The Haunted House

A clumsy bank employee, the bank manager and his daughter, some bank robbers, some police and the Daredevil Theatrical Troupe, who've just been booed off stage during their production of Faust, all collide in a Haunted House which the bank robbers use as their hideout.

So many priceless moments, some good laugh-out-louders, and 100% great fun. Another really great short comedy from Buster Keaton.

Highlights: as usual, the ending! Buster running past camera, looking directly into it, the whole glue sequence, the self-referential theatrical production and more i can't remember right now... Not that i've ever seen a Keaton movie i didn't like, but i recommend this one too!

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.

There's never a dull moment in this Buster Keaton two-reeler, "The Haunted House." From Keaton making a mess as a bank teller, inadvertently stopping a robbery in the process, to his hiding from the police in the titular haunted house, where he stumbles across some more crooks, who've disguised themselves as ghouls and engineered the house with a staircase that turns into a slide. My favorites Keaton vehicles tend to be those where the humor is based self-reflexively in cinema, including "The Playhouse" (1921), "The Frozen North" (1922), "Sherlock Jr." (1924) and "The Cameraman" (1928). A couple gags here have a similar foundation. The head baddie explains the staircase trap in a kind of hypothetical vision where we see police being foiled by the trick. There's a play-within-the-play of "Faust," where Mephistopheles is chased off the stage to the haunted house by a rioting audience. And there's the dream/hallucination scene that references the other staircase and the other devil. Clever.

Note: Recently, I've been investigating the origins of the old dark house subgenre on screen, which is how I came upon reviewing this film. Although others have cited it as an early instance of such pictures, I'm not so sure. There's a haunted house and cash hidden in it, I guess, but none of the other tropes found in such films as "One Exciting Night" (1922), "The Monster" (1925), "The Bat" (1926), "The Cat and the Canary" (1927), "The Bat Whispers" (1930), "The Old Dark House" (1932) and even fellow silent comedian Harold Lloyd's "Haunted Spooks" (1920). I suppose the distinction between "old dark house" and "haunted house" is slight, though.

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.

A simple story. And its impressive effect. A bank clerk becoming from fake thief the hero of a small comunity, actors giving a mediocre Faust becoming guests of a haunted house, glue, money and a band of bad guys. Like each short film of Buster Keaton, the innocence is the basic trait of movie and the lead source of seduction.