The Cat and the Canary (1927)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Paul Leni

Writers:

John Willard (play) and
Walter Anthony (titles)

Release Date:

9 September 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

THE MYSTERY THRILLER OF THE STAGE FILMED WITH NEW EFFECTS (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Rich old Cyrus West's relatives are waiting for him to die so they can inherit. But he stipulates that his will be read 20 years after his death...

Plot Keywords:

Will | Heir | Lawyer | Mansion | Death

Cast

Laura La Plante	...	Annabelle West
Creighton Hale	...	Paul Jones
Forrest Stanley	...	Charles 'Charlie' Wilder
Tully Marshall	...	Roger Crosby
Gertrude Astor	...	Cecily Young
Flora Finch	...	Aunt Susan Sillsby
Arthur Edmund Carewe	...	Harry Blythe (as Arthur Edmund Carew)
Martha Mattox	...	Mammy Pleasant
George Siegmann	...	The guard
Lucien Littlefield	...	Dr. Ira Lazar

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Portugal:17 (director's cut) | USA:Unrated

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The play on which this film is based opened in New York on 7 February 1922 at the National Theater. It closed in May 1922 after 148 performances.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Although the action in the story takes place at night (during which time, all the relatives in attendance for the reading of Mr. West's will must spend the night in his creepy mansion), there is a scene in which Aunt Susan runs in terror from the house by way of a long window-filled corridor where there is bright sunlight streaming through all the windows onto the floor, clearly indicating that this was a daytime shot.

Quotes:

Aunt Susan Sillsby: I'd like to see anybody get out of here.
Aunt Susan Sillsby: I always look under the bed but I've never found anything yet.
Cecily Young: You're not what Aunt Susan expected, but come out anyway.
Paul Jones: I came in here to protect you from the ghost!
Aunt Susan Sillsby: All men are alike, only some are worse. Now you get out!

Movie Connections:

Version of Katten och kanariefågeln (1961) (TV)

This Silent Is Golden

This late silent movie shows off the considerable talents of its director, Paul Leni, as the camera prowls the environs of an old dark house with the gracefulness of a cat, while the actors bob around like canaries, forming uneasy alliances and plotting against one another. The cast is well chosen. Laura La Plante makes a lovely heroine, while bespectacled Creighton Hale makes an agreeable, somewhat Harold Lloyd-like hero. Tully Marshall and Martha Mattox represent, none too flatteringly, the older generation; the former has the face of a drawn, white prune, while the latter makes a perfect battle-axe as the ironically named Mammy Pleasant. By today's standards the movie isn't too scary, though its mood of foreboding is still effective. Its qualities are pictorial more than dramatic, and the print I saw was badly in need of restoration.

The Cat and the Canary is a key film of the silent era, and was hugely influential in kicking off the old dark house genre that continued into the early talkie period. When sound came in the wisecracks proliferated, which tended to lighten the mood and detract from the suspense. In this one the humor is visual, and the tone is more consistent. There have been dozens remakes and imitations over the years, but the dark, Gothic beauty of the original has never been surpassed.