A-Haunting We Will Go

source: A-Haunting We Will Go

A-Haunting We Will Go

2 of my 3 stars are for the somewhat under-appreciated first half, no guffaws, just a few chuckles here and there, but my case-in-point: there's actually an in-character sequence on a train in which they are tricked into buying a "money making machine" - Ollie does a very nice, albeit short,soliloqy on the meaning of benevolence, esp. in hard times. plus, there is no romantic subplot, no sentimentality whatsoever. I actually like this bizarre deal better than the more "accessible", more "Hollywood" GREAT GUNS, which preceded it on the sorry L & H Fox series, which went on for years. GUNS was a little funnier but HAUNTING has a credible storyline. pretty much. yes, they were tricked during the train ride to deliver the supposedly empty coffin and now, on stage with Dante The Magician, they wind up as part of *his* lame-O tricks. by that point, your head will be spinning..not from being dazzled by great magic tricks or L & H zaniness but by simple fatigue.

The special effects are good, the magic tricks & illusions are fun and even mind-boggling, but as a comedy, it's pretty dismal, with a few too many generic 1940's movie gangsters who look like they came out of a cloning factory. ** out of 4.

....Flaunting their lack of interest in the project that is! Whether it is L A H's poorest cinematic moment or not is quite immaterial, it is crappy entertainment any which way you cut it. One reviewer nailed it. Here we have Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy the actors....NOT their beloved characters. They were arguably past their prime here and it shows, if nothing else, in their disinterest and discomfort. A couple of amusing moments do not justify the 68 minute run time. I will not belabor the plotline again..others have done that. It pains me to bag ANY L & H pic but regrettably this effort is deserving of little else. I recall watching it first as a child in 1954 at Saturday morning pictures. Even THEN it was held up as one of the worst we'd seen in several weeks. When I saw it again twenty seven years later nothing had happened to alter my opinion. About time for the next quarter of a century review....I fear the worst!

*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.

One's the first picture that I'd ever seen at theatre was from this outstanding couple, which I didn't remember the name, well-known here in Brazil fondly as "the Fat and the Thin" in this picture our friends are hired to takes a coffin to another city by train, the coffin was swapped on railway station, actually inside has a living crook who is at large from the police, forgetting a bit the plot, there are some many gags around, they were misled by a couple of crooks who sold to them a machine that make oversized money, so they made a spensive dinner, but the machine didn't work out, more trouble ahead, arriving in the town they got a job with a great magician, but they are pursued by the coffin's gang, this remarkable duo comics had a successful box-office here and TV as well, their DVD are available with an original dubbed version, all in my collection !!! Resume: First watch: 1991 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7

This movie is like all Laurel & Hardy's '40's movies; Too much talking and not enough slapstick. And has an overwritten story and it relies too much on the script, rather than on Laurel & Hardy's antics and talent. Yes of course they get some slapstick to do but it doesn't feel as anything new or truly great, though the movie certainly does have its moments, which help to make this movie worthwhile. The story is rather weak but above all really uninteresting. The title is deceiving and certainly has nothing to do with the movie. Dante, a magician from the 20th century is in the movie too but you can wonder why. Seems like just a publicity stunt for both parties to me, since it doesn't serve a too big significant purpose for the main plot-line of the movie. Not that this movie is bad but by Laurel & Hardy standards it still is a rather weak and bad one, that really isn't among their best work. 6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is one of laurel and hardy's most underappreciated films. The scene where Stan climbs a rope in a magic trick is one of the funniest things i have ever seen. There are some great lines too - "Let's go to Florida. I'm dying for an orange". Priceless.

Laurel and Hardy agree to transport a coffin containing a corpse. But after it becomes mixed up with a stage magician's coffin, Stan and Ollie end up as magician's assistants and find themselves entangled with gangsters who were smuggling one of their number in the coffin. This is often unfairly dismissed as a turkey. It isn't one of L & H's greatest films, but it contains plenty of memorable points including a hilarious Indian rope trick as well as the duo being fooled into buying a 'money-making machine', Ollie hiding in a box which turns out to be a stage prop used in the 'death of 1000 cuts' trick. Dante the magician is an interesting character, the plot is well-written and there are some imaginate sets. As I said, it's not one of L & H's best, but it's still a classic and certainly more than worth watching. 8 out of 10