THE CAT AND THE CANARY [1927] [EUREKA Masters of Cinema] [Blu-ray] [1927 / 2024] [UK Release] With the Greatest Cast Ever Assembled in a very Spooky Paul Leni Film!
Paul Leni [‘The Man Who Laughs’] directs one of the most important and influential films in the early history of American genre cinema, which perfected the “Old Dark House” formula and set the stage for the Universal horror cycle of the 1930’s.
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 1920’s. It later inspired James Whale’s ‘The Old Dark House’ and has been remade several times – but never bettered. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this cornerstone of horror cinema for the first time ever on Blu-ray from a glorious 4K restoration.
“The definitive 'haunted house' movie… hugely entertaining” – Time Out UK
“What makes Canary sing is Leni's pioneering mix of spooky expressionism and light comedy, fabulous camera work, and nice turns from Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, and Martha Mattox” – Entertainment Weekly
FILM FACT: ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ is a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ is the product of early 20th-century German Expressionism. According to art historian Joan Weinstein, expressionism includes the art styles of Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, cubism, futurism, and abstraction. The key element that connects these styles is the concern for the expression of inner feelings over verisimilitude to nature. Film historian Richard Peterson notes that “German cinema became famous for stories of psychological horror and for uncanny moods generated through lighting, set design and camera angles.” Such filmmaking techniques drew on expressionist themes. Influential examples of German expressionist film include Robert Wiene's ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ [1920] about a deranged doctor and Paul Leni's ‘Waxworks’ [1925] about a wax figure displayed at a fair.
Cast: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Flora Finch, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Martha Mattox, George Siegmann, Lucien Littlefield, Hal Craig (uncredited), Billy Engle (uncredited) and Joe Murphy (uncredited)
Director: Paul Leni
Producer: Paul Kohner (uncredited)
Screenplay: Alfred A. Cohn (adaptation/ scenario), Edward J. Montagne (story supervision), John Willard (from the stage play), Robert F. Hill (adaptation) and Walter Anthony (titles)
Composer: Hugo Riesenfeld (uncredited)
Cinematography: Gilbert Warrenton, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White with Blue, Green and Gold tints)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 86 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Universal Pictures / EUREKA Masters of Cinema
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: At the start of the film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [1927] we are informed that on a lonely, pine-clad hill overlooking The Hudson, stood the grotesque mansion of an eccentric millionaire – where medicine could do nothing for Cyrus West, whose greed relatives, like cats around a canary, had brought him to the verge of madness – and for twenty years it was said, the tormented ghost of Cyrus West wandered nightly through the deserted corridors. But on the night when the will was to be read, there was something more tangible than a ghost in the house.
‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ film begins exactly twenty years after the death of millionaire Cyrus West, a group of relatives arrive at his large, creepy old mansion for the reading of his will upon the stroke of midnight. Because millionaire Cyrus West disliked the greedy ways of his relatives, Cyrus West has bequeathed everything to the most distant relative bearing the West surname – but here we have the innocent Annabelle West [Laura La Plante]. The only condition attached is that Annabelle West must be deemed sane in order to inherit. Soon after, the warder from a nearby asylum arrives in pursuit of an escaped madman known as The Cat – so named because he regards his victims in the way a cat does towards a canary. As the heirs spend the night in the mansion, Annabelle West finds herself threatened by both The Cat and the other relatives seeking to eliminate her and gain the inheritance for themselves.
This 1927 film version of ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ was directed by Paul Leni and started in the classic era of German silent cinema, having directed the historical portmanteau ‘Waxworks’ [1924]. In the late 1920’s, Paul Leni was one of a host of German expatriates who fled to Hollywood and found employ there. was directed by Paul Leni and started in the classic era of German silent cinema. In the late 1920’s, Paul Leni was one of a host of German expatriates who fled to Hollywood and found employ there.
‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ by Paul Leni brings a full arsenal of visual tricks honed by German silent cinema. Paul Leni’s style is something that lifts the 1927 film up and away from being merely a filmed stage play and gives it an amazing visual dynamism. There is a stunning opening shot that dissolves from the spires of the mansion to the maddened Cyrus West surrounded by giant medicine bottles, with Cyrus West seemingly trapped in their midst and surrounded by giant cats.
