Director: Paul Leno
Writer: John Willard
Starring: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley
Cyrus West is dying. “Like cats around a canary,” his relatives wait for him to die. The first scene is old Cyrus being surrounded by giant cats. He leaves a will, and a letter that is marked to NEVER be opened if the terms of the will are carried out. Twenty years later, they say his ghost is still wandering the corridors.
Someone puts a letter in the safe. Mr. Crosby, the lawyer, arrives to read the will. The maid, Mammy Pleasant, has been living in the house for the entire twenty years.
Harry Blythe, cousin Charlie Wilder, Aunt Susan, her niece, Cecily, Paul Jones, and Annabelle West arrive. They read the will, and the old man gives everything to the relative who kept the name of “West.” That would be Annabelle, assuming she can pass an examination to prove her sanity and identity.
A man comes to the door, stating that en escaped madman is in the area, and he tracked him to the gates of this house. He’s a maniac who thinks he’s a cat and kills people like canaries.
The “backup” letter has been opened and read— someone could use that information to do harm to Annabelle. Just as the lawyer is telling Annabelle who the “second choice” for the inheritance is, a big hairy arm pulls him into a secret passage, and he’s gone. Several of the other immediately claim she’s insane. Annabelle gets a letter explaining how to get the hidden diamonds. Later, the hairy arm steals those as well.
As they search, they now find the dead lawyer inside another secret wall. They phone the police, but someone has cut the wires. They assume the escaped maniac killed Crosby.
Then the creepiest doctor ever shows up to interrogate Annabelle. Meanwhile, Paul is tracked by a large-toothed monster (or a man in a mask). Paul and the monster fight while Annabelle watches. The mask slips off and it Charlie, who hired the guard to scare everyone so they’d think Annabelle was crazy.
It was nice to see a silent film that wasn’t historical-based. This took place in the “modern” 1920s. There are some neat camera tricks, and even the text-cards are cleverly animated in places. It’s not particularly scary or funny, it’s just a light movie intended to entertain.