The Cat was supposedly an escaped lunatic who thought he was a cat and teared into his victims. A guard warns those staying at the decaying mansion overlooking the Hudson River that belonged to the recently deceased millionaire Cyrus West that the Cat is either in the house or on the grounds.

West's lawyer, Roger Crosby suspects someone in the family might try to harm West's niece Annabelle and decides to inform her of her successor. According to his will, Cyrus West's fortune is bequeathed to the most distant relative bearing the name "West": Annabelle. The will, however, stipulates that to inherit the fortune, she must be judged sane by a doctor, Ira Lazar. If she is deemed insane, the fortune is passed to the person named in the second will. The fortune includes the West diamonds which her uncle hid years ago. However before Crosby can name who the second person named in the will is, a hairy hand with long nails emerges from a secret passage in a bookshelf and pulls him in, terrifying Annabelle. When she explains what happened to Crosby, the family immediately concludes that she is insane.When she explains what happened to Crosby, the family, which include Harry Blythe, Charles "Charlie" Wilder, Paul Jones, his sister Susan Sillsby, and her niece Cecily Young, immediately concludes that she is insane.

Alone in her assigned room, Annabelle examines a note slipped to her which reveals the location of the family jewels, fashioned into an elaborate necklace. She follows the note's instructions and soon discovers the hiding place, in a secret panel above the fireplace. She retires for the night, wearing the diamond-encrusted necklace.

While Annabelle sleeps, the same mysterious hand emerges from the wall behind her bed and snatches the diamonds from her neck. Once again, her sanity is questioned, but as Harry and Annabelle search the room, they discover a hidden passage in the wall and in it the corpse of Roger Crosby. Mammy Pleasant leaves to call the police, while Harry searches for the guard; Susan runs away in hysterics and hitches a ride with a milkman.

Paul and Annabelle return to her room to search for the missing envelope, and discover that Crosby's body is missing. Paul vanishes as the secret passage closes behind him. Wandering in the hidden passages, Paul is attacked by the Cat and left for dead. He regains consciousness in time to rescue Annabelle. The police arrive and arrest the Cat, who is actually Charlie Wilder in disguise; the guard is his accomplice. Wilder is the person named in the second will; he had hoped to drive Annabelle insane so that he could receive the inheritance.

*  The Cat and the Canary (1922)

*  The Cat and the Canary (1927)
* The Cat Creeps (1930)
* La Voluntad del Muerto (1930)

* Charles Wilder was played by Forrest Stanley in the 1927 film. The actor who had been cast in films such as ''When Knighthood Was in Flower'' (1922), ''Bavu'' (1923), ''Through the Dark'' (1924) and ''Shadow of the Law'' (1926). After his performance in ''The Cat and the Canary'', Stanley played lesser roles in films such as ''Show Boat'' (1936) and ''Curse of the Undead'' (1959) and the television series ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', ''Studio 57'', and ''Gunsmoke''.

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_and_the_Canary_%281927_film%29 1927 Film at Wikipedia]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_and_the_Canary_(play) 1922 Play at Wikipedia]
*[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cat_and_the_Canary_(1927)_by_Paul_Leni.webm 1927 Film at Wikimedia Commons]
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