History YMMV / ArsenicAndOldLace

* HarsherInHindsight: At one point Mortimer mentions that one of his ancestors had "scalped the Indians", as proof of how crazy he was. As a matter of historical fact, white people ''did'' scalp Native Americans throughout the various conflicts between them. However, since most white Americans didn't know these facts when the play and movie were written, it doesn't break the SuspensionOfDisbelief for the audience when Mortimer tells this story to Elaine.

** ''Jonathan.'' The fact that he's in a film where everyone else is just charmingly kooky makes for quite a contrast. His fond reminiscing about the "Melbourne Method" utterly horrifies Dr. Einstein, and it's heavily implied that this flat-out torture which lasted two hours was inspired by Jonathan's decades-long desire to kill Mortimer.

** The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked and Teddy unwittingly made an accessory to concealing multiple murders, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time).

** The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't always sit well with modern audiences, although it's notable that he grows more paternalistic as the story progresses, he realises just ''how'' insane his aunts truly are and becomes increasingly frustrated with their failure to understand that poisoning people is "not just against the law, it's ''wrong!!!"''

** ''Jonathan.'' The fact that he's in a film where everyone else is just charmingly kooky makes for quite a contrast. His fond reminiscing about the 'Melbourne Method' utterly horrifies Dr. Einstein, and it's heavily implied that this flat out torture which lasted two hours was inspired by Jonathan's decades-long desire to kill Mortimer.

* MemeticMutation: Jonathan's most elaborate torture method ("Not the Melbourne method!") has attained a small fame of its own. As of 2010, it is the name of [[http://www.themabuses.com/ an album by the Mabuses]] and [[http://melbournemethod.com.au/ a business]] - the latter is even located in [[LandDownUnder Melbourne, Australia]].

** The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time).

** Jonathan. The fact that he's in a film where everyone else is just charmingly kooky makes for quite a contrast.
** The Brewster aunts are a perfect example of the fact that, when it comes to serial killers, TheyLookLikeEveryoneElse. It doesn't matter [[AffablyEvil how nice they are]], the reality still stands that as the story begins they have eleven dead people buried in their basement and have just poisoned a twelfth victim, and don't think they did anything wrong.

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time). The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't always sit well with modern audiences either, although it's notable that he grows more paternalistic as the story progresses, he realises just ''how'' insane his aunts truly are and becomes increasingly frustrated with their failure to understand that poisoning people is "not just against the law, it's ''wrong!!!"''
* ValuesResonance: ...or has it? The obviously mentally ill character, Teddy, is harmless, and loved by everyone, to the point that even the villain's henchmen puts his foot down when the idea of harming Teddy comes up; the homicidally insane characters meanwhile are the seemingly sane, well-liked aunts. The idea of sending Teddy to Happy Dale isn't much different than what elderly parents often plan for their mentally disabled children, and the asylum is implied to be a pleasant place, not the den of deadly lunatics that many other films in that era portrayed asylums as. Not only that, everyone works with Teddy. They dismiss convincing him that he's not actually Theodore Roosevelt because it upsets him so much and they find an in-character reason for him to go to Happy Dale to make it easier for him, rather than packing him off in a straightjacket. They don't try to forcibly cure him, they help him find a way to live once his aunts are gone.

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time). The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't always sit well with modern audiences either, although it's notable that he grows more paternalistic as the story progresses and he realises just how insane his aunts truly are.
* ValuesResonance: ...or has it? The obviously mentally ill character, Teddy, is harmless, and loved by everyone, to the point that even the villain's henchmen puts his foot down when the idea of harming Teddy comes up; the homicidally insane characters meanwhile are the seemingly sane, well-liked aunts. The idea of sending Teddy to Happy Dale isn't much different than what elderly parents often plan for their mentally disabled children, and the asylum is implied to be a pleasant place, not the den of deadly lunatics that many other films in that era portrayed asylums as. Not only that, everyone works with Teddy. They dismiss convincing him that he's not actually Theodore Roosevelt because it upsets him so much and they find an in-character reason for him to go to Happydale to make it easier for him. They don't try to forcibly cure him, they help him find a way to live once his aunts are gone.

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time). The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't always sit well with modern audiences either, although its notable that he grows more paternalistic as the story progresses and he realises just how insane his aunts truly are.

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time). The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't sit well with modern audiences either.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The film opens with a fight breaking out during a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game at Ebbets Field. The movie will ''never'' return to that.

* SpecialEffectFailure: In the outside scenes, the obvious backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan is jarring to modern audiences.

