The Cat and The Canary (1927 Film) - Reception and Influence

Reception and Influence

The Cat and the Canary debuted in New York City's Colony Theatre on September 9, 1927, and was a "box office success". Variety opined, "What distinguishes Universal's film version of the ... play is Paul Leni's intelligent handling of a weird theme, introducing some of his novel settings and ideas with which he became identified .... The film runs a bit overlong .... Otherwise it's a more than average satisfying feature ...." A New York Times review expounded, "This is a film which ought to be exhibited before many other directors to show them how a story should be told, for in all that he does Mr. Leni does not seem to strain at a point. He does it as naturally as a man twisting the ends of his mustache in thought." Nonetheless, as film historian Bernard F. Dick points out, "xponents of Caligarisme, expressionism in the extreme ... naturally thought Leni had vulgarized the conventions ". Dick, however, notes that Leni had only "lighten so they could enter American cinema without the baggage of a movement that had spiraled out of control."

Modern critics address the film's impact and influence. Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice remarks, " adroitly atmospheric film is virtually an ideogram of narrative suspension and impact"; Chris Dashiell states that "verything is so exaggerated, so lacking in subtlety, that we soon stop caring what happens, despite a few mildly scary effects", although he admits that the film "had a great effect on the horror genre, and even Hitchcock cited it as an influence." Tony Rayns has called the film "the definitive 'haunted house' movie .... Leni wisely plays it mainly for laughs, but his prowling, Murnau-like camera work generates a frisson or two along the way. It is, in fact, hugely entertaining ...." John Calhoun feels that what makes the film both "important and influential" was "Leni's uncanny ability to bring out the period's slapstick elements in the story's hackneyed conventions: the sliding panels and disappearing acts are so fast paced and expertly timed that the picture looks like a first-rate door-slamming farce .... At the same time, Leni didn't short-circuit the horrific aspects ...."

Although not the first film set in a supposed haunted house, The Cat and the Canary started the pattern for the "old dark house" genre. The term is derived from English director James Whale's The Old Dark House (1932), which was heavily influenced by Leni's film, and refers to "films in which murders are committed by masked killers in old mansions." Supernatural events in the film are all explained at the film's conclusion as the work of a criminal. Other films in this genre influenced by The Cat and the Canary include The Last Warning, House on Haunted Hill (1959), and the monster films of Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy.

A tinted version produced by David Shepard, film preservationist, was released on both VHS and DVD in 1997 and 2005 by Image Entertainment. The 2005 "Special Edition" contains an original score by Franklin Stover. The original black-and-white version airs infrequently on the cable television network Turner Classic Movies.