NEW 4K RESTORATION
 

The Landmark American Horror Film

THE CAT AND THE CANARY

4K Restoration from 35mm nitrate film elements. Produced by Patrick Stanbury and Kevin Brownlow for Photoplay Productions. Music by Neil Brand, performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic, conducted by Timothy Brock.

"One of the finest examples of motion picture art."
– Mordaunt Hall, New York Times (1927)

"An exceptionally effective chiller."
– Robert E. Sherwood, LIFE (1927)

"Has chills, thrills, and excitement a-plenty."
– Mae Tinee, Chicago Tribune (1927)

"As shivery as anything the movies have yet offered."
– Irene Thirer, New York Daily News (1927)

"Ingenious, macabre...a good mystery picture."
– Idwal Jones, San Francisco Examiner (1927)

"One of the most engrossing mystery thrillers that has yet come to the screen."
– Edwin Schallert, Los Angeles Times (1927)

A decaying mansion and a stormy night provide the archetypal setting for mystery and chaos when a pack of greedy relatives gather for the reading of a twenty-year-old will. But before the fortune can be handed down, the family must endure a night in the cavernous manor, unnerved by the news that an escaped lunatic is at large.

So clever and stylish that it would appear to be the wellspring of all “old dark house” mysteries, The Cat and the Canary was in 1927 already a theatrical chestnut among similar popular melodramas. Even so, The Cat is a milestone of the American horror film, thanks to the ingenuity of its director, Paul Leni (Waxworks, The Man Who Laughs). One of the first film artists imported from Germany by Hollywood, Leni invigorated this stage-bound genre with Expressionist flair, transforming conventional material into a gothic visual feast.