The Cat and the Canary

source: The Cat and the Canary

As was said with 'The Ghost Breakers', there are not many comedy-horror films that are as equally good in comedy and horror, either succeeding better in one or the other or being unsuccessful in both (though there are exceptions no doubt). Like 'The Ghost Breakers' is one of the exceptions, comedy, horror, murder mystery and haunted house have rarely done better. It is a shame that a gem such as 'The Cat and the Canary' suffered comparatively on release, released in a year that saw two of the greatest and most influential in cinema films ever made in 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Gone With the Wind' and other great films. A suicide move. To this day, along with 'The Ghost Breakers' it's one of star Bob Hope's best films. Visually, 'The Cat and the Canary' looks great. The photography wonderfully enhances the eeriness of the haunted house and the exotic locale. You'd be hard pressed to find a creepier-looking film from the 1930s. The music is both haunting and jaunty in equal measure. Story moves along at a cracking pace and never feels too hasty and with never a dull or creaky stretch. The climax is a knockout, with the murderer's identity, method and motive being a complete shock. There is nothing to complain about with the writing either, loved the sweet chemistry between Hope and Paulette Goddard, the humour is genuinely funny and often hilarious and the scares are spooky and suspenseful. The film is successful in the mystery elements too, a suspenseful story with its fair share of chills, there is a real sense of a fright night and a cat among the pigeons (the latter of which being like murder mysteries should be like). Just as good is the adroit direction, while one couldn't ask for better performances. Hope is star quality personified and delivers one-liners in near-definitive fashion. He is a superb mix of cowardly, lecherous, vulnerable as well as very funny. Goddard's chemistry with him is sweet and with a little tension, she is spunky, vulnerable and sensual. Of a sterling supporting cast, George Zucco and Gale Sondergaard are the standouts, Sondergaard in particular sends shivers down the spine. Overall, wonderful and an absolute delight. Comedy-horror-mystery doesn't get much better than this. 10/10 Bethany Cox

What a silly, silly, silly film. If not downright, for want of a better word, stupid. Not that it has to make sense - no need for that, given the nature of the beast - but it ought to have had some semblance of sensibility. Stilted and forced, nothing flowing easily. A petulant and cranky John Beal, unusual for him; a good-looking but vacuous Douglass Montgomery who has been better; Elizabeth Patterson as Elizabeth Patterson only a shade meaner; Nydia Westman perfectly cast as the jittery screamer; George Zucco, gone too soon; malevolent Gale Sondergaard who never fails; Paulette Goddard as Paulette Goddard and lovely at that; and Bob Hope in one of his worst efforts from that time period. His films from the late 30's through the late 40's were usually fun and he was usually fun, but if he gets to say something like "shut up", and mean it, to Patterson, something is not right. It's not in character for him. I've wanted to see this for years and have never found it and now that I have, I can rest easily. I'll never have to see it again. (All in all - it was silly silly silly, but wonderful because, well, just because.)

Cat and the Canary, The (1939) *** (out of 4) Remake of the 1927 silent classic has a group of people showing up for a will reading ten years after the man's death. The entire estate goes to one person (Paulette Goddard) and it doesn't take long for them to realize that someone is trying to kill her. The woman, with the help of a friend (Bob Hope) must try and survive the night while also figuring out a couple secrets about the will. This isn't the greatest film ever made and God knows there were probably way too many of these "old dark house" movies made back in the day but there's no question that this Paramount film has plenty to recommend in it. What I enjoyed most is that they went for the laughs but at the same time they wanted to try and deliver some shocks as just about every horror movie cliché can be found here from the creaking doors to the black cat to the strange maid who of course knew the original owner way too close. The film knows very well the genre it's trying to spoof and I think the movie works so well because they never let the comedy overtake the film and they're smart enough to try and deliver the goods on both accounts. I thought the atmosphere of the film was quite strong as the Louisiana swamp setting really looks terrific. The swamps really build up the atmosphere with the thick fog and creepy noises but it also plays perfectly well with some nice laughs including one bit where Hope becomes worried about the alligators. I'm not the biggest Hope fan in the world but his comedy style was perfect for the material here and it's easy to see why movie audiences would fall in love with this film and it would launch the actor's career. I thought Hope managed the comedy very well and I thought it was a great choice not to follow the footsteps of earlier "old dark house" movies by making his character someone annoying. For a large portion of the film Hope is the "star" but he never comes across as someone leading the action and instead he just sits back and reacts to what the others are doing. Goddard once again shines in her role and you really can't help but fall in love with her easy and fun character. The supporting players include George Zucco and Gale Sondergaard. This story was told several times before and since but there's no question that this here is one of the most interesting ways to tell the story. Again, it's far from a masterpiece but fans of Hope will certainly want to check it out as will fans of the genre.

The late Uncle Cyrus left quite a collection of greedy relatives looking to be the number one heir at the reading of his will at his home on an island in the Louisiana bayou swamp. Among the possible legatees are Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Elizabeth Patterson, Nydia Westman and housekeeper Gale Sondergaard. Presiding over the reading of the will is lawyer George Zucco. Besides Bob Hope a lot of the names of the cast spell out sinister. As usual the deceased always makes out a will with wacky provisions. Winner of the prize is Goddard, but she has to spend some time at the creepy mansion, essential in these kind of films. And if she's driven to madness or killed there is a secret provision for a second heir among the crew that only Zucco knows. The Cat And The Canary is a nice blend of both comedy and melodrama with of course Hope in charge of the comedy. He's a successful radio star as in real life at that time and Uncle Cyrus's money while nice isn't going to be the difference in where his next meal is coming from. And he's liking what he sees in Goddard so he's protective of her in his own comedic way. This was the first of three films that Hope and Goddard did. Immediately afterward Paramount put them in The Ghostbreakers which certainly had some similar themes. They worked well together too bad they were not able to collaborate more. This was a nice film for the career of Bob Hope which was zooming into high gear right about now.

