24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Don't big, empty houses scare you?" "Not me. I used to be in vaudeville.", August 19, 2007
In 1939, Paramount Pictures released the second film adaptation of John Willard's stage play THE CAT AND THE CANARY. This version just might be the second best example of the "old dark house" sub-genre, the first being, what else,
The Old Dark House itself. What makes this version of THE CAT AND THE CANARY so very good is Bob Hope being cast as the movie's lily-livered but very funny hero. Star making role? Surely.
It wasn't a dark and stormy night, more like a gloomy and atmospheric late afternoon somewhere in the bayous of Louisiana, where we glimpse a man being ferried on a boat towards the old, bleak-looking Norman mansion. He is the family lawyer, come to read the will of old, decade-long-deceased Cyrus Norman, who in his time was eccentric and so crooked that "when he died they had to screw him into the ground." Shortly after, six farflung relations of the Norman clan gather to see who'll win the lottery.
Amongst the arrivals are radio personality Wally Campbell (Hope) and magazine illustrator Joyce Norman (beautiful Paulette Goddard), who had been childhood chums. The family lawyer reads the will and declares Joyce the sole benefactor, but with certain provisos. Due to a persistent streak of insanity which runs in the family, a second inheritor was secretly named. This person stands to gain should Joyce turn out to be of unsound mind. A further clause states that this second inheritor will also profit should Joyce meet her death within a month of inheriting (hmmm...).
The others are naturally dissatisfied and soon prepare to depart. But transportation doesn't arrive until morning, and so, they're forced to spend the night at this old dark house. Mention is off-handedly made of a treasure in the guise of a diamond and emerald-studded necklace hidden somewhere on the premises. Then the guests hear uneasy news of a crazed killer recently escaped from the local insane asylum. And, in this decaying edifice, deep-seated grudges and frayed nerves soon play out, giving rise to suspicion and stark terror. Is it a surprise that, very soon, people begin to vanish? Then, the murders begin.
I've a fondness for these moody "old dark house" spine-tinglers, which specialized in mystery, terror, and humor. I've been searching and waiting for a dvd copy of THE CAT AND THE CANARY for so long. This might've been the one which made me a Bob Hope enthusiast. At a running time of only 73 minutes, this movie clips along at a very brisk pace. Absenting the stormy weather, all the other ingredients for this sub-genre are here: creaking noises, the shady servant, a painting with eyeholes, hidden passageways, and lurking, shadowy figures. And murder, of course. What fun.
But, again, it's worth noting that Bob Hope made this film stand out, as he offsets the delicious chills with his brand of cowardice and casual one-liners. By today's demanding criteria, this movie wouldn't scare the snot out of anyone above the age of nine. Nowadays, this is more a great nostalgia piece than anything. In its time, this film raked in enough box office cred and popularity to garner a reteaming of Hope and Goddard, which they do a year later in another worthy "old dark house" romp
The Ghost Breakers. THE CAT AND THE CANARY sent our beady-eyed, ski-nosed comedian well on his way to success and longevity. The next year, his star status was cemented in the first of his seven road pictures with Bing Crosby,
Road to Singapore.
As for Paulette Goddard, I've only ever seen her in her two films with Hope, her two movie pairings with Chaplin, and in
Second Chorus, in which her character is romanced by Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith. What's not to like? She was beautiful, engaging, and had a deft and light touch with her lines. She should've made a bigger mark in Hollywood. Meanwhile, if Hope provides the levity in THE CAT AND THE CANARY, then Gale Sondergaard adds much to the creepy goings-on. She's great as the sternly clad housekeeper who is also a devout spiritualist. It is she who dramatically warns the guests that spirits have warned her of imminent death in the household. She also persists in making ominous statements. When the family lawyer comments on the clock, she declares: "It stopped when the master died." Or when the lights eerily flicker: "Sometimes they get into the machinery." With her forbidding demeanor and detached delivery, she pulls it off quite well. And she's kinda hot. In a haughty housekeeper kind of way.
I haven't caught the silent 1927 film adaptation of
The Cat and the Canary (Special Edition), but I hear good things about it. I did see the 1979 remake
The Cat and the Canary (Uncut Director's Edition), with Honor Blackman, and that one's worth dusting off and putting into the dvd player, even if it's not quite as good as this 1939 version. Off the top of my head, other "old dark house" pictures worth locking onto are
The Thirteenth Guest (1932) DVD [Remastered Edition], HOLD THAT GHOST, and, of course, the classic itself, THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932). There might even have been a spooky house thriller/comedy with Fred MacMurray, I think it was titled MURDER, HE SAYS?
By the way, for the curious, the movie title THE CAT AND THE CANARY comes from a reference in a psychology book which Joyce finds. According to numerous experiments, a canary, when placed in near proximity to a cat, will often die of fright. Another fun fact I learned thru watching this film is that, in the swamps, a woman apparently keeps her shoes on when she goes to bed.
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