A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Because of this Laurel and Hardy film's poor reputation, I decided to watch this with Scott MacGillivray's commentary first before seeing it without. With the commentary, I appreciated many of the visual gags like various accidents from Stan's umbrella or the entire rope trick with Stan rising and falling with it depending on Ollie's playing or not of the clarinet. Of note is that Sheila Ryan appears in her second L & H movie a year after her first with the boys, Great Guns. Also, a couple of men who bilk Stan and Ollie on the train, Richard Lane and Robert Emmett Keane, would subsequently appear with them on The Bullfighters (Lane), The Dancing Masters (Keane), and Jitterbugs (Keane). Anyone interested in African-American comics of the '40s will probably want to check this one out to see both Mantan Moreland and Wille Best as waiters on a train though Mantan makes more of an impression here when he laughs at the boys' obviously fake money they thought was real because of the machine they saw Lane and Keane make different dollar bills from that they bought. As a fan of It's a Wonderful Life, it was certainly a treat for me to see Frank Faylen (Ernie the taxi driver) try to throw L & H off the train. While Stan and Ollie do provide plenty of laughs especially in a scene concerning two telephone booths from Dante the Magician that provide some nice double exposure of them, the gangster scenes, with one of them being Elisa Cook, Jr. of The Maltese Falcon, are mostly too serious to suit a Laurel and Hardy flick. That lion segment with them was funny though. Compared to the boys' Hal Roach output, this Fox entry doesn't come close quality-wise but A-Haunting We Will Go shouldn't be considered bottom-of-the barrel either. P.S. One of the children that was admiring Dante on the train was Terry Moore, who later became the leading lady on Mighty Joe Young.

....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!

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.

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