Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) pops in to tell his maiden aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) that he's married the girl next door (Priscilla Lane) only to discover that they've been poisoning people and burying them in the cellar. They are sweet old biddies in every other respect so he doesn't want them to go to jail, but he's hard pressed to think of a scenario that exonerates them except to pin all the murders on his younger brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander) and have him committed. It's a plan and it might have worked, if his psychotic middle brother, Jonathan (Raymond Massey), and his henchman (Peter Lorre) hadn't shown up with a corpse of their own. Honestly, what's a nice neighborhood like Brooklyn coming to?
This is one of the greatest screwball comedies ever made. Grant earns that leading man title by being made of elastic and it is very much his show as he cavorts around the set. Lane gets short shrift but there's no room for her Token Sane Person in a cast full of characters anyway. Massey does his best to lean into Karloff and Lorre -- well, Peter Lorre has understood every assignment ever given to him. This is a stone cold classic and no self-respecting film buff should be without it.
Unfortunately, it's not currently streaming except for rent but it's definitely worth the money. Unless you hate fun.
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