The Cat and the Canary (1927) │ Eureka Entertainment
Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Eureka Classics have done it again and have now released the first 4K restoration copy of the original 1927 The Cat and the Canary, available for the first time on blu-ray. Considering how many prestigious silent classics have been lost forever, it is quite a treat to sit through the full 86 minutes that have been meticulous preserved of what really is a prototype of its kind. One might consider the dark house comedy-thriller a rare beast, but it was extremely popular in its day, kicked off by this hugely popular silent, made just nine months before the release of the very first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer.
Looking at The Cat and the Canary today, it is emblematic of everything we know about silent cinema, with its comic intertitles, wide-eyed acting and stereotypes, but viewed more seriously it was a hugely influential title. It was directed by the German filmmaker Paul Leni, who brought his expertise for German Expressionism and married it to a very specific madcap American humour. So we get all the shadows, moving panels and disembodied hands, but also the slapstick turns of the comic performers Creighton Hale – who virtually impersonates Harold Lloyd – and Flora Finch, the English vaudevillian, most of whose 300 films are now classified as lost. As Aunt Susan here, she is a hoot.
The film was the first of five loose adaptations of the play of the same name by John Willard – which also went on to inspire the Disneyland attraction Haunted Mansion, which itself was the basis of two further films. So The Cat and the Canary has a lot answer for. Here we find a group of people trapped in a haunted mansion on a dark and stormy night, awaiting the reading of a will penned by an eccentric millionaire who had died twenty years previously. Not only is his old manor reputed to be haunted, but there is a crazed lunatic on the loose, and his Mrs Danvers-esque housekeeper Mammy Pleasant (who is anything but) would appear to be as mad as a box of frogs. And so the six relatives of the soundly deceased Cyrus West arrive to spend the night at this creepy pile to hear the contents of his will, believed to the sum of one million dollars. Long before the proliferation of such eccentric billionaires as Elon Musk and Donald Trump, a million dollars in 1927 was a fortune – now it might just about buy you a garage in Mayfair. But – wait – there is a second will, only to be read out if the recipient of the contents of the first will proves to be insane by the end of the night. Thus, a lot is going on here and the film serves its material well, using sophisticated editing, superimposing techniques and shadow play to its advantage.
Such was the movie’s success that The New York Times critic Mordant Hall – who sounds like a creepy mansion himself – declared that “this is the first time that a mystery melodrama has been lifted into the realms of art.” It’s certainly a lot more engaging that Disney’s last Haunted House film, released last summer. This is helped enormously by Robert Israel’s enthusiastic score and the star wattage of its star, Laura La Plante, who plays Annabelle and was 22 at the time. It is also noteworthy in that its leading man, Paul Jones – played by Creighton Hale – is not your typical heroic figure but a well-meaning, surprisingly courageous coward, which allowed Bob Hope to build on it the remake twelve years later. And I have to mention the bonus material, which is truly abundant. There’s not one but two audio commentaries, provided in the first instance by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and secondly by Kevin Lyons and the effortlessly eloquent, mellifluous and authoritative Jonathan Rigby. There are also two talking head analyses, a documentary on the whole dark house genre, which takes us from the very early days of cinema and right up to the Joker films, as well as audio extracts from the original play. Available for the first time on blu-ray from a painstaking 4K restoration, this limited edition includes a collector’s booklet featuring new written material by Richard Combs, Craig Ian Mann, and Imogen Sara Smith.
Eureka Entertainment’s release of The Cat and the Canary is now available on blu-ray
EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT is the leading independent distributor of classic silent/early films in the UK. In 2004, Eureka! established the award winning Masters of Cinema Series, a specially curated director-led Blu-ray and DVD collection of classic and world cinema using the finest available materials for home viewing. In 2014, Eureka! established Eureka! Classics intended to highlight a broader selection of classic and cult cinema, and in 2017, Eureka! established Montage Pictures, a label celebrating ground-breaking and thought-provoking world cinema from new and upcoming directors.
