Film Festival 09 - The Cat and The Canary
The Cat and the Canary
USA 1927, 80m
Director: Paul Leni
The Festival, in conjunction with the Vector Wellington Orchestra,
brings you the rare opportunity to experience Paul Leni's 1927
haunted house classic, The Cat and the Canary, accompanied by the
exhilarating score composed by 2009 Festival guest Neil Brand.
Perfectly capturing the dizzy events of this hilariously spooky
tale, the score will be played by musicians from the Vector
Wellington Orchestra conducted by US maestro Timothy Brock. A
particular highlight will be a rare performance on the Theremin,
one of the earliest electronic instruments to be invented - and
possibly the eeriest. Theremin players are thin on the ground - it
takes a lot of skill to play an instrument that you don't actually
touch.
The film starts, naturally, with a wild and stormy night at a
Gothic mansion. Exactly 20 years after his death, Cyrus West's
eccentric relatives have been summoned for the reading of his will.
Considered mad by his family while he was alive, West now takes the
opportunity to wreak revenge from the grave by disinheriting his
next of kin. Instead, he's chosen his distant relative Annabelle
West - so long as she can be proved to be of sound mind after
spending a night in the creepy house. If she's not, the money will
go to a secret heir named in an envelope held by the lawyer, Mr
Crosby. As soon as he's dropped his bombshell, Crosby disappears -
removed from the proceedings by a disembodied hand. The disgruntled
guests are in an uproar, and suspicious of every bump and squeak,
and of Annabelle in particular, who fears for her own safety. After
interruptions all night by unwelcome guests - including a cat-like
claw which appears from nowhere and steals her diamond necklace -
Annabelle must undergo a sanity test with a sinister doctor. Is she
mad? Is there a murderer at large? Does the ghost of Cyrus West
still walk?
