The Cat and the Canary
                          
Director: Elliot Nugent
Year: 1939
Rating: 6.5
“Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“What’s that?”
“When people come back to life”
“Oh, like the Republicans” (Hope)

This remake of the 1927 film of the same name was going to have to take on a different tenor simply because it was no longer silent – but along with that is the casting of Bob Hope as Wally. In the first film Wally is one of the characters in an ensemble film – a mildly cowardly man who rises to the occasion when he has to at the end. And even though Hope was not yet the star he would soon become with the Road movies, the narrative of the film shifts dramatically in his direction. His Wally is also a bit of a coward – a role that Hope became known for – often literally shaking in his boots – but he gets all the good funny lines in the film while everyone else has to play it straight.  At one point as he throws out one quip after another, one of the characters just tells him to please shut up. And I agreed. But it is Hope. That is what he does.



The other big difference of course is that Paul Leni had passed away and this film is directed by Elliot Nugent, who was a competent director but doesn’t bring the artistic inspiration that Leni had from his years in German cinema. But this has a wittier script. It is all fairly straightforward with Hope going back and forth from trembling to passing off quips.  A solid cast accompanies him – Paulette Goddard, George Zucco, Gale Sondergaard and Elizabeth Patterson.




The plot follows the first film closely but for a reason unknown they shift the locale from a mansion overlooking the Hudson to one deep in the Bayou that can only be reached by boat. Once in the old house, there is no way to leave. An old man died ten years previously and has ordered his lawyer (Zucco) not to read the will till now. The family all show up in boats and immediately want the will read. It goes to the lovely Goddard with the proviso that she remain sane and alive for 30-days. As one of the characters yells out, that is an invitation to murder. Of course, he is right. If something happens to her the inheritance passes to another unknown identity. Things start creaking in the house, black cats appear where people were a second ago, the lights flicker, the lawyer disappears and hands come out of the wall to kill. The film did pretty well at the box office and Hope and Goddard were teamed up the next year in another comedy-horror film, The Ghost Breakers.