The Cat And The Canary (1927 Film)
''The Cat and the Canary'' is a 1927 American silent comedy horror film directed by Paul Leni. An adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black-comedy play of the same name, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charlie Wilder, and Creighton Hale as Paul Jones. The plot revolves around the death of Cyrus West, who is Annabelle, Charlie, and Paul's uncle, and the reading of his will twenty years later. Annabelle is revealed as the heir, but she and the other guests must still face a night in his haunted mansion. The plot thickens when they are informed that a lunatic known as the Cat has escaped from an asylum and is hiding in the house. The film is part of the genre of comedy horror films inspired by 1920s Broadway stage plays. Leni's adaptation of Willard's play blended expressionism with humor, a style for which Leni was notable and recognized by critics as unique. His directing style made ''The Cat and the Canary'' influential in the "old dark ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paul Leni
Paul Leni (born Paul Josef Levi, 8 July 1885 – 2 September 1929) was a German filmmaker and a key figure in German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionism, making ''Hintertreppe'' (1921) and ''Waxworks (film), Waxworks'' (1924) in Germany, and ''The Cat and the Canary (1927 film), The Cat and the Canary'' (1927), ''The Chinese Parrot (film), The Chinese Parrot'' (1927), ''The Man Who Laughs (1928 film), The Man Who Laughs'' (1928), and ''The Last Warning (1928 film), The Last Warning'' (1928) in the United States. Life and career Paul Josef Levi was born to a Jewish family in Stuttgart. He became an avant-garde painter at the age of 15, he studied at Berlin's Academy of Fine Arts, and subsequently worked as a theatrical set designer, working for a number of theatres in Berlin (but not with Max Reinhardt (theatre director), Max Reinhardt). In 1913, he started working in the German film industry designing film sets and/or costumes for directors such as Joe May, Ernst Lub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Cat And The Canary (1927) By Paul Leni
''The Cat and the Canary'' is a 1922 stage play by John Willard, adapted at least four times into feature films, in 1927, 1930, 1939, and again in 1979. The original stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1922. Plot The story concerns the death and inheritance of old Cyrus West, a rich eccentric who felt that his relatives "have watched my wealth as if they were cats, and I — a canary". He decrees that his will be read 20 years after his death, at which point his relatives converge at his old family home, now a spooky old haunted mansion. The will reads that his most distant relative still bearing the name of West be sole heir, provided they are legally sane. The rest of the night spent in the house calls into question the sanity of Annabelle West, a fragile young woman who is legally Cyrus West's heir. Production Produced by Kilbourn Gordon and directed by Ira Hards, ''The Cat and the Canary'' premiered February 7, 1922, at the National Theatre. It ran 148 performances, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Will (law)
A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy. Though it has been thought a "will" historically applied only to real property, while "testament" applied only to personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "last will and testament"), records show the terms have been used interchangeably. Thus, the word "will" validly applies to both personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary trust that is effective only after the death of the testator. History Throughout most of the world, the disposition of a dead person's estate has been a matter of social custom. According to Plutarch, the written will was invented by Solon. Originally ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Insanity
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors caused by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other people. Conceptually, mental insanity also is associated with the biological phenomenon of contagion (that mental illness is infectious) as in the case of copycat suicides. In contemporary usage, the term ''insanity'' is an informal, un-scientific term denoting "mental instability"; thus, the term insanity defense is the legal definition of mental instability. In medicine, the general term psychosis is used to include the presence of delusions and/or hallucinations in a patient; and psychiatric illness is "psychopathology", not ''mental insanity''. An interview with Dr. Joseph Merlino, David Shankbone, ''Wikinews'', 5 October 2007. In English, the word "sane" derives from the Latin adjective ''sanus'', meaning "healthy". Juvenal's phrase ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hudson River
The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the town of Newcomb, New York, Newcomb, and flows south to the New York Bay , New York Bay, a tidal estuary between New York City, New York and Jersey City, Jersey City, before draining into the Atlantic Ocean , Atlantic Ocean. The river marks boundaries between several County (New York), New York counties and the eastern border between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey , New Jersey. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet that formed during the most recent period of North American Quaternary glaciation, glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Even as far north as the city of Troy, New York, Troy, the flow of the river chan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born in New York City and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Goddard initially began her career as a child fashion model and performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Follies, Ziegfeld Girl. In the early 1930s, she moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood and gained notice as the romantic partner of actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin, appearing as his leading lady in ''Modern Times (film), Modern Times'' (1936) and ''The Great Dictator'' (1940). After signing with Paramount Pictures, Goddard became one of the studio's biggest stars with roles in ''The Cat and the Canary (1939 film), The Cat and the Canary'' (1939) with Bob Hope, ''The Women (1939 film), The Women'' (1939) with Joan Crawford, ''North West Mounted Police (fil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and feature films, starring in 54. These included a series of seven ''Road to ...'' musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as his partner. Hope hosted the Academy Awards ceremony a record 19 times. He also appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating. Between 1941 and 1991, he made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations (USO), entertaining military personnel around the world. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that made him an honorary veteran of the Armed Forces. Hope was bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Cat And The Canary (1939 Film)
''The Cat and the Canary'' is a 1922 stage play by John Willard (playwright), John Willard, adapted at least four times into feature films, in 1927, 1930, 1939, and again in 1979. The original stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1922. Plot The story concerns the death and inheritance of old Cyrus West, a rich eccentric who felt that his relatives "have watched my wealth as if they were cats, and I — a canary". He decrees that his will be read 20 years after his death, at which point his relatives converge at his old family home, now a spooky old haunted mansion. The will reads that his most distant relative still bearing the name of West be sole heir, provided they are legally sane. The rest of the night spent in the house calls into question the sanity of Annabelle West, a fragile young woman who is legally Cyrus West's heir. Production Produced by Kilbourn Gordon and directed by Ira Hards, ''The Cat and the Canary'' premiered February 7, 1922, at the Nederlander Theat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of Broadway theaters, extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional Theater (structure), theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Comedy Horror Films
This is a sortable list of comedy horror (or horror comedy) films, this subgenre being a bundling of the two genres in which "horror-comedy places an emphasis on scares, while the comedy-horror film moves that emphasis into the realm of laughs." See also * Lists of films This is a list of film lists. By title This is an alphabetical list of film articles (or sections within articles about films). It includes made for television films. See the talk page in A for the method of indexing used. By year Lists o ... References {{DEFAULTSORT:Comedy Horror Films, List Of * Horror Lists of horror films ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lunatic
''Lunatic'' is a term referring to a person who is seen as Mental disorder, mentally ill, Risk, dangerous, Foolishness, foolish, or crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from ''lunaticus'' meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck". History The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word wikt:lunaticus, ''lunaticus'', which originally referred mainly to epilepsy and wikt:madness, madness, as diseases thought to be caused by the moon. The King James Version of the Bible records "lunatick" in the Gospel of Matthew, which has been interpreted as a reference to epilepsy. By the fourth and fifth centuries, astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases. Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced individuals to lunacy and epilepsy by effects on the brain analogous to the nocturnal dew. Until at least 1700, it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of epilepsy and other disea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Last Will And Testament
A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate (law), estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy. Though it has been thought a "will" historically applied only to real property, while "testament" applied only to personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "last will and testament"), records show the terms have been used interchangeably. Thus, the word "will" validly applies to both personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary Trust (property), trust that is effective only after the death of the testator. History Throughout most of the world, the disposition of a dead person's estate has been a matter of social custom. According to Plutarch, the written will was i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |