THE CAT AND THE CANARY: scarily over-rated

Newly released on DVD, the1939 comedy thriller THE CAT AND THE CANARY is garnering a lot of favorable press  primarily - it would appear - from reviewers who've read the press release from Universal rather than watched the film itself.

The plot is as creaky as the floorboards of the creepy Louisiana bayou mansion in which it's set. A mismatched group of relatives gather for the reading of the will of it's wealthy, deceased owner. Their disappointment at discovering the old man's left everything to Paulette Goddard is compounded by their fear on learning that not only do they have to spend the night in the dark old house but that one of them may be a murderer.
Hope, as the aptly named Wally Campbell, offers to protect Goddard even though he's a solid gold coward, and he soon finds himself torn between his natural urge to run the other way and his desire to impress her with his courage.
The problem is that many of Hope's verbal retorts and physical responses lack a pay-off line. They just deflate. It's possible that director Elliott Nugent was anticipating that a gale of laughter from the cinema audience would provide the equivalent of a ba-dom-cha! on the drum and cymbal, but that requires that the gags and double-takes be funny, which for the most part they aren't.
The weak smile and muted titters they provoke don't provide the pay-off these comedy bits desperately need. 
To call THE CAT AND THE CANARY a classic is to lavish it with far more praise than it's due.