Bob and Paulette go ghosting… The Cat and the Canary (1939)/ The Ghost Breakers (1940), Eureka Blu-ray out 5th December

"Don't these big empty houses scare you?" "Not me, I was in vaudeville."

These two films, available in the UK for the first time on Blu-ray, come from a time when Hollywood was re-making itself with post-modern takes on its already well-worn genres based on earlier silent films with the same premise, based on hugely popular stage plays themselves founded on early pulp fiction. Yes, it’s oh, the horror, the horror and, what’s more, the horror… dark and stormy nights with a nod and a wink, Bob Hope being the absolute master of fourth wall demolition even as he keeps the narrative mood intact.

As I child, I loved The Cat and the Canary especially, spooky, suspenseful and full of dark humour, nervy wise-cracking and secret tunnels, I loved the secret tunnels! I also loved Bob Hope and, together with Paulette Goddard, he makes these two mild-horrors, engaging and still charming. The subtle nods from players to audience are still intact, especially now when we think we’ve seen this all before. I have news for you buddy, Bob had too!

Paulette and Bob, ready for - almost - anything!

Kim Newman argues in his video essay, that Paul Leni’s gorgeously expressionistic Cat and the Canary (1927) was the first of the Universal horror films and with the talkies came Dracula, The Mummy and many more looking back to the mystery plays on the silent are. The Leni film looks splendid these days and is more sophisticated in its visual presentation, still comic but a lot weirder than Hope’s version. Thus did the talkies give and yet take away from filmmaking, yet as Newman suggests, by the late ‘30s, Hollywood was no longer looking down on the silent past but paying more of a tribute, advancing the art of fearful films.

 

The Cat and the Canary (1939)

This Cat and the Canary was exactly in this cycle, along with Stagecoach, Robin Hood and many more skillful remakes. Here Hope is “the ultimate light leading man going to an old dark house”, and he's more of a punk than you remember, nervy, yet to reach his peak, fast-talking – a radio star – self-effacing, who became the mode of comic leading man that still persists (yes, Ryan Reynolds, I’m looking at you). He's likeable and he's funny, two things that are not really a given in Hollywood history.

Directed by Elliott Nugent, this Cat was the perfect vehicle for Hope and was hugely successful, followed almost immediately by The Ghost Breakers to further capitalise on this winning formula. Comically-cowardly hero, who steps up, with feisty, female co-star in supernatural danger became an enduring trope and, in both cases, if it hadn’t been for these kids, the men behind the masks would have gotten away with it too!

Elevated camera angle revealing the tension as suspicion grows...

The film changes a number of aspects of John Willard’s 1922 play as well as Paul Leni’s silent by basing the action in the Louisiana swamps and the remote mansion of one Cyrus Norman who, living alone with his faithful retainer/mistress, Miss Lu played by the wonderfully ambiguous Gale Sondergaard who gives Paddington a run for really hard stares. Through the misty bayou paddles a boat carrying the executor of old Cyrus’ estate, a Mr Crosby (George Zucco), who is, quite possibly, so-called because of a running joke with Bob’s best cinematic pal with the voice and the ears…

All is not right when Crosby lands as his late client’s safe has been tampered with along with the will inside which he is to read to the deceased’s dispersed relatives, all of whom are to gather in the house before midnight for the reading. Gradually they arrive, Joyce Norman (Goddard, looking Crawford sharp and Davis sassy), Fred Blythe (John Beal), Charles Wilder (Douglass Montgomery), Cicily Young (Nydia Westman), Aunt Susan Tilbury (Elizabeth Patterson), and a Broadway entertainer, Wally Campbell (Bob).

The already febrile atmosphere takes a toll for the worse when the gong sound seven time indicating, as Mysterious Miss Lu says, that one of the eight present, will not survive the night-time hours. Hope is of course perfect as the epitome of American bonhomie and “modern” style who is quick to be unsettled by unfamiliar forces even as he finds it hard to grasp the uncanny may be real. He is our guide to this world of the unknown…

 

Paulette navigates one of the house's tunnels; the familiar undermined with horrors just around the corner

The same is true of Goddard who projects strength and intelligence as well as a sound healthy lifestyle; quick talking and a woman of agency who doesn’t faint or scream, but takes action. Her character reflects this even as she is told by Crosby that she will be the one to inherit the full fortune if, and obviously that will be a big if, she is able to stay sane by resisting the house’s haunting qualities and the very physical threats that start to emerge once Mr Crosby disappears, only to turn up stone cold dead and falling out of a passage behind one of the bookshelves in her room.

