9. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) directed this dark comedy starring Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a newlywed who discovers his beloved aunts are murdering lonely old bachelors to end their ‘suffering’. The plot gets even crazier when Mortimer’s serial killer brother escapes from prison and takes offense to the aunts’ larger kill count. As Mortimer explains in the best line of the film, “Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.” My favourite kinds of murderers are sweet old ladies, and the Brewster sisters are one of the few examples given a film treatment.
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