Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1927 - Feb 1928)

60 'The Cat and the Canary," best of all mystery films, is guaranteed to absorb and thrill the most jaded fan. The Screen in Review The latest films are scrutinized with a critical, though impartial, eye. By Norbert Lusk THE most successful mystery stor}' the screen has yet offered is "The Cat and the Canary." It is also one of the most distinctive pictures in months, because of the treatment given it by the director, Paul Leni, a German. Master of scenic design, he also knows the full significance of light in creating atmosphere and mood. The result is a veritable orgy of spooky mystery, v^ith sliding panels, clutching hands, slamming doors and other manifestations of the weird, all making for suspense and terror. This is achieved vi^ith vivid originalit}', thanks to the remarkable work of the camera in seeking out arresting angles and strange distortions, in keeping with the eerie subject. The spectator is made to feel that he is actually in the musty home of the dead millionaire — Avhose relatives have assembled twenty years after his demise to hear his will read — because the camera moves as the eye of the beholder would move were he suddenly to find himself on the scene. Yet, curiously enough, the proceedings seem real, probably because interest is kept at such a high pitch that there is scant opportunity to sink back and analyze the rather conventional labyrinth of the story. It begins when the six expectant heirs come to the house at midnight to learn what the reading of Cyrus West's will has in store for them. When it develops that the entire fortune, including the usual jewels, is left to Annahcllc W est, the title of the picture is ex]jlained. She becomes a canar}' ingenue in the midst of catlike kin. Once the eccentric conditions by which she will come into the fortune have been set forth by the attorney, things begin to happen. The unwritten law against divulging the ins and outs of a mystery story will not be broken in this case, especially as there is every good reason for you to see the picture. Laura La Plante is, of course, Annahcllc, for who else could' better qualif}' as a canary ingenue? Incidentally, she gives an excellent performance. So does every member of the cast, although the comic relief of Creighton Hale and Flora Finch is carried to extremes. Arthur Edmund Carew, Martha Mattox, and Tully Marshall are particularly successful in conveying the right degree of mystery and impending disaster. To my way of thinking, Gertrude Astor's role is not nearly important enough, but Forrest Stanley's is. However, you can't get away from the fact that the director — and his camera — are really the stars. A Torrent of Money Spent. "The Mag^ic Flame" is another name for love, in case you are thinking it is a firemen's epic. It is a melodrama of an Italian circus and a mythical kingdom, this time called "Illyria," just as Shakespeare did in "Twelfth Night." However, there is nothing Shakespearean in the manifold plot of "The Magic Flame." It is strictly modern and very moviesque. Moreover, there is so much of it, after all the knots are tied and the complications are planted, that a great deal of time is necessarily needed to straighten them out. Too much time, if you ask me. Just when Bianca, the fearless, peerless queen of the trapeze, has entered the royal palace and discovered the king to be none other than Tito, her clown sweetheart