SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

JohnHowardReid It's marvelous how closely the 1939 Bob Hope version follows this one. I'd assumed that Hope's antics were written into the script, but in point of fact that particular character is if anything even more of a slapstick comic here. He is forever backing into furniture or finding himself in a risqué situation under a bed or wrestling with stray objects like falling books or enormous bed-springs. Of course, he redeems himself in the final reel by rescuing the fair heroine. Just like Hope! True, Creighton Hale doesn't develop the character nearly as fully as Hope, although he spends just about as much time on screen. He isn't as funny nor as engaging. Not that it matters so much here, for this "Cat and the Canary" is primarily a director's movie.Bobbed, fair-haired Laura La Plante makes a winningly sympathetic heroine. She receives excellent support from Tully Marshall's lawyer, Martha Mattox's sinister housekeeper and Lucien Littlefield's weirdly menacing doctor. A young Forrest Stanley and attractive Gertrude Astor also impress.Although the story-line is now familiar to us — since the Hope movie follows it so slavishly — director Paul Leni has joined forces with Universal's legendary art director Charles D. Hall and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton to make it doubly exciting. In fact some of the effects are so bizarre, and the weird atmosphere is so masterfully created, that even a 2017 audience responded with such enthusiasm to a television showing, the station was forced to re-broadcast it twice within the next few months. Here's a rare classic that can entertain, startle and be seen as innovative and highly imaginative, nearly 80 years after it originally thrilled audiences. Leni's "Cat and the Canary" fully deserves its cult reputation.Available in a worn but quite watchable DVD from Alpha.

alexanderdavies-99382 "The Cat and the Canary" is a favourite of mine. Combining elements of Horror with Comedy, this film has many excellent moments.The sets that represent the house in question, are outstanding. I can believe that someone or something is roaming about along those long, dark corridors.The direction by German director, Paul Leni is excellent as he makes full use of the cameras and the lighting.The acting is pretty good on the whole.I rate "The Cat and the Canary" as being on a par with the best from "Universal's" horror period.

thinbeach The fortune of a man is left behind to his relative (Cousin West), on the condition she is proved by a doctor to be perfectly sane. If she fails the condition, the will passes to another. Set in a large mansion, rumoured to be haunted, at midnight (for when else would you do such a thing?), with a creepy house maid, shadowy lighting, and lunatic on the loose, various personnel who come for the will reading are snatched away from a hand that appears out of moving walls, while the rest are plunged into fear. As the disappearances happen with only Cousin West as witness, the others start to believe she is crazy, and we wonder who is behind it all?It is all done with a large wink, very hammy, and with brief moments of humour inserted throughout, showing not even the scriptwriters could take it seriously. Perhaps it was meant more for the comedy genre than the suspense, as if the very act of working in this genre was funny, but in that case I would say Keaton ("Electric House", "The Haunted House" and "The Navigator") got far cleverer laughs from similar themes, as did Lloyd, who the style of humour often reminded me. To it's credit though, it does create enough mystery to avoid being a bore, and the knowing silliness makes it more fun than it might have been if made with a completely straight face.

Michael_Elliott Cat and the Canary, The (1927) *** (out of 4) Classic "old dark house" film has an old man dying and then twenty-years later his relatives arrive at his creepy mansion for the will reading. The estate goes to Annabelle (Laura La Plante) as long as she is proved to be sane but throughout the night various visions of demons appear to her. Is she losing her mind or is someone just trying to scare her? One needs to remember that all the cliché moments in this film weren't cliché when this was originally released. So many films have since ripped this one off that one might forget how original this movie was when it was originally released. What really stood out after eighty-years is how brilliantly this thing looks on a technical level. The cinematography ranks as some of the greatest I've ever seen and there are countless moments that you could point to as being ground breaking. Even the opening title credits are downright breathtaking with the creepy hand moving the dust and spider webs away. The set design by Charles D. Hall is just as wonderfully done and adds to the overall atmosphere, which is very thick from start to finish. Not only does the film deliver many creepy moments but there's a nice mixture of laughs thrown in as well. I've read reviews that said there were too many laughs but I'd have to disagree with that as the laughs are kept rather low-key and never take away from the actual story. The middle section of the film moves a bit too slowly but all of that picks up towards the end. The characters really aren't well-written but that doesn't matter too much as the real entertainment comes from the visuals and the creepy atmosphere.