The Cat and the Canary

Rating:
Summary: When The Cat's Away The Canaries Come Out To Play
Review: Ask some young film students or filmbuffs to name what they think are some of the most influential early films of cinema. Chances are you'll hear "Birth of A Nation", "Battleship Potemkin" and "Citizen Kane", but, I'd like to elect one more film to that list Paul Leni's "The Cat and the Canary".

"The Cat and the Canary" originally started off as a Broadway play in 1922 and was made into (as far as I know) three films. The most famous being the 1939 adaptation starring Bob Hope. But this 1927 version just dazzles you with its techinal achievements. It has inspiring cinematography by Gilbert Warrenton and remarkable editing from Martin G. Cohn. There are plenty of shots I'm willing to bet were ahead of their time, mostly dealing with fade in's and out's.

If you were to ask me, is this movie scary? I would have to answer no. "The Cat and the Canary" is just too dated to scare anyone. We've seen this far too many times for it to give us "thrills and chills", but, what makes this movie so entertaining to watch is it is an exercise in style and atmosphere. It is the cinematography and the mood the film creates that will capture your attention. This film set-up what we now refer to as "haunted house" movies.

Paul Leni, for those who don't know is revered as one of the great German expressionist through such films as "The Man Who Laughs" and "Waxworks". And these three films are seen as the last of there kind.

"The Cat and the Canary" as I said help establish what we now refer to as "haunted house" movies. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, a millionair who's relatives hounded him like cats around a canary (hence the title). His will, as ordered by him, will be opened twenty years after his death. So a few of them show up to his dark eerie castle where legend has it is haunted by his spirit. The movie stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West. She was very much in demand during the silent era and made some sound pictures including "Show Boat" and "The King of Jazz" (featuring Paul Whiteman). and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones (after you see his performance you'll understand perfectly why they remade it as a Bob Hope vehicle). He too was once popular but when sound came in, he was reduced to very small bit parts often going "uncredited". As you watch the movie you can expect every cliche attempt at horror you can think of. Some of which are still used today. Creepy hands appearing out of nowhere, the "offbeat" looking characters who you just suspect are evil and as mentioned before, that eerie atmosphere.

Fans of silent films or even young film students I urge you to see this movie. You will be impressed.

Bottom-line: As far as I'm concerned should be considered one of the most influential films of all-time due to its impressive cinematography and editing. An exercise in style and atmosphere that actually works.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Restoration Of This Silent Thriller
Review: DVD releases of old silent films have tended to enjoy mixed fortunes - certain releases of 'Metropolis' and 'The Lodger' have received shockingly bad treatment. Rest assured though, 'The Cat and the Canary' is an example to every DVD distributor of how to treat a vintage 'classic'. The movie boasts a superb newly recorded (1997) stereo soundtrack that compliments the images very well indeed. The soundtrack even contains sound effects such as door knocks and clock chimes which help compensate for the lack of real sound. Speech cards, often hazy and unclear in other silent films, are here clean, crisp and easily readable. This is because the title cards are shown in freeze frame, a technique other distributors should take note of. The film itself is a very enjoyable 80 minutes 'old dark house' romp that never takes itself too seriously. The cast blends together well and the characters are really quite fun and likable. The camera work is also worthy of praise. The director, Paul Leni, provides us with interesting angles and dynamic camera movement throughout the film. If you love silent movies then 'The Cat and the Canary' makes a very worthy addition to your collection. Finally, I must just mention the Harold Lloyd short 'Haunted Spooks' which is included on the DVD. This is the one where Harold tries to commit suicide by standing in front of an oncoming tram, jumping off a bridge into two feet of water and shooting himself with a water pistol. A classic in it's own right!

Rating:
Summary: Old thriller
Review: I first saw this as a child and have never forgotten the thrill and fright. By todays standards it is probably a little hokey but it was fun to again see after so many years and find that YES, there was a reason for my origianl nightmares.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Beautifully Restored Version Yet!!
Review: If you're wanting to purchase The Cat and the Canary, and can't figure out which version to get, this is definatly the one I would recommend. It is one of the best restorations I have seen yet. What impressed me most with this version, is the music score. At last, the music fits with the story and the actions. A silent film is heavily dependent on it's music as well as facial espressions for setting the mood and telling the story. In the past versions I've seen I found the music to be a distraction. Bravo and thankyou to Franklyn Stover for finally setting it straight!
This is a must see classic! Funny and thrilling, artistic and thoughtful. Very creative camera work pulls you in and takes you on a fun ride. Packed with mystery, suspense and humor. A film you are sure to enjoy watching over and over.


