The Cat and the Canary (1927)

A Broadway hit that helped to launch the theatrical craze for “old dark house” thrillers, John Willard’s 1922 play was already starting to seem old hat by the time Universal acquired it in 1927. But Universal chief Carl Laemmle had the inspiration to send to Germany for Paul Leni, a promising young director who had blended the shadowy lighting and tortured perspectives of German Expressionism with more commercial material for his acclaimed Waxworks (1922). And so was born the look and feel of Universal’s classic horror films. Laura La Plante is the first-generation scream queen, a stylish young woman invited to a decaying mansion for the midnight reading of a will, along with half a dozen other scheming heirs and likely suspects.