It's Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. This silent short was on TCM lately, and, I recorded it, durr... So, here's a wild little fun ride as Buster Keaton lands himself in a...
Haunted House!
The story's about a bank clerk that gets mixed up with some bank robbers in their 'haunted house' hideout designed to scare off police and snoopers.
At the bank, Buster gets glue all over the bills and causes some hilarious problems you can't even imagine! He even knocks one guy out so that he can pour scalding hot water under him to get him unstuck from the floor!!
Across town at the play, the set falls over on the actress. Buster liked things to fall over, this was the
second time the house fell on this lady!! That bottom still is priceless...
The cops are chasing Buster because they think he's involved with the robbery at the bank. Buster always had the most interesting expressions on his face!
Law enforcement stop their pursuit after he runs into a notoriously spooky old house in the country.
Once inside, he starts examining some of the contents. He opens a book up, and...
The way Buster bounces when he hits the bottom here is wild, he does some amazing stunts in this 21 minute film. How many times did Scooby-Doo and Shaggy use this 'stairs into a slide' gag?!
Buster thinks that this guy in the play is the devil!
Watching Buster's face in this scene is so bizarre, he looks upon the character with like, frightened admiration! Really funny.
He gets involved in the robber's antics and thinks he's become a ghost!
So, he ascends the stairs to heaven, but, when he gets to the top, his name's not on the list!!
And, the stairs turn into a slide...
All the way to Hell!!
Of course, it's only a dream, and, Buster gets his girl in the end!
Italian actor and comedian Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis of Byzantium, His Imperial Highness, Palatine Count, Kinght of the Holy Roman Empire, Exarch of Ravenna, Duke of Macedonia and Illyria, Prince of Constantinople, Cilicia, Thessaly, Ponte of Moldavia, Dardania, Peloponnesus, Count of Cyprus and Epirus, Count and Duke of Drivasto and Durazzo, and,or, aka, Totò, for short was arguably Italy's biggest box office attraction of all time and is still to this day almost a saint to many people, as someone like Elvis is, in the U.S. Yes, he was that popular!!!
Totò had puppet-like features and a tendency to lean toward the more risque side of the comedy genre, which got him into quite a bit of trouble with the authorities at times!!
I think you get the idea!!!
Then, this guy comes on and sings this incredible song, & I already spent too much time trying to figure out who he is, and my Italian ain't that great!!!
It's almost impossible to explain how indifferent the crowd is to the whole scene!
Let's just say, he gets a sitting ovation before Totò comes out dressed up in a standup bass outfit!!
Totò made over a 100 movies, many with his name in the title, that found him in a number of different odd circumstances, and in this particular film, he ended up in Hell!! When he really died in 1967 at the age of 69, the rubber-faced comic, poet and songwriter was so popular, they had to have three separate funerals!
The terrific score by Pippo Barzizza is swingin' hard and also sounds like some of the best 50's cartoon music you've never heard with liberal use of the swizzle stick! So, here you go, bask in the glory of the genius of the man known as Totò and all his friends in Hell!!!!
