The Cat and the Canary (1978)
Country: GB
Technical: col 98m
Director: Radley Metzger
Cast: Carol Lynley, Honor Blackman, Olivia Hussey, Wendy Hiller, Daniel Massey, Peter McEnery, Michael Callan, Edward Fox, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
Potential beneficiaries of a will gather at a secluded mansion for the reading, but they are part of an elaborate practical joke by their benefactor. Meanwhile, an escaped homicidal maniac is roaming the vicinity.
Review:
Unspeakably awful remake, doubtless conceived to cash in on the Agatha Christie craze. The flat cinematography has a televisual look, acting and script are archly uninspired, and proceedings take an eternity to get going until the last half hour. Opportunities for atmospheric secret passages and the original's murky swamp are squandered by a stripped down mise en scène offering a largely unfurnished house and repeated shots of the stairway taken from the same low-angle vantage point. Blackman and Hussey are cast as lesbian lovers in a vain attempt at piquancy.
Country: GB
Technical: col 98m
Director: Radley Metzger
Cast: Carol Lynley, Honor Blackman, Olivia Hussey, Wendy Hiller, Daniel Massey, Peter McEnery, Michael Callan, Edward Fox, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
Potential beneficiaries of a will gather at a secluded mansion for the reading, but they are part of an elaborate practical joke by their benefactor. Meanwhile, an escaped homicidal maniac is roaming the vicinity.
Review:
Unspeakably awful remake, doubtless conceived to cash in on the Agatha Christie craze. The flat cinematography has a televisual look, acting and script are archly uninspired, and proceedings take an eternity to get going until the last half hour. Opportunities for atmospheric secret passages and the original's murky swamp are squandered by a stripped down mise en scène offering a largely unfurnished house and repeated shots of the stairway taken from the same low-angle vantage point. Blackman and Hussey are cast as lesbian lovers in a vain attempt at piquancy.
Country: GB
Technical: col 98m
Director: Radley Metzger
Cast: Carol Lynley, Honor Blackman, Olivia Hussey, Wendy Hiller, Daniel Massey, Peter McEnery, Michael Callan, Edward Fox, Wilfrid Hyde White
Synopsis:
Potential beneficiaries of a will gather at a secluded mansion for the reading, but they are part of an elaborate practical joke by their benefactor. Meanwhile, an escaped homicidal maniac is roaming the vicinity.
Review:
Unspeakably awful remake, doubtless conceived to cash in on the Agatha Christie craze. The flat cinematography has a televisual look, acting and script are archly uninspired, and proceedings take an eternity to get going until the last half hour. Opportunities for atmospheric secret passages and the original's murky swamp are squandered by a stripped down mise en scène offering a largely unfurnished house and repeated shots of the stairway taken from the same low-angle vantage point. Blackman and Hussey are cast as lesbian lovers in a vain attempt at piquancy.