Ten years after the death of eccentric Cyrus Norman, the family converge on his bayou mansion, cared for by Miss Lu (Gale Sondergaard), for the reading of his will by lawyer Crosby (George Zucco). The potential heirs include radio personality Wally Campbell (Bob Hope), beautiful actress Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard), aunts Susan and Cicily (Elizabeth Patterson and Nydia Westman), suave Charlie Wilder (Douglass Montgoery). and perpetually grumpy Fred Blythe (John Beal). None of them can leave until morning, which is troubling as Miss Lu claims there are spirits in the house, shown by the blinking lights, and they are informed that a maniac known as The Cat has escaped and is in the area.
The Old Dark House may have provided the name for the spook-house mystery sub-genre, but The Cat and the Canary was the most successful. A stage play first, it was adapted into a popular and stylish silent film in 1927. Two versions were made in 1930, one in Spanish, but both of those are lost, with a final horrible version coming out in 1978. The 1939 version keeps the horror aspect, but adds to it straightforward jokes from Bob Hope. His character was written specifically for Hope and matches his radio persona of the time. He even references movies and plays to explain what’s happening, and recites a joke supposedly stolen from the Jack Benny Show. His patter is passable fun, but the gags never rise any higher, making me think they should have just made a horror film.
The rest of the cast play it reasonably straight. Unfortunately their characters are a bit silly (not believing each other, separating, starting manly-men fights when they should be worried about a murderer, trying to solve a crime when all they need to do is wait till morning). All of which makes me feel less frightened for these people and more annoyed by them.
It’s shot nicely, if clearly studio bound, with sharp shadows and high contrast, but I’ve come to expect something more spectacular in the art design of Dark House pictures. The house isn’t very interesting. From the outside it looks great, but the interiors look like any other sets of the time. It’s fine, but fine isn’t enough.
For family entertainment on a Halloween afternoon, The Cat and the Canary will do nicely. But that’s all it is.
Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard returned a year later for another Old Dark House film, The Ghost Breakers.