The Cat and the Canary (1939 film)

The Cat and the Canary starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard is a 1939 comedy horror film remake of the 1927 film The Cat and the Canary, which was based on the 1922 play of the same name by John Willard. The film was directed by Elliott Nugent.

Cyrus Norman was a millionaire who lived in the Louisiana bayous with his mistress Miss Lu Gale Sondergaard. Norman died ten years previous, and now an American Indian man George Regas paddles the executor of Normans estate, Mr. Crosby George Zucco, through alligatorinfested waters to Normans isolated mansion, where his will is to be read at midnight. At the mansion, Crosby meets Miss Lu, who lives there with a large black cat. When he removes the will from a safe, he discovers that someone has tampered with it.Crosby and Miss Lu are joined by Normans survivors Joyce Norman Paulette Goddard, Fred Blythe John Beal, Charles Wilder Douglass Montgomery, Cicily Nydia Westman, Aunt Susan Elizabeth Patterson, and Wally Campbell Bob Hope. As the group gathers in the parlor to read the will, an unseen gong rings seven times. According to Miss Lu, this means that only seven of the eight people present will survive the night. ........

Source: Wikipedia