A-Haunting We Will Go
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Alfred Werker
Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Dante, The Magician
Sheila Ryan
John Shelton
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Hoboes Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spend a night in jail for loitering and upon their release, are ordered to leave town immediately. Desperate, they agree to accompany a coffin, complete with corpse, on a train to Dayton, Ohio. Unknown to the boys, the men who hired them are gangsters Frank Lucas and Joe Morgan, who are the henchmen of fugitive Darby Mason. Mason, whose real name is Norton, had recently seen a Dayton newspaper article describing the search for Egbert Norton, the heir of a wealthy recluse, and plans to sneak into Dayton inside the coffin. Once there, Mason is to reside at a sanitarium run by the corrupt Doc Lake until he can collect his inheritance from Malcolm Kilgore, the attorney who placed the ad. Stan and Ollie load the trunk onto the train, where it is mixed up with the stage trunk of Dante, the Magician. On board the train, Stan and Ollie fall victim to Phillips and Parker, confidence men who sell them a fake money-making machine. The boys use their last dollar in the phony machine and cannot pay for their dinner. Dante pays their bill, however, and they promise to re-pay him in Dayton, where he will be performing. Upon reaching Dayton, the coffin containing Mason is sent to the theater while Dante's coffin is sent to Lake's sanitarium. Lake realizes that an accidental switch has been made and contacts Kilgore, telling him that although Norton is a patient of his, he will have to wait until the next day to interview him. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie go to the theater, where they repay Dante, and their bumbling antics amuse him so much that he hires them to be his assistants. Later, Lake goes to the theater to search for Mason, and is followed by Morgan, Lucas and fellow henchman Dixie Beeler, who are afraid that he is trying to double-cross them. Kilgore, who has gone to the sanitarium and found the coffin full of Dante's handbills, also goes to the theater and arrives as the show begins. Stan and Ollie, who have been ordered by Morgan and the other two to find Mason or else, rush about the theater in search of him while also trying to assist Dante. Dante then performs a trick with the coffin and in front of the audience, discovers Lake's body in it. As Ollie searches for Stan, who disappeared during the trick, police lieutenant Foster arrests stage manager Tommy White and Dante for murdering Lake. Ollie then finds Kilgore, who had been knocked out by Mason as he wandered around the theater, and explains about the three men who were looking for the coffin. When Tommy learns about the situation, and what exit Ollie told them to take, he realizes that the gangsters have fallen through a trap door to a lion cage in the basement. They all rush downstairs and there find Mason and the others trying to elude the lion. Kilgore then reveals that he is a federal investigator named Steve Barnes and that the inheritance was a trap to flush out Mason. Mason confesses that he shot Lake for trying to double-cross him, and the gangsters are led away. Ollie then continues his search for Stan, and after locating him in a giant egg, discovers that he has been shrunk.
Director
Alfred Werker
Cast
Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Dante, The Magician
Sheila Ryan
John Shelton
Don Costello
Elisha Cook Jr.
Edward Gargan
Addison Richards
George Lynn
James Bush
Lou Lubin
Robert Emmett Keane
Richard Lane
Willie Best
Les Clark
Roland Carpenter
Violet Church
Mildred Gaye
Paul Kruger
Bud Geary
Eddy Waller
Walter Sande
Mantan Moreland
Frank Faylen
Mary Lou Harrington
Judy Ford
Barry Downing
Leon Tyler
Tom Dugan
Francis Pierlot
Ralph Dunn
Edgar Dearing
Wade Boteler
Harry Carter
Crew
Harry Brand
Lou Breslow
Lou Breslow
Lewis Creber
Alfred Day
Richard Day
Herschel
Arthur Von Kirbach
Harry M. Leonard
Thomas Little
Glen Macwilliams
Emil Newman
Stanley Rauh
Sam Schneider
George White
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Pitfalls of a Big City. The end credits, which were obtained from a cutting continuity, list Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as "Laurel and Hardy (Themselves)." According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Brenda Joyce was originally set to play the female lead. Another Hollywood Reporter news item stated that noted theatrical producer George White acted as the film's technical advisor.
