Le mystère de la maison Norman

The late Uncle Cyrus left quite a collection of greedy relatives looking to be the number one heir at the reading of his will at his home on an island in the Louisiana bayou swamp. Among the possible legatees are Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Elizabeth Patterson, Nydia Westman and housekeeper Gale Sondergaard. Presiding over the reading of the will is lawyer George Zucco. Besides Bob Hope a lot of the names of the cast spell out sinister.

As usual the deceased always makes out a will with wacky provisions. Winner of the prize is Goddard, but she has to spend some time at the creepy mansion, essential in these kind of films. And if she's driven to madness or killed there is a secret provision for a second heir among the crew that only Zucco knows.

The Cat And The Canary is a nice blend of both comedy and melodrama with of course Hope in charge of the comedy. He's a successful radio star as in real life at that time and Uncle Cyrus's money while nice isn't going to be the difference in where his next meal is coming from. And he's liking what he sees in Goddard so he's protective of her in his own comedic way.

This was the first of three films that Hope and Goddard did. Immediately afterward Paramount put them in The Ghostbreakers which certainly had some similar themes. They worked well together too bad they were not able to collaborate more.

This was a nice film for the career of Bob Hope which was zooming into high gear right about now.

This tale of greedy relatives out to get a fortune had been filmed at least two times before Bob Hope took a crack at it, and the world is a better place for it.

Though not the perfect haunted house film, this is a very funny movie. One of the reason that this isn't perfect is that the wisecracks get in the way of the mystery, or if not the mystery, the suspense. Such is the danger of comedy thrillers, either its too funny so its not scary, or too suspenseful and the comedy destroys the tension at the wrong time, here its simply too much humor before it turns serious.

Fortunately here funny is good, so even if the suspense gets the short end of the stick, its still an enjoyable time at the movies. What more could you want, especially since it gives Bob Hope ample chance to do what he does best.

See this movie. Its a lot of fun. 8 out of 10.

CAT AND THE CANARY still is a great mystery/comedy film. With it's two young stars Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, who go on to make yet another two films together, THE GHOST BREAKERS and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, there is great fun and thrills as they spend the night in a spooky old house with several guests that disappear or are found killed mysteriously. Paulette inherits the place through a will, including a jewel necklace which she promptly places under her pillow before going to bed. There is a scary scene with the damsel in distress in bed sleeping, and a hairy grotesque hand slowly starts to creep over her pillow. A wonderful performance by the supporting cast including Gale Sondergard as an evil-looking housekeeper, George Zucco, again in a thriller, and Elizabeth Patterson and Nydia Westman as the two dizzy relatives. This film put both of the leads over the top and onto major star caliber. Rarely on television, it can be seen around Halloween on American Classics.

This has always been one of my top10 favourite films, since I first saw it in 1972, at least 14 times since. Bob Hope was still a little green at this stage, but you can almost see (and hear) him coming of age in CATC, his comic delivery technique and timing noticeably improved by the end. The spooky atmosphere generated onto the b&w nitrate stock by the Paramount cast and crew was palpable, compare it - if you can stomach it - to the 1979 remake!

8 people are summoned to a will-reading at a rather eerie old house; the one that wins the fortune seems to be going insane as one of her relatives sweetly puts it, whilst another just says she's going out of her mind. There's only 2 nice people here, Hope and Goddard, the rest are more or less on the make. She's the visual jewel in here - as Hope says, "Terrific". The scene with Goddard and the Cat in the library is my all-time Spooky Moment on Film - nowadays all the "artists" involved in the making of "horror" films don't trouble about niceties like Spookiness, but just get on with the Gore. That of course is the problem for most people coming to this, they've probably inured themselves over the years to see disgusting and vile-ent things - so much so that they would laugh at the most savage scene in this where someone gets knifed in the back. The 1927 Laura LaPlante version is good and nicely atmospheric too, but it's difficult comparing chalk and cheese to silent and talking pictures - they're both great comedy films on their own merits.

A wonderful piece of art, topped the next year with an even better follow up, Ghost Breakers.

Bob Hope murder mystery/old dark house parody film with someone trying to knock off an heiress. A fiendish figure named The Cat appears but all is not what it seems. This was good fun..I quite enjoyed it although it could have benefited from a few more legitimate frights..certainly a good starting point for Hope who went on to make many more delightful films like this.