The Cary Grant energy drink
If you’ve only seen Cary Grant in suave, romantic roles, prepare for a shock. In this movie, he is doing the absolute most. He spends two hours doing double-takes, bugging his eyes out, and literally somersaulting over furniture. It’s a high-octane, manic performance that feels more like Jim Carrey in The Mask than a 1940s leading man.
For a modern kid, this is the make-or-break element. Some will find his desperation hilarious as he tries to hide a body while his aunts offer him tea. Others will find the constant shouting and mugging for the camera tiring. It’s not subtle humor. It’s a farce, which means the volume is always turned up to eleven.
Why the "stagey" feel matters
This movie is based on a hit Broadway play, and it never really tries to hide its roots. Almost the entire story happens in one living room. In an era of sprawling cinematic universes, a single-room setting can feel claustrophobic to kids.
There are no car chases or scene changes to reset the attention span. It relies entirely on rapid-fire dialogue and "who’s behind that door?" tension. If your kid is into theater or likes the "bottle episode" style of television, they’ll appreciate the craft. If they need visual variety to stay engaged, they’ll likely start checking their phone by the forty-minute mark.
The "Teddy Roosevelt" hurdle
A huge chunk of the comedy comes from Mortimer’s brother, who genuinely believes he is Teddy Roosevelt. He yells "Charge!" every time he goes upstairs and thinks he’s digging the Panama Canal in the basement (which is actually where the bodies go).
It’s a brilliant gag, but it requires a baseline knowledge of American history that a 12-year-old might not have yet. You might find yourself pausing the movie to explain why a guy in a pith helmet is blowing a bugle at 2:00 AM. Without that context, the joke is just "there’s a loud guy in the house," which loses some of the brilliance.
Where it fits in the movie night rotation
Think of this as the great-grandfather of the "darkly funny family" genre. If your kid liked the quirky, macabre energy of the Addams Family or the twisty, house-bound mystery of Knives Out, this is a logical ancestor to show them. It’s part of a specific lineage of The 20 Funniest Classic Comedies Ever Made where the stakes are life-and-death but the tone is light as air.
The "horror" elements are non-existent by today's standards. One brother is a criminal who is supposed to look like a famous movie monster, but the payoff is a punchline, not a jump scare. The "murders" are discussed like a charitable hobby—the aunts think they are putting lonely men out of their misery with a nice glass of poisoned wine. It’s absurdist, not scary. If you want to test if your kid has a taste for black comedy without actually exposing them to anything graphic, this is the perfect litmus test.
