The Haunted House
1921 · 21m · USA
Directed by Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Genres: comedy, horror, silent
Tones: dark, humorous, whimsical
A bumbling bank teller gets glue all over the money, is mistaken for a robber, and flees to an old house rigged with booby traps where bank robbers hide alongside a troupe of actors in monster costumes, leading everyone to believe the place is truly haunted.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Keaton's silent horror-comedy ending in a literal Heaven-and-Hell dream sequence — the genre-blending is more interesting than the gags themselves. Solid weird.
Keaton's bank-teller-into-haunted-house premise climaxes with a startling Heaven-and-Hell tableau that gestures toward Cocteau two decades early. Among the more inventive of his second-tier shorts.
Keaton runs a glued-money bank robbery into a fake-haunted-house comedy and then takes a hard left into a Heaven/Hell dream sequence — the tonal swing is unusual for him. 206MB Archive print.
Reviews
You will be astounded by the number of laughs the little genius can get out of a flight of collapsible stairs. Lots of creative visuals and plenty of zany activity, with some carefully designed gags worth watching a couple of times.
A breathtakingly funny second half in which he strays into the haunted house, though the first half's protracted glue sequence divides opinion among Keaton fans.