The Cat and the Canary
                         
Director: Paul Leni
Year: 1927
Rating: 6.5
This film begins with cobwebs covering the screen and then a hand wipes them away revealing the credits – setting the stage for a creepy but comic old house tale. The director is Paul Leni, who Universal had invited over from Germany. He was well-schooled in German expressionism having directed a few films but also been the art director on a number of others. Sadly, he only directed four films in America before he died from an infected tooth – but three of them are considered some of the best American silent films – this one, The Last Warning and The Man Who Laughs – the other one oddly was one of the earliest Charlie Chan films, The Chinese Parrot. This film looks great from the early shot of the “grotesque mansion” overlooking the Hudson with its twisted turrets reaching for immortality, the long lowly lit hallways, the décor and the hidden doors. Leni makes use of changing tints throughout to amplify the atmosphere. The narrative falls between suspense and comedy but doesn’t really hit either full on. There are scenes with people running around in terror, their eyes large saucers but I was never sure if this exaggeration was meant to be funny or scary. There is a bit too much eye-popping with fear.



The wealthy owner was eccentric and paranoid and by the terms of his will it is to be read 20-years after his death at midnight. The family shows up in hopes that their name will be in there. There are six of them - three men and three woman – and the housekeeper who has stayed on all these years taking care of the place. She looks as if she has never laughed or smiled in her life and would sooner poison you than feed you. The will is read and it is all left to the niece – played by Laura La Plante – but with the stipulation that she must be examined by a psychiatrist later that night and declared sane. If she isn't, the inheritance will go to one of the others – but no one knows who that will be. All of them therefore have a hope that she will go crazy and they will be the name to inherit. And someone is doing their best to make sure she does go insane. This was based on a 1922 play and in 1939 Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard were in another version