Life As A Squidoo Lensmaster - It's Like Arsenic And Old Lace

Imagine Seth Godin as Cary Grant (Who laughed? Behave yourselves, and let your imagine go...), now where was I... Oh, yes. Seth is Cary, Megan Casey is Josephine Hull and Kimberly Dawn Wells is Jean Adair and then there is me as Teddy. At this stage take a tip from me - if my 'aunts' ask you to go down into the cellar with them - don't do it!

I've still got to cast the Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre characters. Now who around here would make a good psychotic murderer teamed up with an alcoholic mate? (Suggestions in the guestbook below - preferably people who are too poor to afford lawyers.)

Your either going to have to watch Capra's movie from 1944 to understand the connections, or just endure the usual baffled bewilderment that readers of my lenses often suffer from.

I've always found Cary Grant's performance in Arsenic and Old Lace to be highly reminscent of John Cleese's Basil Fawlty character from the much later British comedy TV series Fawlty Towers. I often wonder if Cleese saw the film and based Fawlty around Grant's performance.

They even did a radio adaptation of the play a couple of years later with Boris Karlof in it. In fact it was Karlof who played the role of Cary Grant's murderous brother originally in the theater version, which he was still appearing in when the movie was made so he couldn't do the film role. Capra went through a few options for the lead, with Bob Hope being the original intended performer, but when he couldn't do it the role eventually went to Cary Grant.

It was a great black comedy about a houseful of lethal lunatics, basically, with a manic Cary Grant trying to survive. That's probably why I love it, I would have felt right at home there. Insanity doesn't just run in my family - it sprints.

That's why Squidoo reminds me of the movie, it's a little digital house full of complete lunati-- er, moving quickly on.

Hmm. Actually I've run out of things to say, or mickies to take, so I'm off. Have fun.

Chaaaarge!