Customer Reviews

The Cat and the Canary

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Cat and the Canary (1939) has the perfect mix of laughs and thrills. Blending the two correctly takes a deft touch and it comes off perfectly here. Neither the comedy nor the fear seem forced.

Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard and the always excellent George Zucco and the rest of the entire cast hit the right note with each line and gesture.

The movie also is a good mystery that plays fair with the clues. Those who pay close attention are awarded with being able to solve the crime.

The Cat and the Canary remains one of the best, if not the best, example of the haunted house comedy genre.

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.

I have a (poor quality) VCR tape of this, and it's one of my all-time favorites. Paulette Goddard is at her most beautiful, and Hope is in top form, too. I can't wait until it's finally released in DVD.

bob hope stars in this fantastic mystery comedy film. the film has great atmosphere and a great cast including george zucco as the lawer.i highly recomend this film and have wanted it on dvd since i started collecting.release it soon because it is a masterpiece for mystery.

Late night television is a godsend. About 20 years ago, my mom recorded a copy of this bob hope classic off of T.V., no commercials. I cherish this film like no other. The mystery never gets old, and the laughs have just the right amount of bite. Bob Hope at his best. It would be a shame if this film was never released on dvd or vhs, I hope that one day my daughter will sit down and watch it with me...as long as the tape lasts.

This rarely seen Bob Hope comedy is a delight to see. But it does not hold up well against the original silent version. The original mood & atmosphere is gone, what you have here is a brisk old house mystery/comedy. It stands up well on its own, and is best seen without watching the original.

My reason for only four stars is because the Nostalgia Family DVD is really a DVD-r copied from a 3/4 video tape. There is a slight blurriness to some objects not common to professional DVDs. It is not enough to distract from the enjoyment of this film, but buy it with the understanding that it will not measure up to the picture quality of Universal's Bob Hope DVDs.

Yes, this is a great film - I can understand why people rave about it. My review is a warning about the import region 2 UK DVD being sold by some Amazon sellers. It's absolutely dreadful - the sound is ok, but the picture is a mess and clearly taken from an old VHS tape (zoom back on the picture and you can see signs of VHS head switching). It's also been through an NTSC-PAL conversion, so watching it in North America will mean giving it another conversion back to NTSC - the DVD already has barely any detail in it, so another conversion will likely finish it off completely. The disc is from Orbit Media, who are a public domain specialist (the film is actually be owned by Universal). It looks worse than any bootleg.

Not my quote, but that of Leonard Maltin, the king of movie & video guides, in his 1998 issue, regarding this movie. Long unseen, except by a few of my fellow reveiwers, who were lucky enough to have it recorded off late-night TV by older relatives who remember it for the gem it was. I have been searching for a copy of this film for my 75 y.o. sister for some time. She says it was a hoot when she saw it in her youth. Her sense of humor is really repressed, so I figure it must be hilarious. I have not seen the movie, but if it cemented Hope's movie stardom in 1939, surely it deserves
a re-issue in some form. He was a huge star in the industry & gave so much back to the troops in uniform. All his works should be remembered.

if you want to add this classic old comedy/horror to your dvd collection,then this is currently the best version to purchase (please avoid the truly dreadful region 2 version from orbit media) the picture quality is not perfect by any means,some blur and a general lack of sharpness-however the picture is good enough overall and is certainly still very watchable,also the film appears to be in full-uncut.it would be good to finally see a major name like universal getting the go ahead to release this classic with the respect it deserves,in the mean time this acceptable version will have to do!!

I love this film for so many reasons. The pairing of Goddard and Hope shows great chemistry; the haunted house is indeed creepy. thanks to Gale Sondergaard; the plot always interesting; clever screenplay...it just doesn't get any better. The entire cast is perfect. I taped this off TCM a long time ago, and I'm wearing out the tape. PLEASE: Where's the DVD? It's so thoroughly entertaining !