1979 saw the reworking of the 1922 silent horror benchmark 'Nosferatu' by famed director Werner Herzog, and on the other end of scale to follow that up we see another (there's a few, but this was a British) film adaptation (inspired by John Willard's play) of the 1928 silent murder mystery 'The Cat and the Canary' by kitsch soft-porn director Radley Metzger. I haven't seen any seen of the other versions, so I don't know how close it was to them, but I found this effort to be a hot and cold fable. A wonderful star-studded cast including Honor Blackman, Olivia Hussey, Edward Fox, Carol Lynley, Daniel Massey, Wendy Hiller, Beatrix Lehmann and delightfully riveting cameo part by Wilfrid Hyde White lend strongly to the theatrical and eccentric comic styling that Metzger opts for. The offbeat interplay and rapports between the actors were authentically drilled and sprucely delivered. The isolated mansion comes into its own with its baroque etched details that create character with its shadowy interiors, creaky sounds, flickering lights, various rooms and secret passages. A stormy backdrop with the side-splitting thunder was the tip of it. Material-wise it's an often told, but twisted and cunning tale of mystery, murder, corruption, greed and insanity with a wicked sense of humour underlining it. The thick script is talky with many lyrical exchanges and goes about things in a slow-tempo. It takes a good hour to really kick into gear and this can make it feel a little too sluggish, as some urgency and suspense could've gone done much more for the beginning set-up. Nonetheless the edgy tension effectively builds and eeriness showers the air towards the latter end, but it never feels like enough by the end. Steven Cagen's music score is atmospherically good, the art direction is polished, photography placement is crisply crafty and Metzger directs with sophistication. One thing that did strike me was how the film ends with its revelation on who's doing the murderous acts and somehow it had me thinking did this have an influence of Wes Craven's 'Scream (1996)'? It's more about the way the killers in both films go about setting things in motion and then presenting themselves to their desirable object.
Review of The Cat and the Canary
