Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment
by James Cameron-wilson
Eureka Classics have done it again and have now released the first 4K restoration copy of the original 1927 The Cat and the Canary, available for the first time on blu-ray. Considering how many prestigious silent classics have been lost forever, it is quite a treat to sit through the full 86 minutes that have been meticulous preserved of what really is a prototype of its kind. One might consider the dark house comedy-thriller a rare beast, but it was extremely popular in its day, kicked off by this hugely popular silent, made just nine months before the release of the very first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer.
Looking at The Cat and the Canary today, it is emblematic of everything we know about silent cinema, with its comic intertitles, wide-eyed acting and stereotypes, but viewed more seriously it was a hugely influential title.
by James Cameron-wilson
Eureka Classics have done it again and have now released the first 4K restoration copy of the original 1927 The Cat and the Canary, available for the first time on blu-ray. Considering how many prestigious silent classics have been lost forever, it is quite a treat to sit through the full 86 minutes that have been meticulous preserved of what really is a prototype of its kind. One might consider the dark house comedy-thriller a rare beast, but it was extremely popular in its day, kicked off by this hugely popular silent, made just nine months before the release of the very first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer.
Looking at The Cat and the Canary today, it is emblematic of everything we know about silent cinema, with its comic intertitles, wide-eyed acting and stereotypes, but viewed more seriously it was a hugely influential title.
- 5/9/2024
- by James Cameron-Wilson
- Film Review Daily
By Adrian Smith
American filmmakers have been fascinated by horror and the fantastical since the birth of cinema itself, with one early example cited here being an 1898 New York screening by the Thomas Edison Company of a short film featuring a witch and an appearance from Mephistopheles. Partially inspired by the work of French magician Georges Méliès, it was not long before ghosts, demons, witches and devils would become commonplace in the silent films being produced in New York, and eventually Hollywood itself.
Jonathan Rigby’s American Gothic (Signum publishing) is a fascinating and idiosyncratic exploration of the American horror film, a genre which has inspired filmmakers to create some of the most memorable moments in cinema history. More than a simple encyclopaedia, the book charts the historical development of the genre through not only the classics such as Phantom of the Opera, Dracula and The Cat and the Canary,...
American filmmakers have been fascinated by horror and the fantastical since the birth of cinema itself, with one early example cited here being an 1898 New York screening by the Thomas Edison Company of a short film featuring a witch and an appearance from Mephistopheles. Partially inspired by the work of French magician Georges Méliès, it was not long before ghosts, demons, witches and devils would become commonplace in the silent films being produced in New York, and eventually Hollywood itself.
Jonathan Rigby’s American Gothic (Signum publishing) is a fascinating and idiosyncratic exploration of the American horror film, a genre which has inspired filmmakers to create some of the most memorable moments in cinema history. More than a simple encyclopaedia, the book charts the historical development of the genre through not only the classics such as Phantom of the Opera, Dracula and The Cat and the Canary,...
- 12/4/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
What good is a canon? It's a question that hovers in endless debate near cinephile culture. The idea of distilling cinema down to its "best" or "most essential" films is like a game or a thought experiment, and whether it be the AFI or Sight & Sound or a group of Young Turks looking to rattle conventional wisdom, canon-making demonstrates nothing so much as a desire to assemble an expansive, fragmented, and still-evolving sense of film history into some sort of definitive order. Canons, each with its own biases, are useful chiefly as a starting point or a basecamp. The best answer is to always be looking, always curious. And cinema has barely more than a century to keep up with. I wonder how bibliophiles cope.One of the virtues of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which begins on May 28th, is how it mixes classics and arcana on a level plane.
- 6/3/2015
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
When it comes to glossy studio-backed haunted-house movies, "Poltergeist" was the first out of the gate and arguably remains the best, a thrilling big-budget adventure ride produced (and some would say partially directed) by Steven Spielberg that brought an Amblin-esque sheen to a creaky sub-genre harkening back to such "old dark house" fare as 1927's "The Cat and the Canary" and 1944's "The Uninvited." At the time it undoubtedly felt like a fresh take, and even more than 1979's "The Amityville Horror" it set the template for the modern supernatural horror movie. The upcoming Gil Kenan-directed remake, meanwhile? Can't say I'm chomping at the bit for it. Though I felt cautiously optimistic after hearing about the talent attached -- "Rabbit Hole" playwright and screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire wrote the script, while Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie Dewitt were set to star as the central couple who fight to free their young...
- 4/4/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
We look at the scary films you can get your teeth into this Halloween Week.
Aberdeen 31st The Exorcist, the Vue.
Belfast 30th Little Shop Of Horrors, Odyssey Cinema. 30th The Lost Boys, Odyssey Cinema. 31st Beetlejuice, Odyssey Cinema. 31st A Nightmare On Elm Street, Odyssey Cinema.
