# 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.

## 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

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on The Cat and the Canary (1927 film) on Wikipedia
* Media related to The Cat and the Canary (1927 film) on Wikimedia Commons
* Works related to The Cat and the Canary (1927 film) on Wikisource
* The Cat and the Canary quotes at the Internet Movie Database