The Cat and the Canary (1927 film)

The Cat and the Canary is a 1927 silent film about relatives of an eccentric millionaire who gather in his spooky mansion on the 20th anniversary of his death for the reading of his will.
 * Directed by Paul Leni. Written by Alfred A. Cohn and Robert F. Hill, based on John Willard's 1922 play of the same name.

Spooks! Thrills! Shrieks! Laughs! (taglines)

Annabelle West

 * Why, Paul, I haven't seen you since nurse dropped you on your head.

Roger Crosby

 * [as clock strikes] That clock hasn't struck in twenty years - since the old man died!

Aunt Susan Sillsby

 * [to Annabelle] You've had twenty years to get ready for this meeting. It's a wonder you couldn't be here on time.

Other

 * Narrator: On a lonely pine-clad hill overlooking the Hudson, stood the grotesque mansion of an eccentric millionaire...


 * The Guard: Nobody leaves this house tonight!


 * Mammy Pleasant: This is an evil omen! Something terrible will happen here tonight!

Dialogue

 * Roger Crosby: I have come to read the will of Cyrus West. Have any of the heirs arrived yet?
 * Mammy Pleasant: No, Mr. Crosby.
 * Roger Crosby: You must have been lonely here these twenty years, Mammy Pleasant.
 * Mammy Pleasant: I don't need the living ones.


 * Aunt Susan Sillsby: I'd like to see anybody get out of here. I always look under the bed but I've never found anything yet.
 * Cecily Young: You're not what Aunt Susan expected, but come out anyway.
 * Paul Jones: I came in here to protect you from the ghost!
 * Aunt Susan Sillsby: All men are alike, only some are worse. Now you get out!


 * Paul Jones: Have you ever seen anything that looked like a ghost in this house?
 * Mammy Pleasant: There may be one standing behind you now!


 * Annabelle West: What's this all about, Paul?
 * Paul Jones: Don't interrupt me... I think I'm thinking! The solution of this mystery is in the envelope in Crosby's pocket. The person named in that envelope is the one who murdered Crosby.


 * Harry Blythe: Haven't you found anybody to put in your straightjacket yet?
 * The Guard: No - but I will before I leave.


 * Ira Lazar: Why are you so nervous tonight?
 * Annabelle West: Well first, Mr. Crosby was murdered.

Taglines

 * Spooks! Thrills! Shrieks! Laughs!
 * New York's Smashing Stage Success that has thrilled thousands!
 * It's a Universal Long Run Special.
 * THE MYSTERY THRILLER OF THE STAGE FILMED WITH NEW EFFECTS
 * COMING DIRECT to you from B'WAY!


 * The play that startled the world!

Cast

 * Laura La Plante — Annabelle West
 * Creighton Hale — Paul Jones
 * Forrest Stanley — Charles Wilder
 * Tully Marshall — Roger Crosby
 * Gertrude Astor — Cecily
 * Flora Finch — Aunt Susan Silsby
 * Arthur Edmund Carewe — Harry
 * Martha Mattox — Mammy Pleasant, housekeeper
 * George Siegmann — the Guard
 * Lucien Littlefield — Dr. Ira Lazar
 * Hal Craig — Policeman
 * Billy Engle — Taxi Driver
 * Joe Murphy — Milkman