The Cat and the Canary1927
“The mystery thriller of the stage filmed with new effects!”
Directed by Paul Leni
On the charts
🏆 1 win
The premise
Relatives gather at a haunted mansion for a will reading where the sole heir is threatened by a clause that could disinherit her if she goes mad, all while a homicidal maniac escapes nearby.
Horror Vault's take
Decades after an eccentric millionaire's death, his scheming relatives descend on a shadowy riverside mansion for the long-awaited reading of his will — only to find that keeping the fortune may prove as dangerous as losing it. The chosen heir soon discovers that the crumbling estate harbors secrets far more threatening than legal fine print, with strange hands reaching from walls and a lunatic on the loose outside. Director Paul Leni's German Expressionist eye transforms a stage-bound thriller into a visual feast of skewed shadows and nightmare imagery. This landmark of the silent era virtually invented the haunted-house comedy-mystery template that Hollywood would revisit for decades.
Content: Mild Menace And Threat, Dated Racial And Social Stereotypes Typical Of 1920s Cinema
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Cast
Laura La Plante
Annabelle West
Creighton Hale
Paul Jones
Forrest Stanley
Charles Wilder
Tully Marshall
Roger Crosby
Gertrude Astor
Cecily
Flora Finch
Susan
Arthur Edmund Carewe
Harry
Martha Mattox
Mammy Pleasant
George Siegmann
The Guard
Lucien Littlefield
Ira Lazar
Hal Craig
Policeman (uncredited)
Billy Engle
Taxi Driver (uncredited)
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