Laura La Plante

The Cat and the Canary (1927) - 3/5

This silent film is a pretty straightforward eccentric inheritance mystery whose main point of interest in the modern era is as a historical piece. The plot is straightforward and the ending is banal, but it uses some advanced film techniques for the time to accomplish a few visual special effects that work surprisingly well. Fans of the silent era will get much more mileage out of this one than general audiences.

Closest comparison: It’s like One Body Too Many (1944) by way of Frankenstein (1910).

Setting: Mystery
Plot: Inheritance
Tone: Suspense