Cat And The Canary (Silent)

The grotesque and sinister mansion of the late Cyrus West has stood empty for twenty years - until tonight. On this stormy evening, the eccentric millionaire's will is to be read, and his greedy potential heirs gather in the cobwebbed halls of the foreboding gothic manor. Cyrus' disdain for his money-hungry relatives is evident when he bequeaths his fortune to his most distant relation, the lovely Anabelle West. But Cyrus has placed an unusual clause in his will. Anabelle must be proven to be sane in order for her to collect the money and, if she is not, the untold wealth will go to another heir whose name remains sealed in an envelope. When the family lawyer attempts to warn Anabelle who this other heir is, he mysteriously vanishes. Meanwhile, a homicidal maniac is loose in the house, a killer with the claws of a crazed feline. Anabelle finds herself much like a frightened canary...surrounded by hungry cats!

Among the first and very best films of the genre, The Cat And The Canary is a masterpiece of early cinematic horror. Universal Pictures, flush with success from silent horror classics The Phantom Of The Opera and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, commissioned German director Paul Leni (Waxworks) to bring The Cat And The Canary, a hit stage play, to the screen. His work is now considered a silent film classic and the movie served as a blueprint for haunted house thrillers for decades to come. The film's ground-breaking combination of atmospheric chills and tension-breaking humor was said to have inspired director James Whale who incorporated the same elements in his legendary movies The Old Dark House and The Bride Of Frankenstein. Genre fans will appreciate the opening sequence in which gloved hands brush away spider webs to reveal the title, an effect used fifteen years later in Universal's Son Of Dracula.

• silent