Eh –
not the best. This one has a few fun
gags, and it does get some bonus points for incorporating a live penguin, but
there’s not much here. Doesn’t really
work for me.
Buster
and his wife are hired to house-sit for a magician. Unbeknownst to them, his house is rigged up
with all sorts of tricks, such as trapdoors, revolving walls, and objects
floating on fishing line (to be honest, it plays at least as much like a
haunted house as it does a magician’s pad.)
In truth, the magician wants Buster around while he’s away to make sure
nobody steals his tricks, but he evidently doesn’t explain this to Buster, who
gets immediately freaked out by the “spooky” house. When a stranded newlywed couple stops by for
the night (with the young wife being very into “spiritualism,”) everything gets
cranked up a notch.
The
plot is an odd mixture of spare and kind of busy. On the one hand, it’s little more than an
excuse to do a lot of magician gags, haunted-house bits, and “scared” reaction
shots. On the other, it feels a little
cluttered, especially once the newlyweds arrive on the scene. There was a balance to be found somewhere in
here, but the short doesn’t hit on it.
However,
I’m not sure how much it would’ve helped.
“Scared of ghosts” plots feel super-dated these days when we’re talking
actual bed-sheet ghosts, and the low-budget scares aren’t convincing enough to
justify the knocking knees. I don’t mind
it as much in Buster’s silent work, like The Haunted House, and I’m not quite sure why.
For sure, it’s a lot more genuinely funny, but there’s more to it than
that. Maybe because the silent format
better lends itself to a heightened sense of reality, so I’m better able to
accept that Buster is actually scared of that person under a white sheet? The cadence and music creates a sort of
jauntiness that moves you along with the implausibility. Here, though, the routines feel staler, like
they exist in a kind of vacuum and you just sit there shaking your head because
“that would never fool anyone.”
(Also,
if the whole point of Buster being there is to make sure the magician’s rivals
don’t steal his tricks, isn’t it in his best interest to let Buster know that the house is packed to the
gills with tricks and other “spooky” stuff?
By not telling Buster, he runs the risk of Buster getting so scared he
runs away and abandons his post, leaving the house wide open; poor planning on
the magician’s part.)
But
there is a little to like here. I enjoy
the running gag of Buster getting knocked off his feet by the strength of the
alcohol he appropriates from the liquor cabinet to shore up his courage
(although it recurs maybe one too many times.)
I do like the penguin, apropos of nothing, just because it’s cute, fun,
and unexpected. While the more
straight-up haunted house stuff is unconvincing, some of the magic tricks –
like the various trapdoors – are pretty neat.
And even when I don’t buy the scary stuff, I can’t help but like Buster’s
“scared” acting. I love his little “play
it cool” routine where he sidles away, his hands fidgeting at his sides, right
before he hightails it out of there – always funny.
Warnings
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