Birmingham 31st The Cat And The Canary, with live music, Town Hall. 31st Nosferatu, Town Hall. 31st The Exorcist, the Electric Cinema. 31st Ring, the Electric Cinema.
Bristol 31st Frightfest All Nighter: ABCSs Of Death 2, The Pact II, The Editor, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, Last Shift, Watershed.
Brynmawr 31st Halloween all-nighter: The Shining, Scream, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Howling, Night Of The Demon, Market Hall Cinema.
Cardiff 31st Alien and Aliens, the Vue. 31st Motley Movies: Ring, Portland House.
Derby 31st Dead and Breakfast: Hellraiser, Psycho Beach Party, Torso, Wolfcop and An American Werewolf In London.
Dundee 30th Dundead: The Ghost Train,...
Aberdeen 31st The Exorcist, the Vue.
Belfast 30th Little Shop Of Horrors, Odyssey Cinema. 30th The Lost Boys, Odyssey Cinema. 31st Beetlejuice, Odyssey Cinema. 31st A Nightmare On Elm Street, Odyssey Cinema.
Birmingham 31st The Cat And The Canary, with live music, Town Hall. 31st Nosferatu, Town Hall. 31st The Exorcist, the Electric Cinema. 31st Ring, the Electric Cinema.
Bristol 31st Frightfest All Nighter: ABCSs Of Death 2, The Pact II, The Editor, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, Last Shift, Watershed.
Brynmawr 31st Halloween all-nighter: The Shining, Scream, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Howling, Night Of The Demon, Market Hall Cinema.
Cardiff 31st Alien and Aliens, the Vue. 31st Motley Movies: Ring, Portland House.
Derby 31st Dead and Breakfast: Hellraiser, Psycho Beach Party, Torso, Wolfcop and An American Werewolf In London.
Dundee 30th Dundead: The Ghost Train,...
- 10/26/2014
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
1976 saw the publication of John Brosnan’s excellent book The Horror People. Written during the summer of 1975, it makes interesting reading 40 years down the line. Those who feature prominently in the book – Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, Jack Arnold, Michael Carreras, Sam Arkoff, Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and Milton Subotsky – were still alive, as were Ralph Bates, Mario Bava, Jimmy Carreras, John Carradine, Dan Curtis, John Gilling, Robert Fuest, Michael Gough, Val Guest, Ray Milland, Robert Quarry and Michael Ripper, all of whom were given a mention. Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Junior, Michael Reeves and James H Nicholson were not long dead. Hammer, Amicus and American International Pictures were still in existence. George A Romero had yet to achieve his prominence and Stephen King wasn’t even heard of!
Brosnan devoted a chapter to a new British company called Tyburn Films. Founded by the charismatic and ambitious Kevin Francis,...
Brosnan devoted a chapter to a new British company called Tyburn Films. Founded by the charismatic and ambitious Kevin Francis,...
- 7/4/2014
- Shadowlocked
Lon Chaney didn't speak during early childhood, as his parents were deaf and mute, and he communicated with them via sign language. When silent movies came along, he was a natural. And at the end of his life, stricken with throat cancer, he lost his voice and again relied on pantomime to make himself understood. He came from silence and went back to silence.
Chaney was a unique kind of movie star, in that his success rested more on variety than reliability: if his audiences had any expectations going into a Chaney film, surely they must have been expectations of surprise, perhaps of an encounter with the unfamiliar and bizarre.
Outside the Law (1920) was Chaney's second film for director Tod Browning, whose concerns seemed to merge with his own in a particularly conducive way: separately and apart, both men pursued stories of humiliation, disfigurement, and revenge, featuring bizarre, displaced menageries and elaborate and uncomfortable disguises.
Chaney was a unique kind of movie star, in that his success rested more on variety than reliability: if his audiences had any expectations going into a Chaney film, surely they must have been expectations of surprise, perhaps of an encounter with the unfamiliar and bizarre.
Outside the Law (1920) was Chaney's second film for director Tod Browning, whose concerns seemed to merge with his own in a particularly conducive way: separately and apart, both men pursued stories of humiliation, disfigurement, and revenge, featuring bizarre, displaced menageries and elaborate and uncomfortable disguises.
- 10/3/2013
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
‘The Cat and the Canary’ 1939: Paulette Goddard / Bob Hope haunted house comedy among Halloween 2013 movies at Packard Theater There’s much to recommend among the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus and State Theater screenings in Culpeper, Virginia, in October 2013, including the until recently super-rare Bob Hope / Paulette Goddard haunted house comedy The Cat and the Canary (1939). And that’s one more reason to hope that the Republican Party’s foaming-at-the-mouth extremists (and their voters and supporters), ever bent on destroying the economic and sociopolitical fabric of the United States (and of the rest of the world), will not succeed in shutting down the federal government and thus potentially wreak havoc throughout the U.S. and beyond. (Photo: Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in The Cat and the Canary.) Screening on Thursday, October 31, at the Packard Theater, Elliott Nugent’s The Cat and the Canary is a remake of Paul Leni...
