{"id":9375,"date":"2010-04-28T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=9375"},"modified":"2013-01-21T21:44:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T02:44:45","slug":"the-cat-and-the-canary-1927","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=9375","title":{"rendered":"Silent Horrors: The Cat and the Canary (1927)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9376\" title=\"The Cat and the Canary (1927)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/cat.jpg\" alt=\"cat\" width=\"320\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onecinephile.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/cat.jpg 320w, https:\/\/onecinephile.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/cat-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/>Guest blogger Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. writes:<\/p>\n<p>John Willard\u2019s hardy old stage chestnut <a title=\"The Cat and The Canary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/product.asp?sku=D12040&amp;loc=buzzsearch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Cat and The Canary<\/a>\u2014first performed in New York City on February 7, 1922\u2014has been around the block, cinematically so to speak, on at least four different occasions: 1927, 1930 (as The Cat Creeps), 1939 and 1978. I\u2019ve now seen all of them except the 1930 version\u2014which is considered a lost film\u2014and my favorite is the one made in 1939 because it was the film that brought <a title=\"Bob Hope\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/findresults_actor.asp?search=Bob+Hope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bob Hope<\/a> to cinematic prominence. But after seeing the original silent version (directed by German director <a title=\"Paul Leni\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/findresults_director.asp?search=Paul+Leni\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Paul Leni<\/a>) via Kino\u2019s 2007 DVD release (this is the Photoplay restoration produced by Patrick Stanbury and Kevin Brownlow), I\u2019m convinced that while Hope\u2019s Canary still holds a place in my itty-bitty film buff heart, the Leni production certainly gives it a run for its money.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Canary\u2014considered the \u201cgranddaddy\u201d of all \u2018dark old house\u201d mysteries\u2014stars <a title=\"Laura La Plante \" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/findresults_actor.asp?search=Laura+La+Plante+\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Laura La Plante <\/a>as Annabelle West, the heir to a fortune left in a twenty-year-old will by eccentric millionaire Cyrus West. But before Annabelle can cash in on her inheritance, Roger Crosby (<a title=\"Tully Marshall\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/findresults_actor.asp?search=Tully+Marshall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tully Marshall<\/a>), the executor of West\u2019s estate, reveals that Annabelle must undergo an examination by a doctor (<a title=\"Lucien Littlefield\" href=\"http:\/\/www.moviesunlimited.com\/musite\/findresults_actor.asp?search=Lucien+Littlefield\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Lucien Littlefield<\/a>) to prove that she\u2019s sane\u2014and if she flunks this, the fortune will revert to\u2026well, an heir whose name is concealed in an envelope in the barrister\u2019s coat pocket. The rest of the family that gathered for the reading of the will\u2014nephews Paul Jones (Creighton Hale), Harry Blythe (Arthur Edmund Carewe) and Charles Wilder (Forrest Stanley); along with West\u2019s sister Susan Sillsby (Flora Finch) and her daughter Cecilia (Gertrude Astor)\u2014stay on for a nosh of dinner, only to be informed by a guard (George Siegmann) that an escaped lunatic (known at \u201cThe Cat\u201d) is on the loose. Crosby tries to warn Annabelle of the identity of the family member next in line for the fortune but he is kidnapped via a hairy hand that appears out from a secret passage hidden in a bookshelf\u2026and the hunt for the kidnapper begins.<\/p>\n<p>The Cat and the Canary will seem like fairly conventional material to anyone who\u2019s seen this type of film before, but in Leni\u2019s hands it becomes a riveting little mystery-thriller. He\u2019s particularly adept at applying the expressionistic techniques he learned while working in the German cinema to the visuals; I particularly enjoy how he \u201coverlaps\u201d scenes by exposing two separate events onscreen at the same time. There\u2019s a scene, for example, where Crosby and Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox)\u2014the caretaker of the estate\u2014are engaged in conversation and are \u201cinterrupted\u201d on the right-half of the screen by a visual of someone\u2019s hand using the front-door knocker of the mansion to gain entrance. When the time comes for the reading of the will, the participants seat themselves at a table while the inner workings of a grandfather clock are superimposed on the screen, chiming the time of the midnight hour. Leni also makes use of a moving camera for some impressive tracking shots, particularly in the film\u2019s opening, when we are taken on a tour of the West mansion almost as if we were looking to rent.<\/p>\n<p>The film also blends terror and comedy in an entertainingly deft manner. I particularly enjoyed Hale\u2019s performance as a milquetoasty Harold Lloyd-type who\u2019s on the receiving end of some of Canary\u2019s lighter moments (Finch and Astor also contribute some mirth to the proceedings as well). Hale appeared in a great many silent films including Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1922), but I have to admit I remember him more for a multitude of bit parts in sound films including the Our Gang shorts School&#8217;s Out (1930) and Big Ears (1931). La Plante is an appropriately plucky heroine, and it\u2019s refreshing to know that Tully Marshall was apparently never a young man in his entire screen career (he also made numerous appearances in sound films like Hale, his most memorable being the sinister Alvin Brewster in This Gun for Hire [1942]). Mattox\u2019s Mammy Pleasant no doubt influenced a generation of hatchet-faced housekeepers; when she makes her first appearance in this film I found myself borrowing a line of Binnie Barnes\u2019 when she meets up with the formidable Gale Sondergaard in The Time of Their Lives (1946): \u201cPardon me, but did I see you in \u2018Rebecca?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. writes at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Thrilling Days of Yesteryear<\/em><\/a>, a weblog that champions unreality shows (witches, Martians, talking horses) over reality TV, Radio&#8217;s Golden Age, and the belief that life is in color&#8230;but black-and-white is more realistic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest blogger Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. writes: John Willard\u2019s hardy old stage chestnut The Cat and The Canary\u2014first performed in New York City on February 7, 1922\u2014has been around the block, cinematically so to speak, on at least four different&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":9376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1826,5583],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-articles","tag-1920s-movies","tag-horror-movies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Cat and the Canary (1927)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Cat and the Canary - The 1927 silent horror film adaptation of John Willard&#039;s 1922 black comedy is explored:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=9375\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cat and the Canary (1927)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cat and the Canary - 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