User Reviews

Many experts consider the best of Hugh Herbert's 23 Columbia shorts to be the "scare" comedies he did with African-American comedian Dudley Dickerson; this is one of the funniest of the lot. Hugh shows a bit more energy than usual, but the real stars are the supporting players. Dickerson provides plenty of good "frightened reaction" comedy, and also provides a hilarious monologue; Christine McIntyre shows a nice, broad range in her acting, and even winding up on the business end of a loaded shaving brush in one scene; but the real star is Dick Curtis and his over-the-top performance as Christine's jealous husband. Stooge fans take note: The ending was later used by director Ed Bernds for the Three Stooges short DOPEY DICKS.

Meet Dudley Dickerson who is a brave janitor... in the daytime. Then meet real estate agent Hugh Herbert, hysterical sexpot Christine McIntyre whom Hugh accidentally thinks his wife and ends up being chased around by the jealous husband Dick Curtis. Send them all to a haunted house with an alleged hatchet murderer, a hatchet faced housekeeper and the equally creepy owner and you end up with a haunted house comic short with lots of laughs in a very condensed period of time in the tradition of the type of film that every comic ended up doing during the golden age of they were popular enough.

Hot tempered Curtis is deliciously funny, stealing every moment with his fast burn. Of the few Hugh Herbert short films I've seen, this has a good balance of time when he is off screen and that gives good time for McIntyre and Dickerson to shine as well. The creature resembles Bela Lugosi in "The Ape Man" although it is never mentioned as to what he is. The haunted house itself is very well set up so there is a lot of room for additional laughs due to the art direction.