Horrorfest 2013: The Cat and the Canary

Back to the silent era we have THE CAT AND THE CANARY, one of horror giant Universal's earliest efforts in the genre and the movie that basically created the whole "old dark house" thing (along with, uh, THE OLD DARK HOUSE).

The 1927 flick's plot involves an eccentric millionaire whose greedy family pesters him for their inheritence on his deathbed. Driven slowly bitter and insane, the millionaire does leave a last will and testament but orders that it cannot be read until 20 years after his death.

The movie opens on the 20th anniversary in the now deserted mansion, where only the creepy housekeeper (Martha Mattox) remains. The millionaire's lawyer (Tully Marshall) arrives to find that a second will has appeared in the supposedly locked safe. The housekeeper maintains the ghost of the millionaire planted it -- it comes with instructions that his estate can only be bequeathed if the relative he left it to is judged sane. If they're not, whoever's in the second will gets the money, but it's not to be read until after it's decided who's sane or insane.

Several relatives, distant and close, arrive for the reading, and it turns out the most distant relative of all (Laura La Plante) is named in the will as receiving the entire estate. As they wait for the doctor to arrive and judge her sane or insane, it becomes clear that she is at the mercy of the other family members, who may or may not wish her harm or attempt to make her appear to be insane in an effort to get the money away from her.

As if that's not enough, a guard from an insane asylum (George Siegmann) shows up to announce a murderous lunatic is on the loose on the grounds of the house. Not long after this people start disappearing and bodies start showing up, as a creepy clawed hand periodically emerges from secret panels in the walls of the house to menace our heroine.

A lot of THE CAT AND THE CANARY relies on comedic relief more than horror. The hero of the film (Creighton Hale) spends most of the running time as a slapstick coward, frightened of everything and constantly stumbling into and falling over things. Unfortunately a lot of this humor is dated and doesn't work as well now as it probably did in 1927, so there's a lot of what seems like useless filler here.

Still, there are some genuinely creepy moments -- Martha Mattox, as the menacing housekeeper, is delightfully weird as she looms intimidatingly in the background of many scenes. There's also Lucien Littlefield as the doctor who eventually shows up in the last act to figure out whether or not La Plante is insane, and turns out to be seemingly insane himself. Finally, the look of the lunatic who is on the loose is very startling, with bulging eyes, fangs, and clawed hands -- after all the comedy and shenanigans, it comes as a shock when we finally catch a full on glimpse of this guy towards the end of the flick.

It's a good classic setup that inspired a whole genre of films to follow, and there are some very interesting visual tricks here and there, but THE CAT AND THE CANARY does suffer a little from the silly comedy and overwrought melodrama that plagues the average silent film.