- 9/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The hit sound film The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson and directed by Alan Crosland, fueled the mainstream appetite for newfangled "talkies"... and brought on the death throes of the ol' fashioned silent film. Over the next few years, silent motion picture production around the world slowed, withered, and died. Before this era came to a close, however, the horror genre took root, clawed its way into mainstream popularity, and spawned a wealth of atmospheric and unsettling thrillers. These films built the foundation upon which a century of horror movies would be constructed. The art of film was still in its infancy, and this silent era of experimentation gave rise to some of the most striking and fascinating horror movies ever made. While Germany would soon rise to dominate horror of the silent era, Italy helped get the ball rolling with their first feature length film, Dante's Inferno (1911), directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro.
- 7/4/2013
- by Eric Stanze
- FEARnet
This British farce has a plot similar to Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (as it is now called) and that old American standby The Cat and the Canary; a group of strangers lured to a remote country house. In this case they're former pupils at a British school who will get a million pounds each from a misanthropic millionaire if they stay together for 90 hours. It's a clumsy affair with a running joke involving a man with a severe stammer that's about as funny as a running sore. The picture has been on the shelf for seven years and would have remained there were it not for the recent popularity of Miranda Hart, who has a small, unrewarding role as the unlovable fiancee of one of the dislikable would-be beneficiaries.
ComedyMiranda HartAgatha ChristiePhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
ComedyMiranda HartAgatha ChristiePhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
- 3/24/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Movies from the “golden age” of black and white films (approximately the 1930’s through the 1950’s) almost invariably contain well-written dialogue and strikingly subtle humor, making them a favorite among many fans of cinema. The horror movies of this more subtle period in film history are therefore of a cerebral nature, primarily relying on the viewer’s imagination to generate the true sense of horror that modern movies generate through more visual means. It is these oft-ignored horror movies that will be the focus of a series of articles detailing the reasons why true fans of horror movies should rediscover these films. The Vampire Bat (Majestic Pictures, 1933) is the second movie in this series.
The Vampire Bat made its debut during the Great Depression when Universal Studios was the undisputed king of horror films. This “poverty row” film from Majestic Pictures, unlike many other Depression-era films from the smaller picture studios,...
The Vampire Bat made its debut during the Great Depression when Universal Studios was the undisputed king of horror films. This “poverty row” film from Majestic Pictures, unlike many other Depression-era films from the smaller picture studios,...
- 12/5/2011
- by Tim Rich
- Obsessed with Film
Welcome back to our weekly look at the new podcasts available at our new “partners in podcast crime” the GeekCast Radio Network. Each week we bring you the highlights from Gcrn, with descriptions and links to each and every episode.
ToonCast Episode 78 – Rocky & Bullwinkle
Before Mike and Kevin even start the 78th episode of ToonCast Steve joins them for a leftover debate about that puppy Scrappy Doo!Puppy Power!! Listen Now.
The Secret Origins Podcast Episode 17
In the 17th episode of The Secret Origins Podcast Lupis and TFG1Mike talk about more Jlu Episodes. This time they discuss: The Cat and the Canary, The Ties that Bind, Doomsday Sanction, and Task Force X. TFG1Mike only likes two of these episodes listen in and find out which ones those are. Listen Now.
The Tele-Cast Episode 01 – Salute Your Shorts
In the inaugural episode of The Tele-Cast join the crew for a Nickelodeon classic.
ToonCast Episode 78 – Rocky & Bullwinkle
Before Mike and Kevin even start the 78th episode of ToonCast Steve joins them for a leftover debate about that puppy Scrappy Doo!Puppy Power!! Listen Now.
The Secret Origins Podcast Episode 17
In the 17th episode of The Secret Origins Podcast Lupis and TFG1Mike talk about more Jlu Episodes. This time they discuss: The Cat and the Canary, The Ties that Bind, Doomsday Sanction, and Task Force X. TFG1Mike only likes two of these episodes listen in and find out which ones those are. Listen Now.
The Tele-Cast Episode 01 – Salute Your Shorts
In the inaugural episode of The Tele-Cast join the crew for a Nickelodeon classic.