Now begins the process of careful misdirection and atmospherics as each of her distant relatives is shown to have a familial quirk, either comic or other-worldly. Once it is revealed that a second will exists and will come into force if she loses her sanity then the level of threat and disquiet can only increase. It remains an exercise in controlled comic horror and with the mystery buried deeply, still engages all these years later. And, like a child I remain fascinated and delighted by those mysterious tunnels that take the players and the feel away from the seemingly mundane insides of the house to the darker places below.

 

Death waits for you on Black Island… The Ghost Breakers (1940)

Bob and Paulette in The Ghost Breakers

"It looks as though Paramount has really discovered something: it has found the fabled formula for making an audience shriek with laughter and fright at one and (as the barkers say) the simultaneous time." Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

The Fulham Chronicle in London also described this film as a perfect blend of comedy and horror and, as Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby say in their commentary, it is one of those rare examples that gets the balance just right, a wonderful thing. Hope and Goddard are re-united in what is a more open yet equally intense scenario which spends much more time in the real world before the closing section in an old dark house on a mysterious island.

Hope is radio reporter Larry Lawrence, a guy with his finger on the pulse of so many underworld activities thanks to a very generous feed from the mobsters themselves. Goddard is yet again in receipt of an inheritance as Mary Carter and listens to Larry’s radio show as she’s instructed is visited by Mr. Parada (Paul Lukas), a sinister Cuban solicitor delivering her the deed to her inheritance—a plantation and mansion in Cuba. There’s something odd about Parada and the whole set up… and there’s also something off about Larry’s broadcast which says rather more than his mob pals want and he is summoned to meet boss Frenchy Duval.

Willy Best helps Mr Hope to his feet

Larry sets off with his man-servant Alex (Willie Best) who has what is a now an uncomfortable relationship with his boss who makes several comments that now carry a trigger warning. Best is energetic good value, and works well with Hope and our job is to contextualise and understand the racial aspects. Back in the story... a young man Ramon Mederos (Anthony Quinn in his first film) has gone to the same hotel to meet with Mary and explain the dangers of her inheritance. He reveals himself just as Larry walks along the corridor and, with a bang, falls to the ground shot dead, leading the hapless broadcaster to believe he’s the murderer. He seeks sanctuary in Mary’s room and, long story short, ends up squished into one of her cases and making his way inside to the ship taking her to her newly-acquired antique pile on Black Island.

The ship forms a bridge to the spookiness to come with misty encounters with Mr. Parada and then an acquaintance of Mary’s, affable Geoff Montgomery (Richard Carlson), who fills them full of dread with stories of ghosts, voodoo, and zombies. After their original “cute meet” Mary and Larry are flirting along just fine and we have that reassurance of the genre that their sparks will continue to fly. But now, having reached Havana, it is time for them to make their different ways to the island to encounter Mother Zombie (Virginia Brissac), an actual Zombie (Noble Johnson) and Mary’s ancestor, as she hangs on a giant painting in the castle stairway… the resemblance is remarkable and the first of many spine tingling moments as the film goes into overdrive.

Based on an even earlier source material than The Cat, a 1909 play from Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, the film has more light and shade than the Canary but both are superbly crafted, pacey, entertaining and with their stars still shining brightly through the mystery and the mists.

Paulette Goddard holding a candle to herself

The Cat and Ghost Breakers is released with the usual fulsome extras:

• Limited Edition slipcase (2000 copies)
• 1080p presentation of both films from scans of the original film elements supplied by Universal, with The Ghost Breakers presented from a new 2K master
• Optional English SDH
• Brand new audio commentary tracks on both films with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
• Kim Newman on “The Cat and the Canary” and “The Ghost Breakers”
• “The Ghost Breakers” 1949 radio adaptation
• Trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
• PLUS: A limited edition collector’s booklet (2000 copies) featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann

As a last thought on context, the appeal of comic-horror endures and even in an increasingly dreary reality in which audiences favour uncanny conspiracies of flesh and blood forces. The horror persists but we all hope to ultimately make light of the dark fantasies, just as, two decades after the Great War and flu pandemic, the World braced itself for even more blood to be spilt in Europe.

You can pre-order the set direct from Eureka here and, as usual it’s best to get in quick as the initial run is strictly limited.