The Cat and the Canary are a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Léna. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Platte as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, who is Annabelle, Charlie, and Paul's uncle, and the reading of his will twenty years later. Annabelle inherits her uncle's fortune, but when she and her family spend the night in his haunted mansion, they are stalked by a mysterious figure. Meanwhile, a lunatic known as the Cat escapes from an asylum and hides in the mansion. The film is part of the genre of comedy horror films inspired by 1920s Broadway stage plays. Lena's adaptation of Willard's play blended expressionism with humor, a style for which Lena was notable and recognized by critics as unique. His directing style made The Cat and the Canary influential in the "old dark house" genre of films popular from the 1930s through the 1950s. The film was one of Universal's early horror productions and is considered "the cornerstone of Universal's school of horror". The play has been filmed five other times, most notably in 1939, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard.
Plot
In a decaying mansion overlooking the Hudson River, millionaire Cyrus West approaches death. His greedy family descends upon him like "cats around a canary", causing him to become insane. West orders that his last will and testament remain locked in a safe and go unread until the 20th anniversary of his death. As the appointed time arrives, West's lawyer, Roger Crosby (Tulle Marshall), discovers that a second will mysteriously appeared in the safe. The second will may only be opened if the terms of the first will are not fulfilled. The caretaker of the West mansion, Mammy Pleasant (Martha Matt ox), blames the manifestation of the second will on the ghost of Cyrus West, a notion that the astonished Crosby quickly rejects.
As midnight approaches, West's relatives arrive at the mansion: nephews Harry Blythe (Arthur Edmund Care we), Charles "Charlie" Wilder (Forrest Stanley), Paul Jones (Creighton Hale), his sister Susan Sills by (Flora Finch) and her niece Cecily Young (Gertrude Astor), and niece Annabelle West (Laura La Platte). Cyrus West's fortune is bequeathed to the most distant relative bearing the name "West": Annabelle. The will, however, stipulates that to inherit the fortune, she must be judged sane by a doctor, Ira Lazaro (Lucien Little field). If she is deemed insane, the fortune is passing to the person named in the second will. The fortune includes the West diamonds, which her uncle hid years ago. Annabelle realizes that she is now like her uncle, "in a cage surrounded by cats." Wandering in the hidden passages, Paul is attack by the Cat and left for dead. He regains consciousness in time to rescue Annabelle. The police arrive and arrest the Cat, who is Charlie Wilder in disguise; the guard is his accomplice. Wilder is the person named in the second will; he hoped to drive Annabelle insane so that he could receive the inheritance.
• Cast Laura La Platte as Annabelle West
• Creighton Hale as Paul Jones
• Forrest Stanley as Charles Wilder
• Tulle Marshall as Roger Crosby
• Gertrude Astor as Cecily
• Flora Finch as Susan
• Arthur Edmund Care we as Harry
• Martha Matt ox as Mammy Pleasant, housekeeper
• George Riemann as the Guard
• Lucien Little field as Dr. Ira Lazaro
• Hal Craig as Policeman
• Billy Eagle as Taxi Driver
• Joe Murphy as Milkman
Production
The Cat and the Canary is the product of early 20th-century German Expressionism. According to art historian Joan Weinstein, expressionism includes the art styles of Die Brücke and Dev Blue Reiter, cubism, futurism, and abstraction. The key element that connects these styles is the concern for the expression of inner feelings over verisimilitude to nature. Film historian Richard Peterson notes that "German cinema became famous for stories of psychological horror and for uncanny moods generated through lighting, set design and camera angles." Such filmmaking techniques drew on expressionist themes. Influential examples of German expressionist film include Robert Wine's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) about a deranged doctor and Paul Lena's Waxworks (1925) about a wax figure display at a fair.
Nevertheless, Willard was convinced, and the play was adapting into a screen play by Alfred A. Cohn and Robert F. Hill.
Casting
The Cat and the Canary features veteran silent film stars Laura La Platte, Creighton Hale, and Forrest Stanley. According to film historian Gary Don Rhodes, La Platte's part in The Cat and the Canary was typical for women in horror and mystery films: "The female in the horror film ... becomes, the hunted, the quarry. She has little to do, and so the question becomes, 'What will be done with her?'" Rhodes adds, "The heroines are young and beautiful, but represent more a prize to be possessed—whether "stolen" by a villain or "owned" by a young hero at the films' conclusions." Following The Cat and the Canary, La Platte maintained a career with Universal, but she is described as a "victim of talkies." She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before her death in 1996 from Alzheimer's disease.
Lucien, Little field was cast as deranged psychiatrist Dr. Ira Lazaro, who bore an eerie resemblance to Werner Kraus's title character in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Directing
Willard's play into an expressionist film suited to an American audience. Historian Bernard F. Dick observes that "Lena reduced German expressionism, with its weird chiaroscuro, asymmetric sets, and excessive utilization, to a format compatible with American film practice." Jenn Logos argues that "many stage play movie adaptations [of the 1920s] fall into the trap of looking like 'a stage play taped for the big screen' with minimal emphasis on the environment and plenty of stage play overacting." This, however, was not the case for Lena's film. Richards crab notes that "Lena's style is something that lifts The Cat and the Canary up and away from being merely a filmed stage play and gives it an amazing visual dynamism."
In 2001, the American Film Institute nominated this film for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating
Other film versions
The Cat and the Canary have been filmed five other times. Rupert Julian's The Cat Creeps (1930) and the Spanish language La Voluntary del Puerto (The Will of the Dead Man) directed by George Milford and Enrique To var Ávalos were the first talkie versions of the play; they were produced and distributed by Universal Pictures in 1930. Although the first sound films produced by Universal, neither was as influential on the genre as the first film and The Cat Creeps is lost.
Other film adaptations include Kitten och (The Cat and the Canary), a 1961 Swedish television film directed by Jan Mo lander and The Cat and the Canary (1978), a British film directed by Radley Metzger. The 1978 version was produced by Richard Gordon, who explains why he and Metzger made their film version: "Well, it hadn't since the Bob Hope version, it had never in color, it was a well-known title, had a certain reputation, and it was something that logically could or in fact should be made in England."
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