Sadly Over-hyped

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This Buster Keaton comedy isn't really a 'funny' film. If you are thinking of funny, as in "hahahahahahahahaha, I cannot stop laughing" funny, then you're out of luck. The repetitive slapstick in this 21-minute long feature is mostly just silly, acrobatic fun--not something that you'd chuckle at. I certainly didn't. But any fan of these old cinema pictures will find this something worthwhile.The movie starts out with Keaton arriving at the bank for his workday. However, since he's Keaton, everything goes wrong. He gets his hands in glue and messes up all the dollar bills, creating any number of mishaps with his mistake. Meanwhile, the bank president and his counterfeiters are filling the bank with counterfeit money, and using an abandoned house as a hideout. All these events and people come together eventually--resulting in a series of mishaps inside the house.I haven't seen many Buster Keaton films, but I've figured out his slapstick is normally very repetitive. That's the case here. Pretty much once we get to the house, Keaton has a bunch of encounters with 'ghosts' and 'skeletons' and stuff. All he does is run around the house for like, the rest of the movie. The thing is thoroughly entertaining but isn't funny--that's why if you're looking for a nice juicy comedy, look somewhere else. And if you're not, this one remains an entertaining and fun film, even if it lacks laugh-out-loud humor. Yeah, call me an idiot for saying Keaton isn't funny--but this kind of slapstick, while entertaining certainly, doesn't get me laughing. Oh well, it's still lots of fun anyway.

This slightly over 20-minute short film directed by, written by and starring stoneface Buster Keaton touches quite a few different genres: drama, comedy, musical, crime, horror, mystery. As always with Keaton, it's a lot bleaker and the humor is usually way darker than the one in Chaplin's movies for example. Buster works as a bank employee, but quickly gets caught up in a robbery where a mishap has lots of bills glued to his hand, so he can't give them the money. Still they get away with some and after a quick scene to a version of Faust at the opera, which didn't fit in there at all, the final act takes place at the haunted house from the title. We get the usual jumping, falling and kicking routines, but the full supernatural program: ghosts, skeletons, spirits and even Lucifer himself makes a brief appearance. The ending of the film is a perfect example from what I mentioned earlier. Chaplin usually gets kissed. Keaton goes to hell.As a whole, I was not too impressed with this movie. Occasionally, the horror parts near the end reminded me of Méliès work 25 years ago and was at least equally spooky. If you like Keaton, give this one a go. Otherwise, there's better film out there with him.

Buster Keaton's 1921 short stars the actor/director as a New York City bank teller. Keaton being Keaton soon gets into trouble, spilling glue all over the counter and accidentally stopping a robbery before ending up in a haunted house.The film begins with a shot of 1921 Wall Street. I always like to see exterior shots in silent movies as it's a rare chance to see the real world as it was back then. The action then goes inside a small bank. One of the funniest moments in this sequence is the sight of a customer with glue on his trousers getting stuck, backside to backside with another bank teller.The second part of the film takes place in a large house in which counterfeiters have set up shop. This is the funniest part of the film and features a recurring gag about some collapsing stairs which doesn't get old. The counterfeiters have filled the house with pretend ghosts in order to scare off police and intruders and Keaton finds himself confronted with scare after scare, none of which are really scary but in fact quite funny. We're talking men with sheets over their heads and others dressed as skeletons. The best part of the second act is two such skeletons who construct a man who appears, through cunning editing to come to life. The film ends with a classic scene which has Keaton receive a blow to the head and climb stairs to heaven. When he gets to the top, the stairs collapse (again) and he plummets into hell. All is well in the end though as when he wakes up in the arms of his love interest.This isn't the best Keaton film but I've also seen worse. Its well worth checking out and at only 21 minutes won't take too much time to do so. I laughed about nine or ten times in those 21 minutes which is a very good laugh per minute ratio and much higher than any 21st Century comedy I've seen.http://attheback.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/haunted-house.html

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!