- 11/9/2010
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Wales’ National Horror Festival, Abertoir has announced its 2010 line up. The festival, which runs between Wednesday 10 – Sunday 14 November at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, will show more than twenty films, including UK premieres, cult screenings and classics from around the world, as well as a whole host of special guests, talks, masterclasses, live music and theatre events. Festival Director Gareth Bailey is excited to welcome Abertoir festival-goers this November:
As Abertoir turns five years old, the team has worked tirelessly to put together a fantastic line up of films from around the world – from genre-defining classics, to the latest offerings in horror, we’re looking forward to meeting new festival-goers and welcoming old friends.
Legendary band The Damned will provide music on the Friday evening, supported by Abertoir favourites Zombina and the Skeletones. On the Saturday evening, Robert Lloyd Parry presents his acclaimed one-man show with a creepy candle lit telling of...
As Abertoir turns five years old, the team has worked tirelessly to put together a fantastic line up of films from around the world – from genre-defining classics, to the latest offerings in horror, we’re looking forward to meeting new festival-goers and welcoming old friends.
Legendary band The Damned will provide music on the Friday evening, supported by Abertoir favourites Zombina and the Skeletones. On the Saturday evening, Robert Lloyd Parry presents his acclaimed one-man show with a creepy candle lit telling of...
- 10/22/2010
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Every October we here at GeekTyrant try to do something fun for the Halloween season. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it’s just a fun season of the year, and I love horror movies! Our first year we focused on Italian Horror films, the next year we focused on the classic Universal Horror Monster movies, This year we are going to put a focus on Zombies! Why? Because we love zombies! I also thought it would be a cool and fun lead-in to AMC’s new zombie TV series The Walking Dead which will be released Halloween night.
We will kick off our October Zombie Fest with the film....
White Zombie
This is the zombie film that started it all. The 1932 American horror film was brought to life by brothers Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin. White Zombie is the first feature–length Zombie film ever made.
I found that the film is eerie,...
We will kick off our October Zombie Fest with the film....
White Zombie
This is the zombie film that started it all. The 1932 American horror film was brought to life by brothers Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin. White Zombie is the first feature–length Zombie film ever made.
I found that the film is eerie,...
- 10/2/2010
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
It was on this day, April 22 1935, that the Bride was born…
One of the most iconic images in all of horror cinema, the Bride has haunted our nightmares for 75 years now, an eerily beautiful, hissing figure covered in gauze from head-to-toe, draped in a brilliant but inelegant white shroud, and with flaming white streaks shooting up a jazzed, Nefertiti hairdo.
The Bride’s part in the 1935 Universal classic The Bride of Frankenstein is a small one, but it burns instantly and indelibly into one’s psyche, as the radiant Elsa Lanchester and the immortal Boris Karloff enact the ultimate nightmare version of a blind date.
The Bride of Frankenstein has endured for 75 years, its reputation as one of the great touchstones of early horror movies – and of Hollywood’s Golden Age — only looming larger as the decades tick past. The absolute zenith of the original Universal Horror cycle, Bride effortlessly combines everything: ghoulish chills,...
One of the most iconic images in all of horror cinema, the Bride has haunted our nightmares for 75 years now, an eerily beautiful, hissing figure covered in gauze from head-to-toe, draped in a brilliant but inelegant white shroud, and with flaming white streaks shooting up a jazzed, Nefertiti hairdo.
The Bride’s part in the 1935 Universal classic The Bride of Frankenstein is a small one, but it burns instantly and indelibly into one’s psyche, as the radiant Elsa Lanchester and the immortal Boris Karloff enact the ultimate nightmare version of a blind date.
The Bride of Frankenstein has endured for 75 years, its reputation as one of the great touchstones of early horror movies – and of Hollywood’s Golden Age — only looming larger as the decades tick past. The absolute zenith of the original Universal Horror cycle, Bride effortlessly combines everything: ghoulish chills,...
- 4/23/2010
- by Jesse
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Actress Collin Wilcox was best known for her role as the young white woman whose false claim that she was raped by a black man served as the focal point in the 1963 Oscar-winning film To Kill a Mockingbird. She also starred in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You” in 1964
Wilcox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 4, 1935, and moved to Highlands, North Carolina, with her family as an infant. She studied acting from an early age and made her debut on the Broadway stage in the late 1950s.
She made her film debut as Mayella Violet Ewell in the 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Richard Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck as heroic lawyer Atticus Finch. Wilcox also became a familiar face on television, appearing in episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, the 1960 Dow Hour of Great Mysteries production of...
Wilcox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 4, 1935, and moved to Highlands, North Carolina, with her family as an infant. She studied acting from an early age and made her debut on the Broadway stage in the late 1950s.
She made her film debut as Mayella Violet Ewell in the 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Richard Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck as heroic lawyer Atticus Finch. Wilcox also became a familiar face on television, appearing in episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, the 1960 Dow Hour of Great Mysteries production of...
- 11/7/2009
- by Harris Lentz
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
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