Context

This line is spoken by Mortimer Brewster (played by Cary Grant) in the film Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Frank Capra (1944).

Every family has skeletons in the closet, but the off-kilter Brewster clan has them buried in the basement… along with a corpse or two in the window seat. Mortimer Brewster has just discovered a "little family secret" as he announces his marriage to Elaine: Two of his charming aunts do "charity work" by poisoning lonely old men. Meanwhile, one of his brothers is a serial killer and the other thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt. Mortimer panics about this crazy DNA being passed onto his future offspring so he tells Elaine, "Insanity runs in my family, it practically gallops."

Where you've heard it

Arsenic and Old Lace was a big Broadway smash before it was transferred to the big screen. Check out a recent revival with some awesome acting.

Additional Notable References:

• Meet the real-life inspiration for Arsenic and Old Lace
• Family plaque
• What if insanity didn't gallop, but took its own sweet time?

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Talk about a killer one-liner! All the same, it's hard to be pretentious when you're apologizing for your family.