The Cat and the Canary / And Then There Were None

Sunday | July 29, 2007 7:00 pm

The Cat and the Canary

Directed by Paul Leni

And Then There Were None

Directed by René Clair

Live Piano Accompaniment by Yakov Gubanov
Screening on Film

A night of diablerie is inevitable when a cast of oddball characters gathers in a remote locale. In The Cat and the Canary, the family of a wealthy old man congregates for the reading of his will only to be pursued by a homicidal maniac. One of the great German émigré directors, Paul Leni infuses this early horror classic with expressionistic flair. Ten guests assemble for a fateful weekend at the hands of a vengeful judge in Agatha Christie’s oft-adapted stage play. With the rise of the Vichy government in World War II, director René Clair left France to work in Hollywood. And Then There Were None, his final American production, is arguably his most enjoyable.

PROGRAM

The Cat and the Canary

Directed by Paul Leni.
With Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley.
US, 1927, 16mm, black & white, silent, 70 min.
And Then There Were None

Directed by René Clair.
With Walter Huston, Barry Fitzgerald, Louis Hayward.
US, 1945, 35mm, black & white, 97 min.