Ep 51 - Arsenic and Old Lace

The Generation Splice

Our holiday break is over & we’re back with a pre-Christmas episode about ARSENIC AND OLD LACE! Raquel talks about seeing John Waters live for her birthday! Raphael digs on ARSENIC because it’s about serial killers on Halloween. Raquel loves how fun this film is in general. This is one of the best Frank Capra movies even though it doesn’t fall into his standard Americana moralizing. As a film remake of a stage play it really works. Cary Grant is such the hilarious hunk. This movie also fits in the sweet spot of Hollywood between WW2 and before the HUAC hearings; a few years later it probably wouldnt have been made considering who made it. Somehow we manage a talk about policing issues & the last time Raquel met an officer that seemed to care about the community. A perfect “old movie” to show to someone who doesnt like “old movies” or is trying to get into them.

The Generation Splice is film podcast where retired psychologist Dr. Raquel Martinez, a Baby Boomer through & through, & her son Raphael Jose Martinez, a cranky millennial punk rocker/film writer, discuss various films through the lens of their generation & personal experiences. Every week one host picks a movie to dissect & see if they can splice together the generation gap via their love of film.

Feel free to write to us! Give us some film suggestions at [e-mail] or @gensplicepod on Twitter.

Raphael is on Twitter at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com