A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)

Director:

Alfred L. Werker

Writers:

Lou Breslow (screenplay)
Lou Breslow (story)

Release Date:

7 August 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Stan and Ollie get involved with con men, crooks, a genial magician, and two interchangeable coffins with disastrous but funny results.

Plot Keywords:

Con Man | Hindu Rope Trick | Railroad | Cross Dressing | Dead Body

Cast

Stan Laurel	...	Stan Laurel (as Laurel)
Oliver Hardy	...	Oliver Hardy (as Hardy)
Dante	...	Dante the Magician (as Dante the Magician)
Sheila Ryan	...	Margo
John Shelton	...	Tommy White
Don Costello	...	Doc Lake
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Frank Lucas
Edward Gargan	...	Police Lt. Foster
Addison Richards	...	Malcolm Kilgore
George Lynn	...	Darby Mason
James Bush	...	Joe Morgan
Lou Lubin	...	Dixie Beeler
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Phillips
Richard Lane	...	Parker
Willie Best	...	Waiter

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Finland:S

Company:

Laurel and Hardy Feature Productions

Trivia:

Brenda Joyce's reluctance to appear in "A-Haunting We Will Go" led to the termination of her Fox contract. Her role was played by Sheila Ryan.

Quotes:

Oliver Hardy: [in reference to the con men they met on the train] Thank you! Two princes!
Stan Laurel: A pair of kings!
Parker: [referring to Stan and Ollie] A couple of jerks!

Movie Connections:

References It Happened One Night (1934)

A-Haunting We Will Go **

Until a few years ago, I've kept far away from Laurel & Hardy's notoriously poor 1940s vehicles produced by Twentieth-Century Fox; now that I've watched them all (and only NOTHING BUT TROUBLE [1944], made at MGM, remains from this sorry final period of the greatest comedy team in cinema history), I can say that this one is certainly the weakest of the lot!

There is very little typical material for the stars who, in any case, look tired and visibly disinterested throughout; that said, it's mercifully short and, therefore, not exactly painful to watch - as was the case with, say, UTOPIA (1951), an embarrassing mess that, regrettably, proved to be their cinematic swan-song - but, at the end of the day, it's not the boys' usually endearing and irresistible routines that are remembered, if at all, but rather the scenes involving an elderly magician that goes by the unlikely name of Dante...not to mention the dubious novelty of watching Elisha Cook Jr. in drag! To add insult to injury, the film's title is a ludicrous misnomer!!