The Cat and the Canary (1978)

This 1978 movie adaptation of John Willard's 1922 play, about house guests and a deranged killer gathered in a mansion for a will reading, eventually finds its feet and for the last half at least becomes the comedy-thriller it wants to be (it wants to be a scene-by-scene remake of the 1939 movie - look at Michael Callan in the lead doing his best Bob Hope impersonation) but it is as though at the outset the makers were intending some kind of update - the opening shot suggests a psycho thriller and sets the wrong tone altogether and early scenes (the hi-tech announcement at the dinner party, for example) are humourless and go on forever - how many times do we need to see the home-help moving in and out of the old footage? - and weak performances - Edward Fox barely registers - and the 70s aesthetics further detract from the fun.

★★☆☆☆

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The Cat And The Canary (1927)

One reason to watch Paul Leni's 1927 adaptation of John Willard's 1922 stage play is to marvel at just how influential a film it is - the best of the four film adaptations of the play so far (this one, the one in 1930, the funny one with Bob Hope in 1939, and the 1979 movie) and inspiration for a zillion spin-offs and variations (The Black Cat, The Spiral Staircase, House on Haunted Hill, Haunted Mansion...) - and another reason to watch is that it is fantastic - an atmospheric German expressionist silent horror that makes great use of the cinetechnology of the day, spliced as it is with imaginative concrete poetry intertitles and shot with blue and yellow tones to distinguish the lit or unlit scenes, not to mention a handful of shots using a red tone for the creepy or alarming moments - afterall, it is a movie about a group of people trapped for a night in a mansion where they've gathered for a will reading and where they learn almost unbelievably that they are prey to a murderous lunatic somewhere in or around the house.

★★★★★

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The Cat And The Canary (1939)

It renders the absurd plot of The Cat and the Canary (1927) slightly more sensible, halving the time between Cyrus West's death and his will reading and relocating his ghost mansion to the Louisiana bayous, making it easier to believe the mansion has stood empty for ten years except for the presence of poor lonely Miss Lu, and this version ups the comedy with Bob Hope cast as Wally Campbell, the love interest dropping wisecracks left, right and centre as a lunatic called The Cat terrorises a group gathered in the mansion for the will reading.

★★★★☆

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