The Cat and the Canary (1978) | Full Movie | w/ Carol Lynley, Edward Fox, Olivia Hussey, Michael Callan, Honor Blackman, Wendy Hiller

Comedy | Mystery | Horror | UK | English | Colour | 102min w/ Carol Lynley, Honor Blackman, Edward Fox, Olivia Hussey, Michael Callan, Wendy Hiller. Carol Lynley stars as the guileless young woman who becomes the sole heir to eccentric millionaire Wilfrid Hyde-White's fortune in this remake of the Paul Leni silent-film classic. But there's a catch: all the surviving relatives must spend the night in the old mansion. If she dies or is judged insane within the next 12 hours a new heir will be named, and, as if a house full of greedy relatives isn't enough, a homicidal maniac is on the loose, or so informs asylum director Edward Fox, making a dramatic swashbuckling entrance crashing through the library window like a British Zorro. Radley Metzger, best known for his elegant erotic dramas and racy romantic comedies, steps out of the genre that made his name since his debut film Dark Odyssey. With tongue firmly in cheek he reconfigures the old, dark house farce as a British comedy of manners, nicely capturing the clipped delivery and witty repartee of the drawing-room comedy. It's a stylishly handsome and often clever film (the reading of the will, with brash Hyde-White hosting from beyond the grave through the magic of home movies, is an inspired highlight). Honor Blackman, Wendy Hiller, Daniel Massey, and Olivia Hussey costar.