Over the last decade, Svengoolie has done a lot to raise the profile of the classic Universal Studio’s horror films on MeTV. He’s introduced new generations to Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and other fear flicks that Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff made at the studio. He’s been able to go back in the vaults to present black and white films. But there’s only so far back he can go. There are films you’ll have to discover on your own because they are a bit too gory or have a different issue. The Cat And The Canary won’t be shown on the big broadcast because there’s no talking. It’s a silent which might weird out a lot of the audience thinking their soundbar has gone wonky. The movie is important since The Cat and The Canary established Universal in The Old Dark House subgenre of horror. Director Paul Leni came over from Berlin and gave the film a German Expressionist flavor. If you really enjoy early horror, you can get to enjoy a restored The Cat And The Canary on Blu-ray so you can fully appreciate a major building block to the studio.
Cyrus West is an extremely rich man with a huge mansion that overlooks the Hudson River. Even with great medical help, the medicine isn’t improving his health. He realizes his heirs are horrible people. They’re eager to pounce on his wealth like cats surrounding a canary. The screen shows us giant cats surrounding the dying West who is behind his medicine bottles. He transfers his fortune into government bonds that won’t mature for 20 years. This means his will can’t be read until 20 years until after his passing. After all that time, the house has fallen into a bit of disrepair and the heirs seem are still a bit greedy. The reading of the will is at midnight on a stormy night. Before the heirs arrive, the caretaker Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox) swears West’s ghost haunts the house. That’s her explanation as to how the lawyer pulls from the safe and discovers a second part of the will and surprise that suggests the door hasn’t been always locked for 20 years. Who arrives with the dreams of getting rich? West’s nephews Harry Blythe (Arthur Edmund Carewe), Charlie Wilder (Forrest Stanley), Paul Jones (Creighton Hale), his sister Susan Sillsby (Flora Finch) and her niece Cecily Young (Gertrude Astor) and finally his niece Annabelle West (Laura La Plante). I won’t disclose which person gets the fortune, but there’s a serious stipulation before they can collect. The person has to be declared sane by a doctor. If not, the money goes to the next heir. While this sounds easy, they’re all stuck in the creepy house for the night. Making things worse is a guard from a nearby mental asylum shows up looking for an escaped inmate that imagines himself as a killer cat. Will anyone get out of the mansion with the money?
The Cat and the Canary is a remarkable film. Paul Leni brings the German expressionism spirit to Hollywood. There’s amazing camera work including tracking shots, camera underneath a bed and freakish optical effects to distort actors’ faces. This is not a dull silent film with the action comprising of Master shots. He gives us a creepy hand that reaches out of the darkness and secret doors that might be the ghost of West or the escaped mental institution patient. The cards with the dialogue include quite a few animated words to give a sense of what the actors are saying. Paul Leni should have been a serious force in Universal horror when sound arrived. He also did the chilling The Man Who Laughs that inspired the character of The Joker. What went wrong that derailed his career? Barely two years after The Cat and The Canary, Leni died of sepsis from a bad tooth. He must have been more scared of dentists than a creepy mansion.
If you are glued to MeTV on Saturday nights to watch classic Universal horrors with Svengoolie, The Cat and the Canary will blow you away. So many of the little spook elements that crop up in those films were pioneered here. The film isn’t completely silent. The musical score by Robert Israel is comprised of music cue sheets issued for the original 1927 release. This is what you would have heard if you attended The Cat and The Canary in an opulent movie house that had musicians in front of the screen.
The Video is 1.33:1 full frame. The restoration job will allow you to full appreciate the angles and optical tricks on the screen. While shot on black and white stock, the film is tinted differently for scenes. The Audio is silent for talking. The score is DTS HD-MA 5.1 so you’ll have an orchestra in your living room. The film isn’t subtitled since the dialogue is on title cards within the film.
Audio Commentary by author Stephen Jones and author / critic Kim Newman gets into the short career of Paul Leni. They’re having a great time discussing the film and filmmakers.
Audio Commentary by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby share plenty of stories involving the crew and cast. They get into the cut of the film presented on the disc. Turns out the film was shot with two cameras next to each other so there was a slight difference between the version that showed up in America and Europe. This is the American cut that the Museum of Modern Art was able to cull together.
Mysteries Mean Dark Corners (29:02) is a new video essay by David Cairns & Fiona Watson about the early history of the Old Dark House mystery. They point out no copies of The Ghost Breaker exists all they have a few stills. The movie was remade a few years later, but no prints of that exists. The Bat is later brought up as it features a criminal dressed as a bat. There’s a lot about what went on to make The Cat and The Canary including Paul Leni camera tricks that others around the Universal lot would later borrow. Walter Anthony’s title get credit for pushing the narrative.
Pamela Hutchinson on The Cat and the Canary (13:04) has her talk about the film being such fun. She also gets into the creepy and gothic moments. She gets into how the film was made when The Jazz Singer brought sound into the cinema. It would be remade with sound and Bob Hope in 1939.
Phuong Le on The Cat and the Canary (9:11) has her get into the tone changes between the play and the film. The publicity for the film had Paul Leni talk about learning English and applying for citizenship.
A Very Eccentric Man (3:11) has voice actors reading the lines from the play over stills from the will reading.
Yeah, a Cat! (2:15) has voice actors reading parts of John Willard’s original play with stills from the movie. This covers the guard looking for the escapee.
Lucky Strike (0:53) has them read the print ad where Paul Leni claims smoking the cigarettes helped him while filming The Cat and the Canary. How come they don’t teach this at Film School?
A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Richard Combs, Craig Ian Mann, and Imogen Sara Smith
Eureka! presents The Cat and The Canary (Limited Edition). Directed by Paul Leni. Screenplay by Alfred A. Cohn & Walter Anthony. Starring Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Flora Finch, Arthur Edmund Carewe & Martha Mattox. Running Time: 87 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: April 23, 2024.
