Buster Keatons Nacht des Inferno

Since the haunted house is only 1/3 of the movie, the title of the movie should have been The Bank Teller which Buster Keaton portrayed. Most of the movie takes place in the bank which Keaton operated and was later accused of robbing. Or, the movie should have been called Sticky Situation since the biggest laughs of the movie came when Keaton gets glue all over him and the money from the bank. Although the movie's climax is the haunted house, much of the physical comedy happens way before the movie's closing. An interesting look into heaven and hell as Keaton imagines dying and riding the stairway and slide to heaven and then hell. A good Keaton classic, The Haunted House has several moments that are funny and very enjoyable.

Buster Keaton plays a bank clerk who foils a team of bank robbers using a supposedly haunted house to evade capture by the police. An odd film of two distinct halves: a painfully protracted - and largely unfunny - sequence in which Keaton inadvertently glues himself to masses of banknotes eventually gives way to a breathtakingly funny second half in which he strays into the haunted house of the title. You will be astounded by the number of laughs the little genius can get out of a flight of collapsible stairs...

'How do I love Keaton? Let me count the ways...'

As I watch more and more of Buster Keaton's films, I find myself reduced to a state of abject adoration that I am at an almost complete loss to convey; it's easier by far to comment on the individual elements that may disappoint in any given film, but this totally fails to reflect the sheer degree of enthusiasm that they create. Yet again I'm struggling to find words -- the shorts are funnier, the features are more touching, and I wouldn't have missed any one of them. The landscapes of my mind's eye have become peopled by a positive kaleidoscope of Busters, tumbling, leaping, hapless or inspired, resigned to the inevitable but endlessly alert to the passing balletic chance. I've roared with laughter and gasped in surprise and had my heart melted in sympathy; I've marvelled at his athletics and been astounded at the range of his acting. In short, in the space of twenty-odd films and the passage of a month, I have simply become an utter Buster Keaton addict.

"Haunted House" I particularly liked -- better, in fact, than "The Electric House" with which it is unfavourably compared, merely because the structure of the latter is comic-strip predictable: gadgets introduced, gadgets go wrong. "Haunted House" has the lunatic juxtapositions that are Keaton's craft at its best, as his hero gets mixed up with bank robbers, opera singers and a counterfeiters' conspiracy -- the sheer ingenuity and variety of the jokes that can be based around a single staircase had the audience in stitches, as every time we thought we knew what was going to happen, Buster came up with a fresh approach to the problem!

The film has been dismissed as consisting merely of two disjointed halves, but "Sherlock Jr" -- where the famous dream sequence is almost totally without effect on the main plot -- demonstrates that this is no drawback. Certainly in the case of "Haunted House" one would not wish to lose either part. The introductory sequence, where Buster inadvertently finds himself in a position to save the day, only to become a scapegoat, is classic Keaton comedy. The second part takes the place of the extended chase to which such a plot line would normally lead, with all the parties converging on the same booby-trapped building to terrify the wits out of each other... until, that is, Buster's "little idiot", dismissed by the villains as harmless, is the one to work out what's going on.

This development, of course, enables Keaton to have the best of both worlds, milking the comic possibilities first of his character's horror and then of his blasé scepticism -- one rightly-renowned sequence is where he steps in to take control of the spook 'traffic'! Even self-possession and preparation, however, aren't necessarily going to help him with that staircase...

In the space of its brief twenty minutes, this surreal short film features an amazing trick photography shot, some classic sticky mime, deadpan titles, long-running gags with a multiple twist, the cloak of Mephistopheles, a celestial fantasy, plus a bonus ten-second seduction of Buster -- what's not to love? ;-)

Probably one of my favourite 2 reelers, my 11 year daughter loves it as much as I do, it says something about Keaton that he can win over a die hard Harry Potter fan with his magic. Who cares about lightweight plots when something is as funny as this. the movie starts of with Buster at his place of work, a bank, from the very start the jokes come in thick and fast and always funny. After being falsely accused of being a bank robber he escapes to the local 'haunted' which is really a cover for a gang of counterfeiters, also in the house are the cast of a lousy version of 'Faust'who are escaping a hostile audience(the intertitle that introduces them is one of the funniest lines in any movie). There are lots of acrobatics in Buster's own inimitable style and the pace is fast and furious. The ending is brilliant and watch out for the bit where Buster runs towards the camera and mugs into it. I just love this movie and if you have a sense of humour then so will you.

This is a fun short feature notable for some particularly good visual gags. The plot is featherweight, and is just an excuse for getting the characters together in the same place, but there is some good comic material. The introductory part drags on a little; it has some funny moments but draws out the same gag much longer than it warranted. It's when everyone gets to "The Haunted House" that the real fun begins. There are lots of creative visuals and plenty of zany activity, and there are some carefully designed gags worth watching a couple of times. There's also a recurring gag that works well and that sets up a clever finale. If you're a Keaton fan, you will probably enjoy this one.