In this film, some thugs hired Laurel and Hardy to transport a coffin containing a live thug to Dayton, Ohio in order to claim an inheritance. But the coffin is mixed up with another used in Dante the Magician's stage act with bizarre results.
As a crime drama, A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO is fine, conveying a ominous, suspenseful aura. As a Laurel and Hardy film, however, it is lousy. The grim gangster milieu is inappropriate for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's clownish characters. Most of the supporting actors are too humorless and realistic to successfully interact with the Boys. In the Hal Roach films, supporting actors like James Finlayson and Charlie Hall worked well with Laurel and Hardy because they performed in a farcical, larger-than-life manner.
What hurts this film even more is the scenario's contemptuous treatment of Laurel and Hardy's characters. At the Hal Roach lot, where they peaked, Laurel and Hardy became popular because even though audiences laughed at their blunders, the characters conveyed a sweet innocence that endeared moviegoers. In A HAUNTING WE WILL GO, the Boys are a pair of stupid jerks undeserving of respect or sympathy. A particularly revealing moment is when romantic lead John Shelton, who is working with Laurel and Hardy in the Dante the Magician's act, chastises them for misunderstanding the magician's props. The audience is supposed to share Shelton's disdain of Laurel and Hardy's ineptitude.
Dante, a magician in real life, gets to perform some tricks. Unfortunately, a levitation stunt passed off as his own actually seems to have been devised by the film's special effects department. Without meaning to belittle Dante's talents, one must say that when geniuses like Laurel and Hardy are in a film, who needs magic acts?
So far, I have only seen one other film Laurel and Hardy made after leaving Hal Roach, THE DANCING MASTERS. That film wasn't bad. But despite a few isolated laughs, A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO deserves its poor reputation among film comedy historians. For Laurel and Hardy completists, it's only worth seeing once.
As a crime drama, A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO is fine, conveying a ominous, suspenseful aura. As a Laurel and Hardy film, however, it is lousy. The grim gangster milieu is inappropriate for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's clownish characters. Most of the supporting actors are too humorless and realistic to successfully interact with the Boys. In the Hal Roach films, supporting actors like James Finlayson and Charlie Hall worked well with Laurel and Hardy because they performed in a farcical, larger-than-life manner.
What hurts this film even more is the scenario's contemptuous treatment of Laurel and Hardy's characters. At the Hal Roach lot, where they peaked, Laurel and Hardy became popular because even though audiences laughed at their blunders, the characters conveyed a sweet innocence that endeared moviegoers. In A HAUNTING WE WILL GO, the Boys are a pair of stupid jerks undeserving of respect or sympathy. A particularly revealing moment is when romantic lead John Shelton, who is working with Laurel and Hardy in the Dante the Magician's act, chastises them for misunderstanding the magician's props. The audience is supposed to share Shelton's disdain of Laurel and Hardy's ineptitude.
Dante, a magician in real life, gets to perform some tricks. Unfortunately, a levitation stunt passed off as his own actually seems to have been devised by the film's special effects department. Without meaning to belittle Dante's talents, one must say that when geniuses like Laurel and Hardy are in a film, who needs magic acts?
So far, I have only seen one other film Laurel and Hardy made after leaving Hal Roach, THE DANCING MASTERS. That film wasn't bad. But despite a few isolated laughs, A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO deserves its poor reputation among film comedy historians. For Laurel and Hardy completists, it's only worth seeing once.