*Like many classic Hollywood films of its era, the film was adapted from a stage production, in this case a play written for a P.S. 131 Show For Our Parents Night in New York.
*The original title of the play was "Icky Stuff and Gross Perfume That Aunt Agnes Wears."
*The ladies that play Cary Grant's aunts, despite their delightful light comic performances, took their roles so seriously that in order to get into character, they poisoned 8 people in the two weeks before shooting began.
*Frank Capra's original ending for the film was a 3-minute cameo from Gary Cooper, who looked directly into the camera and delivered a speech on apple pie, motherhood, and patriotism in front of a giant rustling American flag.
*Mortimer Brewster's cousin "Teddy," who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, was called "Jerry" in an early draft of the screenplay and believed he was Gerald Ford. The character was modified when an unknown executive reminded everyone Ford wouldn't become President for another 30 years.
*Raymond Massey, who plays the deranged Boris Karloff lookalike in the film, took his role in good humor, but at a cocktail party, he once punched out a man who told him he resembled Margaret Hamilton.
*Karloff himself was supposed to play Massey's part, one he created and was concurrently performing in on stage, but he declined by saying, "Compared to THEATER, films are CRAP." But he said it in a really gentlemanly way with his classy accent, so nobody minded.
*If you look closely about 50 minutes into the film, you can see a cardboard standee of Ted Danson near a windowsill.
*Mortimer Brewster's cousin "Teddy," who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, was called "Jerry" in an early draft of the screenplay and believed he was Gerald Ford. The character was modified when an unknown executive reminded everyone Ford wouldn't become President for another 30 years.
*Raymond Massey, who plays the deranged Boris Karloff lookalike in the film, took his role in good humor, but at a cocktail party, he once punched out a man who told him he resembled Margaret Hamilton.
*Karloff himself was supposed to play Massey's part, one he created and was concurrently performing in on stage, but he declined by saying, "Compared to THEATER, films are CRAP." But he said it in a really gentlemanly way with his classy accent, so nobody minded.
*If you look closely about 50 minutes into the film, you can see a cardboard standee of Ted Danson near a windowsill.
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