Paul Leni’s style of directing this 1927 film is a dazzling style – when Roger Crosby [Tully Marshall] tells Annabelle West about Cyrus West being caged like a canary by his greedy relatives, the very shot circles around the table as she is surrounded by the tall ornate chairs, appearing herself like a canary in a cage. When a title card mentions the word “ghosts” and the word comes vertically shimmering down the frame. Everyone remembers the brilliant editing juxtapositions such as the cutaway into the interior of the clock to observe the cogs winding up to meet midnight.
Even though ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ has sadly dated in some areas, Paul Leni’s shock effects still contain considerable effect today. Paul Leni does a really great job with the cliché images of the Old Dark House genre – of secret doors opening behind people and clawed hands reaching out to snatch necklaces from sleeping necks. The revelation of The Cat itself with one giant eye and two huge clawed teeth only half-seen under a slouch hat is extremely creepy.
The scares are somewhat diluted by the emphasis on the comedy, which gets more screen time than the horror element does. This is often dated humour – a long scene with Paul Jones [Creighton Hale] hiding under Susan Sillsby [Flora Finch] and Cecily Young [Gertrude Astor] bed could easily have been cut. Nevertheless, some of this is also amusing. Susan Sillsby’s autocratic and domineering performance is good and Mammy Pleasant [Martha Mattox] is very amusing as the humourless maid. There is also a wonderfully sinister performance from Doctor Ira Lazar [Lucien Littlefield] as a psychiatrist who seems even more disturbed than any of his patients.
Looking at the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ it is emblematic of everything we know about silent cinema, with its comic intertitles, wide-eyed acting and stereotypes, but viewed more seriously it was a hugely influential title. So we get all the shadows, moving panels and disembodied hands, but also the slapstick turns of the comic performers Creighton Hale. Such was the movie’s success that The New York Times critic Mordant Hall – who sounds like a creepy mansion himself – declared that “this is the first time that a mystery melodrama has been lifted into the realms of art.”
The mystery itself isn’t all that mystifying, but the pleasure comes from the final execution of the film. It’s not apparent for the film’s first three quarters that there even is a mystery to solve, and the way the climactic fight is shot in such a playful way means that even when the identity of the killer is narrowed down to two, the way Paul Leni obscures the faces of his characters makes the reveal a great surprise. The 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ is a pretty unassuming film, but it proved a key influence on the formative years of horror cinema in Hollywood, It’s very much a film caught between two iconic worlds, and it’s impossible to watch without that thought in mind. At once a holdover from German Expressionism and a precursor to the classic Universal horror movies, it has a unique position in horror cinema history. So I really hope you enjoy the film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ folks!
THE CAT AND THE CANARY MUSIC TRACK LIST
Symphony No. 3 in C minor Op. 78 'Organ' I. Adagio (Written by Camille Saint-Saëns)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – and EUREKA Masters of Cinema presents us the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ with a brand new 4K restoration from the original negatives supplied by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the 1080p image is framed in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, and was shot by cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton on 35mm Black-and-White with Blue, Green and Gold tints film using Mitchell cameras and spherical lenses, finished photo chemically, and is every bit as glorious as was claimed by the press release for this Blu-ray disc, and given that this film is almost a century old, the work done to restore it to this quality is downright heroic. The original Blue, Green and Gold tinting has been faithfully reproduced, with night exteriors having a steely blue wash and the interiors given a warm golden hue, and while this does inevitable impact the contrast range – there are no pure whites or blacks as a result – the resulting image is still vibrant and detailed, and those small traces of wear aside, is free of damage. Given the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ age, it is still a joy to watch this very classic very spooky film. ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ is leaps and bounds beyond any prior presentation, either on VHS, DVD, or even the many low quality copies floating around on YouTube. It’s fresh and vibrant throughout, maintaining a high bitrate, and revealing levels of crisp detail never before seen.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – and EUREKA Masters of Cinema brings us this film with a wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience that has been scored by Robert Israel, and at the same time has been edited by Gillian B. Anderson, and based on music cue sheets compiled and issued for the original 1927 film release and it is totally rich, tonally lively and crystal clear track that complements the film and feels period-appropriate – how I wish all silent films could be released on Blu-ray with a score drawn from the one that accompanied it on its original release. Occasional sound effects have also been added such as hands knocking on doors, which apparently is also consistent with how the film would have played in its day. So all in all, Bravo all round for EUREKA Masters of Cinema.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Limited-edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys [First print run of 2000 copies only]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a brand new 4K digital restoration of the original negatives supplied by MoMA [The Museum of Modern Art] New York City, USA.
