THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939)
Article #344 by Dave Sindelar
Posting date: 7-11-2002
Viewing date: 2-22-2002

A woman inherits an estate as long as she doesn’t die or isn’t proven insane. However, someone is trying to kill her or drive her crazy.

This is a remake of the 1927 movie with Bob Hope thrown in for comic relief, and he does well enough; I really have never acquired a taste for him, but he’s fairly solid throughout and does get a few laughs. What I do like about his forays into horror is that they didn’t stint on the atmosphere; both this and THE GHOST BREAKERS have real scares and tension in them. This one in particular builds up to a nice horror climax, and is quite enjoyable. And, to round things out, we have George Zucco and Gale Sondergaard to keep things lively. This one is quite fun.