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What are some differences between the play and movie versions of Arsenic and Old Lace?
Quick answer:
The play and the film are essentially the same, with only minor differences. The play takes place in the Brewster’s home and a graveyard across from a church. The film adds a few scenes to include a cab and more interactions outside of the house. Mortimer and Elaine’s relationship is slightly different in that they are already married in the film version, as opposed to engaged. The character of Happy Dale is added, which gives him an additional scene outside of the house with Mortimer’s aunts. Mortimer is also called an author in the film, as opposed to being a drama critic.
Arsenic and Old Lace is a dark comedy about Mortimer Brewster, his fiance or wife, Elaine Harper (depending on whether you're referring to the play or the movie adaptation of the play) and his two spinster aunts, who have taken it upon themselves to murder old men as a way of sparing them from loneliness. The two unstable aunts serve the elderly bachelors with elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and just a pinch of cyanide, and their brother, Theodore (who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt) buries the dead bodies in the cellar.
There are a few differences between the movie and play, among which are:
1) The play is set entirely in the Brewster living room, unlike the movie.
2) The play is set in September while the movie is set on Halloween.
3) In the play, Mortimer Brewster was a drama critic, while the movie version had him...
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as a writer of anti-marriage books.
4) Different actors played the part of Mortimer Brewster. In the play, the part was played by Boris Karloff, but Raymond Massey did the honors for the movie.
5) The ending was also different; in the play, Mr. Witherspoon takes the aunts to the sanitarium, but ends up being the aunts' final victim. In the movie, final scenes have the two aunts telling Mortimer that he's not actually related to the Brewsters after all. Mortimer is so happy that he kisses his bride before they go on their honeymoon. The final line, "I'm not a Brewster, I'm the son of a sea cook," was changed from "I'm not a Brewster, I'm a b*s***d."
References
What is the main difference between the play and film endings of Arsenic and Old Lace?
The play's ending is different from the movie's on a couple of points.
When Mortimer learns he is not a Brewster relation whatsoever but an illegitimate child taken in by them out of pity; in the play he tells Elaine, "I'm a bastard!" with great (and comical) joy. In the movie, the line is changed to "I'm not a Brewster! I'm the son of a sea cook!" since the Production Code which governed movie production during this period forbade strong language on the screen (Gone with the Wind's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" aside).
In the play, Mortimer's aunts remain out of an asylum. They learn the owner of Happy Dale is a lonely person, and the curtain falls as they offer him one of their infamous glasses of elderberry wine, implying they will continue to mercy-kill people. In the movie, once again due to the Production Code which would not allow criminals to remain unpunished for their crimes, the aunts are sent away to the asylum and the owner is spared when Mortimer intervenes.
The main difference between the movie and play versions of Arsenic and Old Lace is that in the movie, Mortimer's crazy aunts, Martha and Abby, go off with Mr. Witherspoon to the Happy Dale sanitarium, and the audience has the presumption that the Brewster aunts will no longer be able to be homicidal without access to their poisonous elderberry wine. However, in the play, the aunts offer Mr. Witherspoon a cup of their famous wine before they are supposed to go off to the sanitarium. The audience does not see what happens to Mr. Witherspoon, but he lifts the wine to his lips to toast them, and it is safe to assume that he becomes one of their victims. In addition, in the movie, Mortimer is already married to Elaine at the beginning of the story, but in the play, he goes off to find her at the end of the drama to tell her that he is not actually a Brewster. The audience assumes that he will now be able to marry Elaine.
In the movie, Jonathan is arrested and Einstein sneaks out of the house; and the papers are signed for the commitment of Uncle Teddy and the aunts to the asylum, Happy Dale. Elaine sneaks in and finds the 13 graves in the basement. As she "loses it," Mortimer picks her up and bodily carries her out of the house, kissing her to keep her quiet about what she has seen. In the movie they have already married so they leave ostensibly to go on their honeymoon, and the movie ends.
In the play, Elaine enters with Mr. Witherspoon. After the aunts tell Mortimer that he is not actually a Brewster (which alleviates his concern that insanity runs--"gallops"--in his family), delighted, Mortimer and Elaine leave to have breakfast.
In the play, both Jonathan and Einstein are arrested. However, when the police take the arrested criminals away and no one else is there, the aunts start to ask Mr. Witherspoon about his personal life. When they discover that he has no family, they go into action, inviting him to eat breakfast and have a glass of their elderberry wine. The audience assumes, as the curtain drops, that there will be another "yellow fever victim" in the basement very soon, and that--ironically--they will beat Jonathan's record in the number of murders he committed.