PLUS: A collector’s 36 page booklet featuring brand new writings on the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and includes LAUGHTERS IN THE SHADOWS by Imogen Sara Smith. THE GROTESQUE MANSION OF AN ECCENTRIC MILLIONAIRE by Craig Ian Man. UN CHAT ANDALOU by Richard Combs. Plus Viewing Notes. Blu-ray Credits. Lots of images related for the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’
Special Feature: Audio Commentary by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones [2024] [1080p] [1.37:1] [86:42] With this featurette, we get to hear this audio commentary by Novelist and Film Critic Kim Newman and Author Stephen Jones of Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960’s and of course are here to talk about this 1927 classic Universal Pictures silent film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and they give great praise about the director Paul Leni who they thought was ahead of his time and was his first American silent film, but Paul Leni also directed the film ‘Waxworks’ in Germany which got his ticket to Hollywood. Throughout the audio commentary they discuss the cast, the characters, John Willard’s original stage play and his novelisation of the film. Kim Newman and Stephen Jones praise the modern music score by the brilliant composer and conductor Robert Israel, also the creative use of depth-of-field, and the framing of the film. As we get near to the end of this audio commentary, Kim Newman and Stephen Jones comment that they feel this 1927 film, it makes you watch this film right to the very end and it is uproariously entertaining and they want to thank you for listening to our audio commentary and we hope you enjoyed it and they also hope we have added something to the film today, and we want to thank Carl Laemmle for releasing ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and they also want to praise the excellent composed score by Robert Israel, as it was totally fantastic, but they also want to thank MoMA for a fantastic restoration of the film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and at that point this Kim Newman and Stephen Jones audio commentary comes to an end.
Special Feature: Audio Commentary by Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons [2024] [1080p] [1.37:1] [86:21] With this featurette, we get to hear this audio commentary by Jonathan Rigby who is the author of English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema and other well-known books and also welcomes Kevin Lyons who is the esteem editor of the Encyclopaedia of Fantastic Films and Television website and both want to welcome us to this special audio commentary, where of course they was to talk about the Universal 1927 silent film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and both comment about the mysterious glove hand wiping away the cobweb that reveals the film credits, but they also mentions that throughout the film it also introduces different kinds of hands, like hairy hands, hands with long nails like talons, and classic clutching hands and also weird and normal hands. Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons talk in general terms with more detailed information on the various actors, director Paul Leni, screenwriters Robert F. Hill and Alfred A. Cohn, and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton, and they also praise the economy of the dialogue, the hilarious comedy of the particular bedroom scene with the male actor under bed and the two female actors getting very paranoid at the start of this scene. As to the rest of this audio commentary with Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, the majority of it is very similar information about the film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ very much like the previous audio commentary. But as we get near to the end of this audio commentary, Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons says, they talk about the cast listing at the end of the film and repeating the wording, by sating The Cast is repeated at the request of the picture patrons who desire to check the names of the players whose work has pleased them, and they then both say it is a great cast and is also a great film and at that point this Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons audio commentary comes to an end.