When you watch these old things, you must guess about what they were when they were new. Are what we now see as clichés not clichés but have become so since? Would the genre have been solid by then and ready for self-referential comedy? For instance Bob Hope arrives and starts to mention how movies like this always go. He says that at this point such and such usually happens, and then that thing does happen. Was that a new thing then? I suppose that what we see as cliché's were already solid clichés. And that the genre was well established but that genres meant something quite different then. There were fewer and the format in each genre was more narrowly defined. So cliché wasn't quite the negative thing it is today, rather consisting of familiar touchstones. Genres were a new thing, really only taking on something like their modern meaning in the thirties. So by the end of the thirties they were solid enough to start getting the humorous self-reference like this, and what would later be the Abbot and Costello formula, recently evolved into "Scream" and its children. Here's an example in this movie. It is a remote mansion where ghosts are suspected and spooky happenings occur. Secret passages. Murders. A lost necklace. Early in the game a uniformed policeman shows up and says that he is chasing an escapee from the nearby insane asylum. All during the action, he hovers outside. Caution here: there are spoilers that follow for the 1934 "The Ghost Walks." This plot device is from that quite popular earlier movie. Viewers would recognize it, because it is so oddly shoehorned in. In the 34 movie, there's a clever twist in that the uniformed guy turns out to be the killer; he's the escaped inmate in disguise. So to have this inserted here (it wasn't in the earlier versions) can only be because the writers wanted to play with the trick. I study these things where the movie includes external comment on itself. I believe this was formed in the thirties and that this was an important milestone. And "The Ghost Walks" was too, which is why it is referenced here. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

For years I have heard that "The Cat and the Canary" was a very good movie. For some reason--rights, maybe?--I have never seen it before. Well, I finally caught up with it. As a number of previous reviews have pointed out, "The Ghost Breakers" was better--far better. Even the politically incorrect aspects of the second film worked. Hope and, especially Goddard (no wonder Chaplain was so bewitched), were much better the second time out. I saw the Laura LaPlante silent version on Turner Classic Movies recently, so the identity of "the cat" was no surprise, although I suspect most viewers would have figured it out not too far into the movie. The best performances in the 1939 version were by Gale Sondergaard and Nydia Westman. On the other hand, John Beal and Douglass Montgomery gave confirming evidence of why they are now largely forgotten. Still, I would rather watch Goddard and Hope in this "Cat" than the gore-fests--"Saw," anyone?--that are ground out like rancid sausages today for the mystery/thriller market.

After years of only reading about this-Bob Hope's first starring role in an A picture after a few years struggling in some B's-I finally got to watch this rare showing of The Cat and the Canary on YouTube. Long unavailable on TV and video, this was a very pleasurable experience with the mostly clear print I saw on the site. While director Elliott Nugent provides the right sinister atmosphere for this third film adaptation of this classic mystery play that takes place in New Orleans in my home state of Louisiana (by the way, Crescent City residents would not take kindly to the way George Zucco pronounces their city's name here), Bob Hope provides perfect wisecracks in his role of a radio actor who's one of several possible heirs to a man that's been dead for 10 years. Besides him, there's also the stunning Paulette Goddard as the woman Hope falls for and is willing to protect despite his admitted cowardice (though it's not too emphasized here). As the housekeeper who was long loyal to the late house owner, Gale Sondergaard provides her own haunting beauty to the fore. I was also pleasantly surprised by a couple of familiar character actors who would become recognized on TV: Elizabeth Patterson (later Little Ricky's babysitter on "I Love Lucy"), and Charles Lane (who appeared as Homer Bedloe on "Petticoat Junction" and is another player that is in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life). Even today in this age of more explicit horrors, The Cat and the Canary is great fun to watch. Oh, and I have to mention that one of my favorite lines from Hope concerns dead people coming back. "You mean Republicans?" he asks.

This has to be classed as one of Bob Hope's better films, even though it was one of his first in a starring role. He uses the script to perfection with his one-liners while playing the role of a pretty scared coward, and he is admirably supported by Paulette Goddard as the future heiress. In a very good supporting cast there are a number of stalwarts like George Zucco, Elizabeth Patterson and Gale Sondergaard who add so much to the atmosphere of the film. Take it for what it is - a fun scary romp, and you will be spending a most pleasurable 75 minutes, Oh, and by the way it has the required sliding panels, mists, falling bodies, etc that go such a long way in providing Hope with suitable cracks. Enjoy.

I waited for years to see this film. Now that I've seen it and read the other reviews, I'm wondering if I watched the same film. The film is dull. Hope's one liners are few and the funny ones are fewer. (I laughed three times.) The sets are strictly poverty row. The cinematography is uninspired. There is absolutely no creepiness except for the ending. The actors simply walk through their parts. I have at least half a dozen poverty row old darkhouse films that are better in almost all respects. The original version was far better. It opened with a feeling of horror and sustained it. The Cat was far better realized. Excuse me now - I have to watch the 1927 version to wipe this stinker from my mind.