash-classic take on the same idea: a devoted, apple-pie suburban mother who murders anyone who offends her sense of propriety, played entirely straight-faced by Kathleen Turner.

But Deliberately vulgar and gleefully tasteless where Arsenic stays cosy — this pushes the joke somewhere far grubbier.

Serial Mom poster
More like this (8)

Bringing Up Baby1938

Grant again, this time reduced to a stammering wreck by Katharine Hepburn and a leopard. Essential viewing for anyone who loves watching him lose control of a situation with total commitment.

But Manic in a different key — more slapstick, less dark undertow. No corpses hiding in window seats.

Bringing Up Baby poster

It's a Wonderful Life1946

Capra's other, more famous picture, made just two years later. Seeing how the same director handles earnest sentiment as deftly as he handled homicidal aunts is its own small pleasure.

But Tonally the opposite experience — sincere where Arsenic is absurd. Don't expect any of that manic energy.

It's a Wonderful Life poster

Clue1985

A houseful of oddballs, a body count, and comic actors going full tilt with perfect timing. It's the closest modern American comedy gets to the theatrical farce engine that powers Arsenic and Old Lace.

But Broader and campier, aimed squarely at board-game whimsy rather than character-driven absurdity.

Clue poster

The Trouble with Harry1955

Hitchcock's rare stab at black comedy: a corpse nobody can settle on how to deal with, treated with a shrug and a cup of tea. Same deadpan comfort with death, quieter delivery.

But Much slower and drier — no Grant-style hysteria, just small-town New England politeness around a dead body.

The Trouble with Harry poster

Harvey1950

Josephine Hull again, this time charming rather than homicidal, opposite a man convinced his best friend is a six-foot invisible rabbit. Gentle, warm, and a nice flip side to her Arsenic role.

But Whimsical rather than dark — there's no crime plot here, just a sweetly odd character study.

Harvey poster

Knives Out2019

A modern murder-mystery farce with a starry ensemble hamming it up gloriously, proving the old dark-house formula still works when everyone commits to the bit. Genuinely funny and genuinely clever.

But More puzzle-box plotting than pure farce; the laughs are sharper-edged and less anarchic than Grant's aunts.

Knives Out poster

A Matter of Loaf and Death2008no page yet

Same trick as Arsenic: a murder plot smuggled into the most comforting, harmless-looking setting the genre can offer.

A claymation caper in which a serial killer is targeting the town's bakers, disguised inside the cosiest, most wholesome family entertainment imaginable. Genuinely witty, genuinely twisted underneath.

But It's a children's film first, so the darkness is softened into gags — don't expect anything approaching real menace.

The Cat and the Canary1927

The direct ancestor of Arsenic's setup — greedy relatives, a haunted house full of secrets, comedy built from the same dark-house bones.

A silent old-dark-house comedy-thriller about squabbling heirs, a spooky mansion, and a killer among the relatives — one of the films that invented the genre Arsenic later spoofed so lovingly.

But Silent-era pacing and title cards take patience, and the comic relief is much broader and simpler than Grant's.

The Cat and the Canary poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by