The Cat and the Canary

This had nice British cast and a remake of an old film that had been remade several times after the original silent production.

Just look at the names: Edward Fox, Wendy Hiller, Olivia Hussey, Carol Lynly, Daniel Massey, Wilfrid Hyde White, Honor Blackman, Michael Callan - maybe not huge names, but all fine actors.

This adaptation was too talky for me, especially for a murder story. It starts off promising in the first half hour but really peters out with all the gab and not nearly enough suspense or action. It looked like a modern English TV drama with a little profanity added. I was disappointed to see two very pretty faces of the 1960s, Lynley and Blackman, not look very good on the facial closeups. All the makeup they had on looked almost grotesque.

I fondly remember seeing this film in '79, and I was taken by it but this was long before I started demanding quality from the industry. I wish I hadn't seen it again, so I could have preserved the memory of the atmosphere and lightning and secret passageways, the reading of the will -- I could go on. But the sun rises. How can a film that boasts such talent lie on the floor so limply? There is no depth to any of the characters except the house keeper. Playboy to Doctor to Sportswoman to Pet girl to Instant heiress -- stick characters played by bored actors. The leading lady seemed miscast. Sorry, Miss Linley but the accent came and went so many times, it was distracting. Not that Miss Lynley got much help from Randy's adaption. To sum it up -- it was all there, all the spooky/ horror elements, but nothing jelled. There was no chemistry between anything... the movie lied there, the end offered nothing but who the killer was and even that was obvious from the onset. Yes. Yes. Very sad. Sometimes it's best to keep childhood memories in your mind's eye rather then try to relive the moment.......................

The Cat and the Canary is directed by Radley Metzger who also adapts the screenplay from the play written by John Willard. It stars Honor Blackman, Michael Callan, Edward Fox, Wendy Hiller, Olivia Hussey, Wilfred Hyde-White, Carol Lynley, Beatrix Lehmann, Daniel Massey and Peter McEnery. Music is by Steven Cagan and cinematography by Alex Thomson.

Ah the dark house murder mystery, sadly seeming now like a relic of our cinematic pasts. There are many to choose from for those of us who choose to go back in time and cosy up by a warm fire, with drink in hand, to involve ourselves in the standard plot formula of various folk getting bumped off by a scheming murderer during a short time period and under one roof. John Willard's The Cat and the Canary is a well mined source for such fun and fearful frolics, as of the time of writing, this 1979 version stands as the last attempt to transfer the play to the screen.

There is nothing unduly bad about Metzger's movie, it's just that it is rarely inspiring either. The cast is well assembled, with one or two creaky performances aside, the mystery element holds strong, and period flavours are tasteful. But the mansion it's set in is too bright and un-threatening, it's overtly talky as a good hour is used to set up characters and plot dynamics, while there's a distinct lack of acidity in the script. Still, it's never less than fun, and for the innovative reading of the will segment alone this version is worth seeking out by those who decry the demise of the old dark house set mystery thriller. 6/10

The Cat and the Canary is one of the classic 'old dark house' stories, with its collection of greedy and possibly murderously insane relatives gathered on a dark, stormy night for the reading of a will at the sprawling ancestral pile, an old manor with many a dark corridor and secret passageway. This late '70s movie adaptation also throws in an escaped lunatic and a pair of lesbian lovers (played by Honor Blackman and the very lovely Olivia Hussey) for good measure, but despite all of these potentially fun ingredients, writer/director Radley Metzger somehow concocts a frustratingly dull thriller that gets bogged down by a seriously talky script and lethargic pace.

For the first hour, practically nothing of interest happens: the characters bicker, they watch an old film of long dead testator Cyrus West (Wilfrid Hyde-White) who explains the rules of his will, and Dr Hendricks (Edward Fox) from the nearby asylum jumps through a window (why? I'm not sure) to inform the guests that the dangerous patient known as 'The Cat' has escaped. The murders are a long time coming and really aren't worth the wait, mostly occurring off-screen, and Blackman and Hussey's potentially exploitative relationship doesn't even extend so far as a peck on the cheek.

The final half an hour picks the pace up from incredibly sluggish to just about bearable, but never delivers the thrills and chills one expects from such a film. The whole thing is far too stagy and devoid of excitement. Just about worth seeing, perhaps, for the impressive cast, which also includes the delightful Carol Lynley as heiress-in-peril Annabelle West, but don't expect too much from anyone - the weak script and doesn't give the performers much chance to shine.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

I'm not overly fond of seeing remakes of movies that I hold in high esteem, such as Paul Leni's excellent silent film "The Cat and the Canary" (1927), but the 1979 British remake (actually the fifth filming of John Willard's 1922 stage play) has such an impressive cast that it was hard for me to resist. And, as it turns out, this most recent incarnation is as fun as can be; an amusing and at times pretty darn scary updating. In what is a now-classic setup, a group of relatives convenes in England, at Glencliff Manor on a stormy night in 1934, to hear the reading of Cyrus West's will, while outside the house, an escaped homicidal maniac stalks the neighborhood. Here, West's attorney, Dame Wendy Hiller, screens the 20-year-old filmed testament of the old man (Wilfrid Hyde-White, whose grumpy recitation for his latter-day "leeches" and "bastards" easily steals the show) to a group of millionaire wanna-bes that includes yummy Carol Lynley, lesbian cousins Honor Blackman and Olivia Hussey, and American songwriter Michael Callan. Radley Metzger, in his sole horror outing in a career more known for various erotic entertainments, directs this film with style to spare, and his screenplay is clever and at times even sparkling. Callan gets the lion's share of the script's comical one-liners, and his quips regarding "putting on heirs," "where there's a will, there's a way" and "kissing cousins" are actually very funny. But don't get me wrong; despite the screenplay's cleverness, this "CATC" does dish out the scares, especially in the film's final 1/2 hour, when that maniac (who reminded me a bit of a bloodied-up Keith Richards, of all people!) gets into the house and things turn pretty nasty. All in all, a surprisingly well-done remake. Now...when is somebody finally gonna release a Region 1 DVD of the 1939 Bob Hope/Paulette Goddard "CATC"? That's what I want to know!