Other Film Versions
The Cat and the Canary has been filmed five other times. Rupert Julian's The Cat Creeps (1930) and the Spanish language La Voluntad del muerto (The Will of the Dead Man) directed by George Melford and Enrique Tovar Ávalos were the first talkie versions of the play; they were produced and distributed by Universal Pictures in 1930. Although the first sound films produced by Universal, neither was as influential on the genre as the first film and The Cat Creeps is lost.
The plot had become too familiar, as film historian Douglas Brode notes, and it "seemed likely the play would be put away in a drawer ." Yet Elliott Nugent's film, The Cat and the Canary (1939), proved successful. Nugent "had the inspired idea to openly play the piece for laughs." The film was produced by Paramount and starred comedic actor Bob Hope. Hope played Wally Campbell, a character based on Creighton Hale's performance as Paul Jones. One critic suggests that Hope developed the character better than Hale and was funnier and more engaging. In later years, Universal themselves acquired the rights to the 1939 version.
Other film adaptations include Katten och kanariefågeln (The Cat and the Canary), a 1961 Swedish television film directed by Jan Molander and The Cat and the Canary (1979), a British film directed by Radley Metzger. The 1979 version was produced by Richard Gordon, who explains why he and Metzger made their film version: "Well, it hadn't been done since the Bob Hope version, it had never been done in color, it was a well-known title, had a certain reputation, and it was something that logically could or in fact should be made in England."
Read more about this topic: The Cat And The Canary (1927 Film)
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