A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)

the audience applauded

Overrated

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

*Spoiler/plot- A Haunting We Will Go, 1942, 'The Boys' get innocently involved with some crooks and con-men. They have to get 'out of town' and do it while escorting a coffin to another town by rail for money. This job becomes a shady way a gang of crooks take advantage of the new townspeople with another 'con'.*Special Stars- Laurel and Hardy, Dick Lane, Elisha Cook Jr. "Dante the Magician".*Theme- Spooky things happen around stage magicians and crooks.*Trivia/location/goofs- Dante the Magician was doing street magic and got cast in this film. This Columbia Studios film was one that was considered a 'lesser' Larual and Hardy comedy due to not be made at Hal Roach Studios.*Emotion- A quite different film due to its director's serious premise of this being a mystery film instead of a Laurel and Hardy comedy. It lacks some of the classic comedy plot and on camera antics because the writers didn't know what worked for this great comedy duo. Still good to enjoy.

First things first - this is not a "horror-comedy" as I presumed it would be by the title. I mean, even the opening credits have the name of the film in ghoulish lettering along with the spooky image of a ghost leering down at Stan and Ollie, for crying out loud! But getting past that -- this is one of those oft-despised latter day "Fox films" that the aging team of Laurel and Hardy made after their greatest works at Hal Roach Studios. It's not as "heinous" as most critics make it out to be, but it's not one of their better forties movies either. In this one, the "boys" get released from a stay in jail and are told to leave town. So they meet up with a group of swindling crooks (one of them is played by a very young Elisha Cook Jr.) who need their help in traveling to Dayton, Ohio. The dopey plot is all over the place, but along the way there are some small chuckles to be had (the hitchhiking fiasco, the "Inflato" machine duping) and a few mildly cute slapstick gags. But things sink as the film goes on and "Dante the Magician" takes up too much screen time (he's even top billed along with Laurel and Hardy!) ** out of ****

For many years,both ATOLL K(1951)and THE BIG NOISE(1944)had reputations for being Laurel & Hardy's worst film;amongst film scholars and L & H buffs like myself,this film has definitely taken over that mantle in recent years. So why is A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO so dismal? Firstly,Laurel & Hardy the actors are not allowed to play Laurel & Hardy the characters throughout.Namely,the naive,likeable innocents they established at the Hal Roach studios are virtually non-existent;they are forced to play irritating,doltish nit-wits who we are not called to sympathise with;the exact reverse philosophy as was with their Roach films. Secondly,Fox saddles them with a tenth-rate gangster melodrama in which they would've been better off not appearing in;much of the dialogue is straight,unfunny exposition with supporting characters that are far too tough and nasty to be funny. Thirdly,Alfred Werker,a solid director of melodramas,is totally out of his depth with comedy,and it shows up starkly in this film. And finally,the title is misleading;haunting has nothing to do with the plot,and nothing of it's description turns up in the film. The only mildly amusing moments occur within a train sequence featuring Dante the magician(who easily gives the film's most assured performance);Stan & Ollie,though,look embarrassed and bored with the film's content;as they should be.It's my candidate for their worst film,and many others are beginning to agree.3 out of 10.

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.