Rating:
Summary: Chiller-Diller Masterpiece!
Review: Okay, so this is one of those ancient SILENT flicks, made back in that prehistoric year of l927. But I can promise you, anyone watching The Cat and the Canary today will not be bored. You see the amazing dexterity of the camera (Gilbert Warrenton was the camera man), the inspired direction and production (Paul Leni), the wonderful cast of long-gone Hollywood stars (Laura La Plante, the Sandra Bullock of her day)and Creighton Hale and gorgeous Gertrude Astor (she was considered the best-dressed star of the Roaring Twenties). This movie is so old that it now fascinates. You see the delightful and creative use of titles (some of them streaming down from the top of the screen to the bottom like a ghost)and wish that EVERY silent movie had been preserved and available today for movie addicts. "The Cat and the Canary" was considered one of the great lost masterpieces until someone actually discovered it in a salt mine in Montana (there must be something about salt mines, Parisian attics, Soviet vaults, since so many of our lost movie treasures are usually found in such esoteric locales). This wonderfully fun, zany and sometimes chilling masterpiece is head and shoulders over yet another long-lost masterpiece, the primitive talkie "The Bat Whispers" (1930), also discovered in some warehouse in Russia. The photography on this chiller was also spell-binding but the story is so dated and badly conceived that only the most die-hard early talkie junkie can endure it (I survived it but talk about being dissapointed). Watch "The Cat and the Canary" (1927) and be whirled back more than 65 years in Hollywood's Jazz Age to see what magic was pouring out of the studios. IN many ways, they were a vast improvement over l999's idea of hits: Armageddon, Godzilla (please God, let them sink into oblivion).

Rating:
Summary: Silent movie, loud screams of laughter
Review: The Cat and the Canary (1927) is of interest not just from the historic perspective of expressionist film making, but also for just sheer fun.

This is not a movie for everyone. People who need special effects that leave nothing to the imagination, sound systems that capture every bullet casing hitting the floor or editing to hold those with short attention spans should not buy this movie. Well, they should, but they won't and they wouldn't enjoy it if they did.

For those who grew up watching Chiller Theater on Friday nights, this is a great movie to turn the lights down, prop the popcorn bowl on the knee, crack open a cold frosty and sit back for a pleasant evening.

The Cat and the Canary is just plain fun to watch. The hero doodling as the lawyer drones on is worth the price of the DVD alone. It's also amazing to see how silent actors and actresses can convey so much with a raised brow or a dimpled smile than many of today's Hollywood stars can with reams of scripts to read.

The Harold Lloyd short also is another pleasant haunted house comedy that develops at a leisurely pace like a stroll through a park that builds into a madcap dash.

Rating:
Summary: Unsuspecting Audience Is the Real Canary!
Review: This fascinating and suspenseful tale of melancholy blends top notch camera work with quintessential serendipity. A group of mostly greedy family members gather at midnight for the reading of a will that should pay real dividends, but only for one. And this will features a very personal touch from the dearly departed! There are bumps in the night galore, wickedly funny thrills, and even a booby hatch or two. And, oh, by the way, it doesn't help much that a deranged lunatic is at large (IN THE HOUSE)! Still, by today's standards it might be a little too silent and gloomy if not for a well chosen stereo sound track. This is unequivocally the best version of "The Cat and the Canary" despite not being the most popular. It is also the oldest. Now on a personal note: Many moons ago, several long departed family members of mine were subjected to a highly regarded and nightmarish silent movie that remained ever so present in their delicate minds. But the memories were fresh enough to provoke an occasional mentioning, usually in hushed tones. This was a film they had viewed in their formative years on a Saturday afternoon, inside a smallish structure located within the boundaries of the home town park. As young children, they remembered a person called "the narrator" reading horrific subtitles as a conspicuous and repugnant hand (a hand that makes "Thing" of "The Addams Family" look like a stool pigeon!) was prominently displayed in the backdrop behind unsuspecting victims. The capacity of the human mind to recall can be both a blessing and a curse--Certainly cruel and unusual punishmnent to these innocent children whose fragility had been exposed by a talented but unknowing director named Paul Leni. Time often distorts reality but their vivid descriptions of the fright and terror they endured by virtue of being strapped to a chair for eighty some odd minutes whild watching "The Cat and the Canary" doesn't bode well. Much of this was clearly a bad omen for the tragic lives that ensued. At least one developed "endostosis", a condition in which the vascular connective tissue lining the marrow cavities of bones results in the formation of bone within the cartilage. Others faired even worse. Ironically, this production is considered a milestone of the American horror film even though it had a German director.

