"Haunted Spooks" ** (out of ****)
It is a dark and stormy night. There is an old mansion. A dead body. A family gathering for a reading of a will. Yes, it sounds like the makings of a horror movie but it actually is the set-up for a comedy.
As this collection of two and three reeler comedies reveal, there has long been an attempt to combine comedy and horror, often placing a comedian or comedy team in cliche horror situations and finding ways to spoof the genre. It leads one to wonder, what exactly is the line that separates our reaction to laugh at something or scream? On its face you wouldn't think horror could lend itself to comedy. Their objectives are drastically different and perhaps that's why it is so fun to watch and why so many great comedians have starred in comedy / horror movies. It is also why not all attempts work. It is a difficult balancing act.
Take for example the Harold Lloyd comedy short, "Haunted Spooks" (1920). At its heart, despite its title, "Haunted Spooks" wants to be a love story, a romantic comedy. With a running time of 25 minutes, the majority of the comedy serves as a set-up to get the boy and girl together and spends little time spoofing the horror genre.
Now that's not to say "Haunted Spooks" doesn't have its fair share of laughs. It does. Portions of the the comedy resembles "Never Weaken" (1921), one of Lloyd's best comedy shorts, where Lloyd played a lovelorn young man who has been rejected by the woman he loves. In his despair he decides to kill himself. In "Haunted Spooks" it creates some really good visual gags with each suicide attempt failing. As shown in the case of "Never Weaken" that set-up alone is enough to make a memorable comedy. But "Haunted Spooks" quickly moves on from this premise to get Lloyd in the scary old mansion.
Mildred (Mildred Davis) learns she has inherited an old family mansion, provided she and her husband live in the mansion for one year. If Mildred fails to do this then her uncle (Wallace Howe) will be the sole heir. The problem is Mildred is not married. Her lawyer tells her not to worry. He will find her a husband, enter lovelorn Lloyd. The next obstacle is the uncle wants the mansion. If he can scare Mildred into believing the mansion is haunted she won't last a year.
If given more time to develop the story, it could have served as an enjoyable feature-length comedy and could have been one more title in a list of haunted house movies made in the 1920s & 30s such as "The Cat and the Canary" (1927), "The Bat" (1926) and "The Old Dark House" (1932). However, given its current running time, the entire sub-plot of Lloyd being rejected by the woman he loves and wanting to kill himself should have been abandoned. The comedy should have started off with Lloyd and Davis married which would then give us more time in the mansion creating more comic set-ups. The movie does have a classic visual gag that normally I wouldn't want to spoil but it has become such an iconic image you've probably seen it. It involves Lloyd's hair.
If you have only seen Harold Lloyd's feature-length comedies, you should definitely do yourself a favor and see his two and three reel comedies. He helped establish the romantic comedy as we know it today. As an example of comedy / horror however, "Haunted Spooks" isn't a good example of the genre at its best although there are good visual gags.
"The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" *** (out of ****)
Like Harold Lloyd the comedy team Laurel & Hardy were not known for comedy / horror however of the three comedy shorts reviewed it is "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" (1930) that is the best example. Unlike "Haunted Spooks", Stan & Ollie waste no time with a romantic sub-plot and spend more time on creating comedy within a horror situation.
Prior to their arrival a detective (Fred Kelsey) reveals Ebeneezer did not die of natural causes but was murdered. There will be no reading of a will and the entire roomful of relatives are suspects. No one is allowed to leave. It is at this moment, with their usual good luck, Laurel & Hardy arrive.
Forced to spend the night at the old mansion, the boys share a bedroom and their imagination gets the best of them as they hear noises, see scary shadows and encounter a bat (undoubtedly the best gag in the short).
"The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" understands how a comedy / horror movie is supposed to work. You create a believable scary situation and then allow the laughs to naturally emerge from the scenario. If the scary stuff isn't scary and treated in a serious manner, the movie won't work. Then it is all just one big silly movie. The humor stems from seeing the comedians react to the horror. Their exaggerated reaction is what will be funny.
If you aren't familiar with the comedy team the boys play the same characters they always play and you will quickly understand their relationship. Oliver Hardy is the leader of the team. He is supposed to be the brains. Stan Laurel is his faithful friend. If Oliver is really dumb, Stan is dumber because he thinks Oliver is smart and allows him to be the brains.
There is one downside to "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" and that is the ending. It isn't really satisfactory and kind of feels like the writers didn't know how to end it and settled on a cop out. Still, there are a lot of big laughs here and it is always fun watching Laurel & Hardy.
"If A Body Meets A Body" ** (out of ****)
The Three Stooges' comedy "If A Body Meets A Body" (1945) is almost a remake of "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case". In fact Fred Kelsey plays the same character in both, a detective investigating a murder.
As in the Laurel & Hardy comedy, one of the stooges, Curly, may have inherited a family fortune. Moe and Larry sensing a small fortune to be gained, take Curly to the reading of the family will. At the reading it is revealed Curly's uncle, Bob O. Link was murdered and everyone is a suspect.
Forced to spend the night at an old mansion, the stooges share a bedroom (are you starting to see the similarity?). They can't sleep after they learn they are in the same room Bob O. Link died in. The main visual gag of the comedy short involves a walking skeleton skull (which a bird has managed to get inside of) that scares Curly and Larry.
The problem with "If A Body Meets A Body" and really any Three Stooges' comedy is there is too much fighting, at least for my taste. The skull gag is good but there is little else that emphasizes the horror part of the comedy / horror. It doesn't do enough to create a scary atmosphere.
The Stooges actually appeared in a few comedy / horror shorts. Released two years prior was "Spook Louder" (1943). There was "The Ghost Talks" (1949) with Shemp as the third stooge which was remade as "Creeps" (1956).
This actually could have been a good comedy / horror short if it would have tried a little harder. "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" even had a soundtrack with a thunderstorm throughout. "If A Body Meets A Body" can't even do that. If you are a stooge fan you will probably like it and find it funny but in the context of comedy / horror movies there are much better examples.
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