Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

JohnHowardReid It's marvelous how closely the 1939 Bob Hope version follows this one. I'd assumed that Hope's antics were written into the script, but in point of fact that particular character is if anything even more of a slapstick comic here. He is forever backing into furniture or finding himself in a risqué situation under a bed or wrestling with stray objects like falling books or enormous bed-springs. Of course, he redeems himself in the final reel by rescuing the fair heroine. Just like Hope! True, Creighton Hale doesn't develop the character nearly as fully as Hope, although he spends just about as much time on screen. He isn't as funny nor as engaging. Not that it matters so much here, for this "Cat and the Canary" is primarily a director's movie.Bobbed, fair-haired Laura La Plante makes a winningly sympathetic heroine. She receives excellent support from Tully Marshall's lawyer, Martha Mattox's sinister housekeeper and Lucien Littlefield's weirdly menacing doctor. A young Forrest Stanley and attractive Gertrude Astor also impress.Although the story-line is now familiar to us — since the Hope movie follows it so slavishly — director Paul Leni has joined forces with Universal's legendary art director Charles D. Hall and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton to make it doubly exciting. In fact some of the effects are so bizarre, and the weird atmosphere is so masterfully created, that even a 2017 audience responded with such enthusiasm to a television showing, the station was forced to re-broadcast it twice within the next few months. Here's a rare classic that can entertain, startle and be seen as innovative and highly imaginative, nearly 80 years after it originally thrilled audiences. Leni's "Cat and the Canary" fully deserves its cult reputation.Available in a worn but quite watchable DVD from Alpha.

tavm The version I watched on Amazon was the one issued by Kino with the music score intact. This was quite both a scary and funny movie with Creighton Hale a hoot as the comic hero. This must have been one of the early movies in which a group stays at a haunted house after a reading of a will and the one who stands to inherit it all is the one who gets almost scared of his/her wits. This is the kind of plot I used to regularly watch on "Scooby Doo" cartoons on Saturday mornings when a kid during the '70s. Anyway, I quite enjoyed this silent version of something I watched a talkie version of years back-the one with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard from 1939. So yeah, that's a recommendation of this version of The Cat and the Canary.

Johan Louwet You might think that you cannot take a horror movie with comedy features serious but here they are welcome in what otherwise would be a pretty standard and perhaps tedious film about a house that might be haunted and where mysterious events happen. Comparing this one to the shorter Midnight Faces which has the same premise is like day and night. The Cat and the Canary beats it in every way. The Cat and the Canary starts of with some impressive visuals about the deceased uncle's feelings about his relatives portrayed in a very symbolic way with cats. A few times we see some nice special effects, impressive for its time. The eeriness of the dark mansion remains constant for start to end. The cast is really versatile and fitting with in the starring roles Laura La Plante as the lucky heir Annabelle West, Creighton Hale as the first not so brave and therefore unintentionally funny Paul Jones and of course Flora Finch as aunt Susan whose hysteric talking would drive any sane person crazy (perfect example is when she is picked up by the milkman and drives him nuts with her chattering about ghosts). Honorable mention to Martha Mattox as housekeeper Mammy Pleasant (that name in itself is the biggest paradox when you see her face) whose presence alone does anyone expect there is something scary about the whole thing. And of course the doctor examining Annabelle looked creepy too. Simple but effective story with wonderful characters.

Coventry I always tend to get a bit soft and emotional when commenting on old films, such as the 1927 version of "The Cat and the Canary". Just imagine … 85 years of age, this film is, and it still manages to find its way to new audiences. Everyone of the cast and crew is long dead and – to put it a bit less respectful – decomposed – but at least their legacy will live on for much longer than mine or yours (probably). "The Cat and the Canary" even still reaches fairly large new audiences, as I watched it in an artsy theater during a thematic festival and complete with musical guidance on the piano. Paul Leni's version of "The Cat and the Canary" isn't just the first of many adaptations of the famous stage play by John Willard, it also still stands as the ultimate and most prototypic Old Dark House horror. All the trademarks – commonly referred to as clichés nowadays – can be found here in this trendsetter, and presumably for the first time ever: the reading of the will at midnight, the ominous housemaid, the mysteriously vanishing notary, the secret passageways in the library and behind the bed, the clumsy comic relief cousin – and yes – even the predictable identity of the maniacal killer on the loose. This film is a joy to behold, thanks to the splendid performances (particularly Tully Marshall as the stern notary, Martha Maddox as the creepy maid and Laura La Plante as the cherubic victim) and the atmosphere that is simultaneously frightful and light-headed! Through some imaginative camera angles, Leni generates and handful of spooky moments but the overall tone remains accessible for wider audiences. There are a few obvious holes in the plot (like for example the main heiress being too young for a testament that lingered around for two decades) but you will gladly overlook those. Silence is golden!