Arsenic and Old Lace (film) that the deep theme of the play and film is the conflict in American history between the liberty to do anything (which the Brewsters demand), and America's bloody hidden past. The contemporary critical reviews were uniformly positive. "The New York Times" critic summed up the majority view, "As a whole, "Arsenic and Old Lace", the Warner picture which came to the Strand yesterday, is good macabre fun." "Variety" declared, "Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed
Lace machine a Northamptonshire manual lace maker and reproduced them in the roller-locker machine. The 1809 version of this machine (patent no. 3216) became known as the "Old Loughborough", it was wide and was designed for use with cotton. The Old Loughborough became the standard lacemaking machine, particularly the 1820 form known as the Circular producing two-twist plain net. The smooth, unpatterned tulle produced on these machines was on a par with real, handmade lace net. Heathcoat's bobbinet machine is so ingeniously designed that the ones used today have suffered little alteration. However during the next 30 years inventors were patenting improvements