'The Cat and the Canary' w/ Laura La Plante - #6 of 100 silent films

Laura La Plante - Susini y Bock Ovalados Tobacco Card, 1921 (Wikimedia Commons)

"The Cat and the Canary" is a Universal Pictures comedy horror film from 1927, directed by Paul Leni. It stars Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tulley Marshall, Gertrude Astor, Flora Finch and Martha Mattox (who plays creepy very well). One of the cool things is that the cast list is repeated at the end of the movie with this note: "This is repeated at the request of picture patrons who desire to check the names of those players whose work has pleased them."

The CinematicThoughts blog calls it "a powerful work of art, and ranks amongst the best horror films of the Silent Era." The blog also notes its "dramatic lighting, atmosphere and creative use of the camera (double exposures, strong composition and gliding shots)."

Laura La Plante died in 1996, two weeks before her 92nd birthday. She is buried in El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, California. (FindaGrave listing)

Creighton Hale (born in1882 in Ireland as Patrick Fitzgerald) died in 1965. His FindaGrave.com listing says he was cremated at Chapel of the Pines Crematory then buried in Duncans Mills Cemetery in Duncans Mills, California.

Gertrude Astor died on her 90th birthday in 1977. She is interred at Hollywood Forever's Abbey of the Psalms, Haven of Worship.

It's spooky fun!

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