What possible reason could there be for a bank to have a large pot of glue (with the lid off) on the teller's counter? None whatsoever, but The Haunted House bases most of the gags in the first half on this preposterous 'MacGuffin', bank employee Buster Keaton getting the adhesive on all of the bank notes, resulting in some very sticky situations when robbers try to raid the establishment.
The glue also leads to Buster being suspected of trying to steal some money himself, after which the poor guy escapes to a reputedly haunted house, which is, in reality, the hideout for a gang of counterfeiters who have been pretending to be ghosts to keep people away (the plot of 9 out of 10 Scooby Doo episodes). The second half of the film features zany encounters with a variety of 'spooks' and the inevitable capture of the gang thanks to Buster's ingenuity.
This is the first Buster Keaton film I have seen, and I sincerely hope that its not typical of his work, because it didn't make me laugh very much, and the star's physical antics weren't all that impressive. The style of the film reminded me of much earlier experimental movies from the likes of Georges Méliès, where the plot comes second to the visual trickery-interesting for historians of cinema, perhaps, but not the work of genius I had been hoping for.
The glue also leads to Buster being suspected of trying to steal some money himself, after which the poor guy escapes to a reputedly haunted house, which is, in reality, the hideout for a gang of counterfeiters who have been pretending to be ghosts to keep people away (the plot of 9 out of 10 Scooby Doo episodes). The second half of the film features zany encounters with a variety of 'spooks' and the inevitable capture of the gang thanks to Buster's ingenuity.
This is the first Buster Keaton film I have seen, and I sincerely hope that its not typical of his work, because it didn't make me laugh very much, and the star's physical antics weren't all that impressive. The style of the film reminded me of much earlier experimental movies from the likes of Georges Méliès, where the plot comes second to the visual trickery-interesting for historians of cinema, perhaps, but not the work of genius I had been hoping for.