** The Brewster aunts are a perfect example that, when it comes to serial killers, TheyLookLikeEveryoneElse. It doesn't matters [[AffablyEvil how nice they are]], the reality still stands that by the time the story starts they have eleven dead people buried in the basement and have just poisoned a twelfth victim, and don't think they did anything wrong.

* HarsherInHindsight: Mortimer's comment about how one of his ancestors "scalped the Indians" as proof of how crazy he was...in fact, historically whites DID scalp Indians throughout the various conflicts between them. However, since most white Americans didn't know these facts when the movie takes place, it doesn't break the SuspensionOfDisbelief for the audience when Mortimer tells this story to Elaine.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The film opens with a fight breaking out during a Dodgers baseball game at Ebbets Field. The movie will ''never'' return to that.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The film opens with a fight at a Dodgers baseball game. The movie will ''never'' return to that.
* HilariousInHindsight: The aforementioned baseball game is played on Halloween, something which would have been ludicrous in 1944,[[note]]The two latest endings to the World Series at that time were October 23, 1910, and October 26, 1911; excluding that two-year span, no major league game had ever been played later than October 16[[/note]] but has happened several times since the TurnOfTheMillennium.

* AngstWhatAngst Such a powerful aversion, that it's worth mentioning. As soon as Mortimer sees a corpse in his aunts' house, he loses his composure. He can't talk, can't whistle, can't think, and virtually forgets about his bride-in-waiting. Though he eventually musters enough control to try and expiate his aunts of twelve murders, he is never quite the same throughout the entire feature. His sudden absent-mindedness, slurred speech, physical jitters, and paranoid bewilderment are a good reminder that seeing a dead body could easily alter one's temperament.

* ValuesDissonance: The treatment of mental illness hasn't exactly aged well. Not only is mental illness mocked, but there's a strong implication that the mentally ill should be segregated from the rest of society. No one finds it at all surprising that the police want to involuntarily commit Teddy for a series of noise violations (sadly, was TruthInTelevision at the time).
** The paternalistic tone Mortimer constantly takes towards the elderly women who raised him doesn't sit well with modern audiences either.
* ValuesResonance: ...or has it? The obviously mentally ill character, Teddy, is harmless, and loved by everyone, to the point that even the villain's henchmen puts his foot down when the idea of harming Teddy comes up; the homicidally insane characters meanwhile are the seemingly sane, well-liked aunts. The idea of sending Teddy to Happy Dale isn't much different than what elderly parents often plan for their mentally disabled children, and the asylum is implied to be a pleasant place, not the den of deadly lunatics that many other films in that era portrayed asylums as.
** Not only that, everyone works with Teddy. They dismiss convincing him that he's not actually Theodore Roosevelt because it upsets him so much and they find an in-character reason for him to go to Happydale to make it easier for him. They don't try to forcibly cure him, they help him find a way to live once his aunts are gone.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The film opens with a fight at a baseball game. The movie will ''never'' return to that.
* HilariousInHindsight: Baseball on Halloween!

** And mentally ill serial killers should probably be segregated from their potential victims.

* ValuesResonance: ...or has it? The obviously mentally ill character, Teddy, is harmless, and loved by everyone, to the point that even the villain's henchmen puts his foot down when the idea of harming Teddy comes up; the homicidallly insane characters meanwhile are the seemingly sane, well-liked aunts. The idea of sending Teddy to Happy Dale isn't much different than what elderly parents often plan for their mentally disabled children, and the asylum is implied to be a pleasant place, not the den of deadly lunatics that many other films in that era portrayed asylums as.

** The Brewster aunts are a perfect example that, when it comes to serial killers, TheyLookLikeEveryoneElse. It doesn't matters [[AffablyEvil how nice they are]], the reality still stands that by the time the story starts they have about 20 dead people buried in the basement and don't think they did anything wrong.

* ValuesResonance: ...or has it? The obviously mentally ill character, Teddy, is harmless, and loved by everyone, to the point that even the villain's henchmen puts his foot down when the idea of harming Teddy comes up; the homicidally insane characters meanwhile are the seemingly sane, well-liked aunts. The idea of sending Teddy to Happy Dale isn't much different than what elderly parents often plan for their mentally disabled children, and the asylum is implied to be a pleasant place, not the den of deadly lunatics that many other films in that era portrayed asylums as.

* NightmareFuel: Jonathan. The fact that he's in a film where everyone else is just charmingly kooky makes for quite a contrast.