Special Feature: Mysteries Mean Dark Corners [2024] [1080p] [1.37:1 / 1.78:1] [29:02] With this featurette, we get to view a Brand New Video Audio Commentary Essay by David Cairns and Fiona Watson who explores the history of what they describe as the Spooky House Melodrama film, from its earliest incarnations right up to the 1979 remake of ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ with Bob Hope. Appropriately, ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [1927] film gets a lot of specific attention, with the inventive opening scene nicely deconstructed, and there is some detailed information on the production and on Paul Leni himself. We get to hear Filmmaker quotes are read out by actors pretending to be them (complete with added crackle for a couple of the Paul Leni ones), and Fiona Watson describes Creighton Hale’s portrayal of Paul Jones as someone who “looks like a digestive biscuit that’s had all the chocolate licked off it.” I almost hate to take the edge off such a brilliant observation by pointing out, in the manner of Bernard Woolley from Yes, Minister, that digestive biscuits do not have chocolate on them, only chocolate digestives do. I’m sure that’s what Fiona Watson meant. As an added bonus, we of course get lots of clips from the 1927 Universal Pictures film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’
Special Feature: Pamela Hutchinson on ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [2024] [1080p] [1.37:1 / 1.78:1] [13:04] With this featurette, we get to view another Brand New Interview with Writer and Film Critic Pamela Hutchinson who cheerfully enthuses about a film she describes as “a complete and utter hoot” and “the funniest and creepiest version of this story.” Writer and Film Critic Pamela Hutchinson takes a detailed look at the career of director Paul Leni, selects many of the actors for individual praise, salutes the work of art director Charles D. Hall, and comments on the film’s mix of Hollywood style and slapstick with European artistic sensibilities. Once again as an added bonus, we of course get lots of clips from the 1927 Universal Pictures film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’
Special Feature: Phuong Le on ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [2024] [1080p] [1.78:1] [9:11] With this featurette, we get to view a Brand New Interview with Film Critic Phuong Le who also briefly covers the early career of director Paul Leni, but her primary focus is of course the silent 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ and gets into describing its lighting, its set design, its style, and its atmosphere. Phuong Le highlights the screwball comedy elements of the bedroom scene, how the animated intertitles become part of the scenery and plot, and notes the film’s cinematic fracturing of bodies and focus on the different creepy hands we get to view throughout the 1927 film. Once again as an added bonus, we of course get lots of clips from the 1927 Universal Pictures film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’
Special Feature: A Very Eccentric Man [2024] [1080p] [1.78:1] [3:11] With this featurette, we get to view an audio Extract from John Willard’s original play The Cat and the Canary and at the same time we view images from the 1927 Universal Pictures film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’ The people reading from John Willard’s original play, we are not informed who they are.
Special Feature: Yeah, a Cat! [2024] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:15] With this featurette, once again we get to view another audio Extract from John Willard’s original play The Cat and the Canary and at the same time we view images from the 1927 Universal Pictures film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY.’ The people reading from John Willard’s original play, we are not informed who they are.
Special Feature: Lucky Strike [2024] [1080p] [1.37:1] [0:53] With this featurette, we get to view a rare audio introduction from Paul Leni the Motion Picture Director, where he says, “While directing the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ for Universal Pictures Corporation, I was fortunate to always have a Lucky Strike to hand. After shouting through a megaphone to complete each scene, a few puffs of this delightful cigarette proved a welcome relaxation. My voice was constantly under a strain and Lucky Strike gave me no throat irritation whatsoever. Paul Leni.
Finally, with the 1927 film ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ is like deadly game between a young heiress who feels trapped in a very spooky peculiar haunted house, surrounded by lurking, unseen evils... This is a dandy old creeper of a silent horror film era, with just the right mix of menace and mirth to please the uncritical viewer. Universal Pictures gave the movie very fine production values, which extend not only to the atmospheric sets, but also to the humorously spooky title cards scattered throughout. ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [1927] is a very lively and hugely entertaining horror comedy film that is lifted to a higher level by director Paul Leni’s wonderfully creatively expressionistic direction. The gorgeous restoration is handsomely showcased on Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Blu-ray and supported by a strong collection of special features. ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ 1927 film takes nothing away from Elliot Nugent’s equally delightful 1939 remake, and since both are available on Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Blu-ray, it’s now possible to own and appreciate this 1927 film with equally at optimum quality. So all in all, you should definitely get your hands on ‘THE CAT AND THE CANARY’ [1927] film and so I employ you to enjoy a great delicious spooky hilarious fun. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
