Where there’s
life, there’s Hope—Bob Hope! Okay, so I borrowed that from an ad line from
another one of Hope’s comedies, but the point is, Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
were a delightful team in their first film together, Paramount’s
The Cat
and The Canary (TC&TC). Produced by Arthur Hornblow of
Witness for the Prosecution fame,
and
based on John Willard’s original 1922 stage play, the popular thriller was
eventually adapted for both stage and screen in 1927 and 1930. Director Elliott
Nugent
(My Favorite Brunette, Up in Arms)
joined forces with Hope and Goddard for this 1939 version of the story,
adding more witty, playful comedy and romance to Willard’s thriller. This
version worked so well that Hope and Goddard made two more films together:
The Ghost Breakers (1940), and
Nothing But the Truth (1941). For the
record, there was also a 1979 version. I never saw it, but the stars sound
promising: Yanks Carol Lynley and Michael Callan, and Brits Honor Blackman,
Wendy Hiller, Edward Fox, Olivia Hussey, Daniel Massey, Peter McEnery, and
Wilfrid Hyde-White. But I digress….
Here's looking at you, kids!
Universal
actually owned the rights to Willard’s play, but sold them to Paramount. Fun
Fact: the film, along with the 1940 film
The Ghost Breakers
(which I’ll discuss next time)
, was an inspiration to
Walt Disney
for his
Haunted Mansion
attraction at
Disneyland!
Focusing on the funny,
The New York Times’ film critic Frank S. Nugent
describes Bob Hope not as the thing with feathers
a la Emily
Dickenson, but as having
“a chin like a forehead and a gag line for every
occasion… (This version of the story) is more hair-brained than hair-raising,
which is as it should be.” I agree: with this cast, fun and suspense make a
swell team, including the delightful Nydia Westman (the 1933 version of
Little Women; The Remarkable Andrew; The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) as
Cousin Cicily, a charmingly daft flibbertigibbet among the late Cyrus Norman’s
relatives.
The supporting cast weren’t small potatoes, either, with
George Zucco
(The Mummy; After the Thin Man; The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and
Gale Sondergaard
(Anna and the King of Siam; The Letter; and Best Supporting Actress
Oscar-winner for
Anthony Adverse). I especially enjoyed Sondergaard as
Miss Lu; she’s kinda like a sophisticated Bayou Mrs. Danvers played for
straight-faced laughs, blending mystery, menace, and mirth. Both Zucco and
Sondergaard playfully spoof the more ominous roles they were known for, while
still being spooky enough to keep viewers on their toes, blending suspense and
comedy into a sparkling cocktail. As Lawyer Crosby (no relation to Hope’s future
screen co-star Bing Crosby), George Zucco’s foreboding presence adds the right
touch of menace.
 |
Meet the lady known as Lu!
|
Hope’s movie
career had begun with
The Big Broadcast of 1938,
and Goddard started her career as a child model, debuting in The Ziegfeld
Follies at the tender age of 13! Goddard’s fame as the Follies’ girl on the
crescent moon put her on the map. She was married to a a millionaire at the age
of 16—and divorced not long after that. After dissolving her marriage in 1931,
Goddard went to Hollywood, where her natural talent and beauty sent her stardom
soaring, bewitching Hollywood’s elite. She earned a Best Supporting Actress
Oscar nomination in the 1943 war drama
So Proudly We Hail! She attracted
some pretty remarkable fellas as husbands, too: Charlie Chaplin; Team
Bartilucci fave Burgess Meredith; and author Erich Maria Remarque of
All
Quiet on the Western Front fame. Goddard also did her bit for higher
education, leaving over $20 million to New York University when she died in
1990. What a gal!
 |
Hello, I’m Mrs. Trumbull! Mrs. Ricardo
recommended me. Anyone need a
babysitter for spectral spooks? |
|
The plot involves a gaggle of distant cousins who’ve come together after 10
years for the reading of Cyrus Norman’s will. In the great comedy-thriller
tradition, the prettiest and most generally winsome gal, Joyce Norman (Goddard)
finds herself the designated Lady in Distress, while the affable, quip-slinging
actor Wally Campbell (Hope) has noticed how little Joyce has grown up quite
nicely. Attraction is in the air, and no wonder, with the delightful chemistry
between Hope and Goddard! I especially liked the way Wally manages to be brave
for Joyce in spite of his nervousness.
 |
Joyce and Wally ain’t afraid
of no ghosts!
That comes later, in The
Ghost Breakers!
|
In addition
to Joyce and Wally, the prospective victims, er, heirs include Fred Blythe (John
Beal of
Double Wedding; My Six Convicts; The Firm); Charlie Wilder
(Douglass Montgomery, another 1933
Little Women cast member); and Aunt
Susan (Elizabeth Patterson, whose long career included
Intruder in the Dust;
Lady on a Train; TV’s
I Love Lucy
as babysitter Mrs. Trumball). Wally tries to put the others at ease with quips:
“I hear old Uncle Cyrus’s ghost is holding bank night.” What’s more, thanks to
Wally’s theatrical background, he can’t help predicting each new spooky suspense
cliché, keeping the others’ heads turning suspiciously, prompting Wally to
suggest to Joyce, “I’ll recommend a nice quiet bomb-proof cellar to you for the
next 30 days.” Sorry, guys, everybody’s gotta stay overnight whether they want
to or not. As Wally wryly explains, “The members of Local Number 2
of the Bayou Canoe Paddlers and Putt-Putt Pushers Union fold putt after
midnight.” Well, that’s OK; Wally and Joyce and company can always while away
the time looking for a diamond necklace worth a fortune while trying to avoid
being bumped off.
 |
Oops, Joyce grabbed the wrong book.
She was looking for Bazooka Joe’s
bubble gum
bio, The Psychology of Fleer! |
|
On top of the
creepy goings-on at ol’ Blue Bayou, the local authorities announce that there’s
a fugitive psychopath on the loose from Fairview, the local asylum. “That’s all
we needed,” Wally says. “Well, anyway, he’ll feel right at home.” The killer is
known as “The Cat,”
but this “Cat” sure isn’t the suave Cary Grant/To Catch A Thief kind of cat burglar! Soon Wally and Joyce are up to their ears in
danger and romance, with more secret panels than The Game Show Network as Miss
Lu stirs the pot with ominous warnings and whatnot! Can Wally and Joyce live
happily ever after,
“live” being the operative word? One thing’s for
sure: with Hope and Goddard, it’ll sure be fun finding out!
 |
| Hey, Joyce, give a guy a hand! |
Fun Facts:
-
According to
Wikipedia, Universal owned the rights to Willard’s play and sold them to
Paramount Pictures.
Indeed, it inspired Walt Disney to create the original beloved Haunted Mansion
at
Disneyland!
-
If you like The
Cat and The Canary, check out other reviews of this fun film by other swell
bloggers!
1.) Yvette Banek from her stupendous blog IN SO MANY WORDS from March 2012!
2.) John Greco’s Twenty-Four Frames
review from May 2011!
Also, don't miss an uncredited Charles Lane (Ball of Fire; I Wake Up Screaming, etc.) in the final scene! I admit it, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, especially a funny one!