Rating:
Summary: Unsuspecting Audience Is the Real Canary!
Review: This fascinating and suspenseful tale of melancholy blends top notch camera work with quintessential serendipity. A group of mostly greedy family members gather at midnight for the reading of a will that should pay real dividends, but only for one. And this will features a very personal touch from the dearly departed! There are bumps in the night galore, wickedly funny thrills, and even a booby hatch or two. And, oh, by the way, it doesn't help much that a deranged lunatic is at large (IN THE HOUSE)! Still, by today's standards it might be a little too silent and gloomy if not for a well chosen stereo sound track. This is unequivocally the best version of "The Cat and the Canary" despite not being the most popular. It is also the oldest. Now on a personal note: Many moons ago, several long departed family members of mine were subjected to a highly regarded and nightmarish silent movie that remained ever so present in their delicate minds. But the memories were fresh enough to provoke an occasional mentioning, usually in hushed tones. This was a film they had viewed in their formative years on a Saturday afternoon, inside a smallish structure located within the boundaries of the home town park. As young children, they remembered a person called "the narrator" reading horrific subtitles as a conspicuous and repugnant hand (a hand that makes "Thing" of "The Addams Family" look like a stool pigeon!) was prominently displayed in the backdrop behind unsuspecting victims. The capacity of the human mind to recall can be both a blessing and a curse--Certainly cruel and unusual punishmnent to these innocent children whose fragility had been exposed by a talented but unknowing director named Paul Leni. Time often distorts reality but their vivid descriptions of the fright and terror they endured by virtue of being strapped to a chair for eighty some odd minutes whild watching "The Cat and the Canary" doesn't bode well. Much of this was clearly a bad omen for the tragic lives that ensued. At least one developed "endostosis", a condition in which the vascular connective tissue lining the marrow cavities of bones results in the formation of bone within the cartilage. Others faired even worse. Ironically, this production is considered a milestone of the American horror film even though it had a German director.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Haunted House Film with Harold Lloyd Bonus
Review: This silent film may rank high among those that are written about far more often than anybody ever sees them. THE CAT AND THE CANARY is well worth the wait - in my case, it's been about 40 years between first reading a glowing account of the film and finally viewing it. And I wasn't disappointed. Of course, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief and I wondered why it was necessary to explain away everything as having a natural, and not supernatural, origin. Still, the film is great fun - sort of like going to a Halloween party.

Paul Leni's expressionistic directing does wonders with the story although its stage origins are apparent. Had Leni not died in 1929, I wonder what he might have done with DRACULA as early Universal publicity claimed he would direct it.

The DVD contains a great bonus of an early Harold Lloyd short, HAUNTED SPOOKS, from 1920. Consistently inventive, this film is chilling on its own terms because Lloyd lost the thumb and index finger of his right hand during the filming. He was posing for publicity photos and was holding a lighted but supposedly dud bomb. It went off. Despite his hospitalization and the obvious trauma he suffered, Lloyd was back at work on HAUNTED SPOOKS within a few weeks, wearing a flesh-colored glove on his right hand with a prosthetic thumb and finger. It's interesting to compare footage that is clearly "before and after" based on how he uses his right hand. This tragedy didn't stop Lloyd from making this film into a top comedy or from going on to be a star of feature films, enjoying a popularity that was second only to Charlie Chaplin. Now that's REAL determination!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Haunted House Film with Harold Lloyd Bonus
Review: This silent film may rank high among those that are written about far more often than anybody ever sees them. THE CAT AND THE CANARY is well worth the wait - in my case, it's been about 40 years between first reading a glowing account of the film and finally viewing it. And I wasn't disappointed. Of course, it requires a certain suspension of disbelief and I wondered why it was necessary to explain away everything as having a natural, and not supernatural, origin. Still, the film is great fun - sort of like going to a Halloween party.

Paul Leni's expressionistic directing does wonders with the story although its stage origins are apparent. Had Leni not died in 1929, I wonder what he might have done with DRACULA as early Universal publicity claimed he would direct it.

The DVD contains a great bonus of an early Harold Lloyd short, HAUNTED SPOOKS, from 1920. Consistently inventive, this film is chilling on its own terms because Lloyd lost the thumb and index finger of his right hand during the filming. He was posing for publicity photos and was holding a lighted but supposedly dud bomb. It went off. Despite his hospitalization and the obvious trauma he suffered, Lloyd was back at work on HAUNTED SPOOKS within a few weeks, wearing a flesh-colored glove on his right hand with a prosthetic thumb and finger. It's interesting to compare footage that is clearly "before and after" based on how he uses his right hand. This tragedy didn't stop Lloyd from making this film into a top comedy or from going on to be a star of feature films, enjoying a popularity that was second only to Charlie Chaplin. Now that's REAL determination!