The Cat and the Canary starts by informing us that we're at 'Glencliff Manor 1904'. There is a canary flying around in a cage outside & a black cat wandering around, before long the cat has been mysteriously killed... Now the film cuts to 'Glencliff Manor - Thirty Years Later' on a dark, cold & stormy English night. A car approaches the Manor as the rain lashes down, it's a lawyer named Allison Crosby (Wendy Hiller) who knocks the door & is greeted by Glencliff Manor's long serving housekeeper Mrs Pleasant (Beatrix Lehmann) who says she is the first to arrive & invites her in. They both head for a room in which is a wooden coffin sized box with various bits of running machinery attached to the sides, the box has been chained & padlocked shut for twenty years & only Crosby has the keys, once opened they remove a smaller box inside containing some film. More guests arrive, ex surgeon Dr. Harry Blythe (Daniel Massey) is the second, a sportswoman named Susan Sillsby (Honor Blackman) & Cicily Young (Olivia Hussey) arrive together next, a war hero named Charlie Wilder (Peter McEnery) is the fourth while an American songwriter named Paul Jones (Micheal Callan) is the fifth & finally a young fashion designer named Annabelle West (Carol Lynley) is the sixth & last to arrive. After everyone has been introduced they get down to business, they are all informed that they are the last surviving relatives of Cyrus West (Wilfrid Hyde White) who has requested the reading of his will exactly twenty years after his death. The film that Crosby recovered earlier in the evening features footage of Cyrus as he talks his potential heirs through his will, he states that only one will inherit his fortune but should that person die before the night is over or is pronounced insane then the next in line will inherit instead. Cyrus reveals that Annabel is to receive the lot, everyone else are visibly disappointed & jokingly suggest that someone has a good motive for murder. Later on that night a Dr. Hendricks (Edward Fox) unexpectedly turns up to warn everyone that a murderer has escaped from a nearby sanatorium for the criminally insane, to be careful & that no one should leave until the morning. As the night draws on sinister events start to unfold as either there is a killer running around Glencliff Manor or Annabelle is going crazy...
This 1979 version of The Cat and the Canary is the sixth & to date last filmed adaptation of the play by John Willard, the others are the silent The Cat and the Canary (1927), the Spanish La Voluntad del Meurto (1930), The Cat Creeps (1930), the popular The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope & the Sweedish made for TV Katten och Kanariefageln (1961). Written & directed by Radley Metzger I thought this particular The Cat and the Canary was an OK murder mystery but ultimately nothing special. The script is simply too slow, there is no foul play at all in The Cat and the Canary until well past the 50 minute point. Leading up to this the film merely sets the situation up & introduces the characters far more than is needed, I was starting to become inpatient after the 30 minute mark & generally speaking the film could have done with a little less chat & few more incidents. You may figure out the killers identity, you may not but I was left wondering how a character who is a complete stranger, has nothing to do with anyone else & supposedly never met any of them before knew so much about their personal lives & for this reason I thought they basically stuck out like a sore thumb, I'll say no more... The characters are OK & most of them have a motive for murder but the actual body count is very low, just the one for most of it's run time unfortunately, I really wish the filmmakers had included a couple more murders much earlier to create some tension, mistrust & mystery. The Cat and the Canary has vague horror elements & overtones, the old dark spooky house, secret passages, an escaped killer, murder, isolation & a constant raging thunder storm outside & while it has a nice atmosphere throughout it isn't particularly scary & I don't think Metzger intended it to be as there are no real jump out of your seat scares which seemed a bit of a wasted opportunity if you ask me. The acting is solid from all involved especially Hyde White who makes for a great grumpy old relative. Technically The Cat and the Canary is very good but I can't help thinking that the period setting didn't quite work for some reason, the cinematography, editing, music & production design are decent enough for not to complain about anything. Overall I liked The Cat and the Canary as a one time watch & is a reasonable mystery that should have been more, well mysterious.
This 1979 version of The Cat and the Canary is the sixth & to date last filmed adaptation of the play by John Willard, the others are the silent The Cat and the Canary (1927), the Spanish La Voluntad del Meurto (1930), The Cat Creeps (1930), the popular The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope & the Sweedish made for TV Katten och Kanariefageln (1961). Written & directed by Radley Metzger I thought this particular The Cat and the Canary was an OK murder mystery but ultimately nothing special. The script is simply too slow, there is no foul play at all in The Cat and the Canary until well past the 50 minute point. Leading up to this the film merely sets the situation up & introduces the characters far more than is needed, I was starting to become inpatient after the 30 minute mark & generally speaking the film could have done with a little less chat & few more incidents. You may figure out the killers identity, you may not but I was left wondering how a character who is a complete stranger, has nothing to do with anyone else & supposedly never met any of them before knew so much about their personal lives & for this reason I thought they basically stuck out like a sore thumb, I'll say no more... The characters are OK & most of them have a motive for murder but the actual body count is very low, just the one for most of it's run time unfortunately, I really wish the filmmakers had included a couple more murders much earlier to create some tension, mistrust & mystery. The Cat and the Canary has vague horror elements & overtones, the old dark spooky house, secret passages, an escaped killer, murder, isolation & a constant raging thunder storm outside & while it has a nice atmosphere throughout it isn't particularly scary & I don't think Metzger intended it to be as there are no real jump out of your seat scares which seemed a bit of a wasted opportunity if you ask me. The acting is solid from all involved especially Hyde White who makes for a great grumpy old relative. Technically The Cat and the Canary is very good but I can't help thinking that the period setting didn't quite work for some reason, the cinematography, editing, music & production design are decent enough for not to complain about anything. Overall I liked The Cat and the Canary as a one time watch & is a reasonable mystery that should have been more, well mysterious.