Based on Frank Willard's 1922 play "that startled the world" (as Universal advertising put it), this original silent version of The Cat and the Canary became the standard by which all future haunted house comedy-thrillers would be measured. Beautifully restored and released on DVD in 1998, the film's enduring appeal is certainly not due to its silly reading-of-the-will melodramatics -- hoary even for 1927 -- but because of German director Paul Leni's flamboyant visual style and a wonderfully self-effacing sense of humor. Everything one expects to happen happens here, but Gilbert Warrenton's busy camera (decades ahead of its time), Charles D. Hall's impressive sets (some of which reappeared in Frankenstein four years later), and ripe acting from a well-chosen cast make The Cat and the Canary roaring good comedy-melodrama.