Directed by:
Paul LeniCinematography:
Gilbert WarrentonComposer:
Hugo RiesenfeldCast:
Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Martha Mattox, George Siegmann, Lucien Littlefield (more)Plots(1)
Twenty years after the death of millionaire Cyrus West, his surviving relatives are called together in a decaying mansion on the Hudson River. There, they gather to hear West’s lawyer Roger Crosby (Tully Marshall) read his last will and testament and discover that West has left everything to his niece Annabelle (Laura La Plante). That is, at least, on the condition that she is judged to be legally sane. As the family settles in for the evening, tensions rise when they are informed that a murderer nicknamed the Cat has escaped from a nearby asylum and is suspected to be somewhere on the grounds. Crosby soon disappears in mysterious circumstances, which proves to be just the first in a series of horrifying events that will punctuate a long, dark night of terror - during which Annabelle’s sanity will be called into question again and again. Based upon the 1922 stage production by John Willard, The Cat and the Canary is a perfect blend of horror and black comedy and stands at the apex of a cycle of films adapted from mystery plays throughout the 1920s. It later inspired James Whale’s The Old Dark House and has been remade several times - but never bettered. (Eureka Entertainment)
(more)Cast
Laura La Plante
USA
Best movies:
The Last Warning (1929)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
King of Jazz (1930)
Creighton Hale
Ireland
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Casablanca (1942)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Forrest Stanley
USA
Best movies:
Show Boat (1936)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Tattered Dress (1957)
Tully Marshall
USA
Best movies:
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
Scarface (1932)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Gertrude Astor
USA
Best movies:
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Arthur Edmund Carewe
Ottoman Empire
Best movies:
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Martha Mattox
USA
Best movies:
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
George Siegmann
USA
Best movies:
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
The Three Musketeers (1921)
Lucien Littlefield
USA
Best movies:
Beyond the Rocks (1922)
The Little Foxes (1941)
Why Change Your Wife? (1920)
Billy Engle
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)