Merry Mayhem

Now that the holidays are less than a month away, I'm starting to fill up with holiday cheer. Trust me, they couldn't come at a better time. Besides decadent decorations, priceless presents and tasty treats, there's something else I always think of when I hear that magical word: Christmas. When I grew up I watched a lot of old meaning 1940s and 1950s movies due to my grandparents who'd like to reminisce the good old days and who were convinced that Bogart was the last great actor until Bruce Willis came along but that's another story.

Especially during the holidays we watched all the classics that held the top spot on BBC, so now that this joyous season is again upon us, I can't help but delve into some of my all time favorites starting with the brilliant Arsenic and Old Lace.

This 1944 black and white screwball comedy is simply too good to be true. It stars one of my personal favorites, The ultimate yet slightly neurotic gentleman, Cary Grant who once again gives us a stellar performance (for some odd reason, the man is at his best in black and white). He plays Mortimer Brewster, a man who has just got married and decides to pay his elderly aunts a visit in order to break the news. Here he finds out that their notion of charity isn't the "let's help the sucker out" kind but more of the "let's help the sucker out of his misery" variety. In the end, things start to get very twisted indeed.

Based on a play by Joseph Kesselring, Frank Capra created an intelligent, macabre and funny little package wrapped with a stylish bow. Something we'd all like to find under our Christmas tree.