Spending the night in a haunted mansion with The Cat and the Canary and live music by Guizot, part of Nitehawk’s Live Sound Cinema Vamps and Virgins series.

A staple of the “old dark house” genre films in the 1930s-1950s, Paul Leni’s version of The Cat and the Canary is a blended expression of humor with horror. Annabelle (Laura La Plante) inherits her uncle’s fortune twenty-years after his death but when she and her family spend the night in his haunted mansion, a mysterious figure stalks them. Could it be the escaped asylum lunatic “the Cat” hiding amongst them? La Plante’s virginal Annabelle faces these unseen horrors with only her honor to project her. For the audience, it’s fun watching these shield of virginity battle against the forces of hell…and win!

Providing the live score to The Cat and the Canary is Guizot.

The Cat and the Canary is part of Nitehawk Cinema’s Vamps and Virgins series that explores the two sides of the leading lady spectrum in silent film.