The second surviving adaptation of The Cat and the Canary casts Bob Hope and plays the story, already a horror/comedy, almost entirely for laughs.
JD DeLuzio
Posts by JD DeLuzio:
October Countdown: The Cat and the Canary (1978)
October 31, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Movies 2 Comments
–An asylum for the criminally insane. We’re just up the road.
–Oh. Well, that’s convenient.
Our third adaptation of The Cat and the Canary brings us to England in the 1930s. While it pushes some implications of the source material a little further than past versions, it aims squarely at being a dark comedy, with the emphasis on laughs. There’s not much else you can do with conventions and tropes the source mocked back in the 1920s.
Graphic Novel Review: Pumpkinheads
October 26, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Comics 0 Comments
“…friends don’t let friends lead small lives.”
Somewhere in the American heartland stands the Pumpkin Patch or, more specifically, DeKnock’s World Famous Pumpkin Patch & Autumn Jamboree, a fall tradition consisting of a corn maze, haunted house, mini-train, petting zoo, and other attractions, and a lot of home-made snack food. And every year, rural high schoolers Josiah and Deja work the Succotash Hut, while Josiah moons over the hot girl who works at the Fudge Shoppe. They’re seniors now, and on their final night, Deja convinces Josie to finally talk to the Fudge Girl, while they take the chance to enjoy the Patch’s homespun attractions for once. In this YA graphic novel by Rainbow Rowell (author of YA novels and Marvel’s Runaways) and Faith Erin Hicks (Eisner-winning graphic novelist), that decision will lead them into a series of goofball misadventures and, of course, a life-changing realization.
Novel Review: The Water Dancer
October 25, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Books 0 Comments
We returned to Lockless with a horse, for that is what he traded Rose for. He had taken my mother from me. But it was not enough. He took my memory of her too, for when we left, my father in more rage than I had ever seen in him, he took the shell necklace from me. And I ran from him. And the next morning I ran down to the stables, where I saw the same horse my mother had been traded for, and there by the trough of water, I felt my first inclination of what I give to you now—- Conduction (397).
Ta-Nehisi Coates gained fame as a journalist and author of non-fiction books– and then as a writer for Marvel’s Black Panther. His first novel, published early this autumn, blends fantasy/magic realism with American history, and it found its way into Oprah’s influential Book Club.
The Terror: Infamy Review — Episodes 3 to 10
October 15, 2019 by JD DeLuzio TV Series
We reviewed the first two episodes of The Terror: Infamy and then left it. The story-arc structure works against stand-alone episode reviews. Here we consider the final eight episodes together.
October Countdown: Hail Satan?
October 12, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Movies
Some Chinese restaurant with a comedy club up top of it just off-campus agreed to host the Black Mass.
In 2013, some activists formed the Satanic Temple in order to challenge violations of the separation of Church and State in the United States. They bought Halloween robes, hired an actor to play their leader, “Lucien Greaves,” and made a demonic statue which they carted from state to state and demanded be placed beside government-building monuments of the Ten Commandments. They made some salient political points and had a lot of fun.
Then things turned a little more serious.
This weekend, a documentary about these events becomes the second entry in our 2019 October Countdown.
Batwoman Review: “Pilot”
October 7, 2019 by JD DeLuzio TV Series
With the show that created the CWTVDCU flying off the screens for good this year and a TV version of Crisis happening later on (with appearances by characters from Superman Returns and Smallville announced), we have a new DC super-series, this one featuring the twenty-first century version of Batwoman.
October Countdown: Joker (2019)
October 6, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Movies
Our first review for 2019’s October Countdown involves a film that’s not quite horror—though it does feature suspense, a few frights, and a title character whom many would consider a monster.
Certainly, Joker seems suited to its October release date.
October Countdown and a Halloween Vote
October 1, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Movies
The leaves brighten and brown and fall to the ground and the footsteps of costumed kids and masquerading party-goers crunch over them as they head for haunted happenings.
Time once again for our annual October Countdown, five seasonal shockers, one for each October weekend and one for Halloween Night. This year’s lunatic line-up includes midsommar horrors, a big-screen supervillain, a devilish documentary, and Japanese zombies, all from 2019.
For the final night, however, we dig into the past and review…. Well, that’s going to be up to you! Read on, my beastly Bureau-crats, and decide what past goody we’ll be picking or panning from the Halloween basket.
October Countdown: The Cat and the Canary (1927)
October 31, 2019 by JD DeLuzio Movies 2 Comments
John Willard’s 1922 horror/melodrama/dark comedy has been adapted to film multiple times. The two 1930 versions, The Cat Creeps! and La Voluntad del muerto (A Spanish-language version filmed at night on the same sets, in the manner of the contemporaneous Dracula movies) have both been lost1, the 1960 TV version (an episode of the short-lived anthology series, The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries) is little-seen now, and I can find even less on the 1961 Swedish adaptation, Katten och kanariefågeln.
Our Halloween Day reviews (based on those votes cast) will address the three most famous adaptations, starting with the hugely influential 1927 version. Along with Lon Chaney’s famous films, this movie led to Universal’s domination of the horror genre during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and, incidentally, shaped comic-book history.
Happy Halloween!
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