The Cat and the Canary is an early example of a horror/comedy. Released in 1927 by Universal, the studio that would become famous for their horror classics, it demonstrates the heights of sophistication that silent movies had achieved by the time the sound era arrived. Stylishly shot with interesting and quirky camera work, creative title cards that are meant to visually express not just what, but how things are being said, and fast-paced editing, all added to a popular stage play, combine to create a truly memorable silent picture.
The plot has been done a million times since and was already a time worn cliché on the stage by the 1920s. An eccentric old man, living in a gothic hilltop mansion, dies. The instructions in his will stipulate that it must not be read for 20 years. By the time the 2 decades have passed his mansion is thought haunted by all the locals. The only resident is the man’s creepy old housekeeper.
On the 20th anniversary of his death his relatives gather for the reading of the will. There is an added stipulation that the named heir must pass a sanity test and if they fail it there is a second envelope containing the name of the next in line to the fortune. The heir is named to be a young woman cousin. The other relatives all decide to stick around to see if the girl passes the sanity test. They must spend the night in the scary old mansion and what’s more they learn that an escaped lunatic is on the prowl somewhere on the grounds.
The scares and humor are well balanced.
The hero is a nervous bookworm type that jumps at his own shadow but ends up the hero. Bob Hope would remake this movie playing this character in a 1939 talking version. Flora Finch steals the movie as old Aunt Susan. In one scene she tells her niece, “It’s not time to be catty, we don’t know who gets the money yet.” Later on she has had enough and runs screaming from the mansion in the movies’ funniest scene. Flora Finch had been making movies since 1908 and was one of the first funny female movie stars. Her final screen appearance was an uncredited cameo in 1939’s The Women.
The scares include a hairy, clawed hand that reaches out from several secret passages and the climactic villain wears a truly frightening mask. The use of shadows and light is technically brilliant. I would bet that Orson Welles saw this movie as a child because its influence on the camera work in Citizen Kane is obvious. The shot of the mansion at night looks very much like a similar shot at the beginning of Kane.
The title of the movie comes from the fact that before the old man died his relatives were driving him crazy like “cats around a canary”. There is a shot at the beginning with the old man surrounded by huge superimposed black cats. It is also revealed that the escaped lunatic thinks he’s a cat and rends his victims flesh with his teeth like they are canaries.
The Cat and the Canary is a seminal horror/comedy that, in one way or another, has influenced nearly every “Haunted Old Mansion Movie” (not to mention every Scooby Doo cartoon) made since 1927.
