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Showing posts from July 5, 2014

The Cat and the Canary (1939) - Elliott Nugent

The Cat and the Canary is yet another Old Dark House style horror movie with incredible wit and charm. It surprises you with it's quality and mystery. I guess you could say this is one of the rare Old Dark House films that actually gets the formula correct. This is much to my pleasure. The Cat and the Canary is a pretty great little movie. The plot is the same as it always is. A group of people, in this case a bunch of distant relatives, gather for the reading of a will. Then someone dies. They all figure out that they are trapped for the night. Then they start dropping off one-by-one. Insert a creepy police officer and Bob Hope and you have The Cat and the Canary. A shining stone in the dull pebbles that surround it.  I was weary to watch another movie about a haunted house, but this one pulls you in right from the beginning. Bob Hope really steals the show. His fast-paced humor is a perfect mix with the strange and mysterious. He keeps the movie smart. You actually lo