Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A Masterpiece!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There's a lot going for this under-rated good, but not great, "spoof" of recent and old "B-grade murder-haunted house" films. It will remind you of everything from Bob Hope to the Bowery Boys, The 3 Stooges, Abbott & Costello, to "Murder By Death" and "Clue". Filmed in England. with pretty good effects for 1986. Why the low ratings? So many rubber masks, wigs, fake coffins, intentional wires and strings. The ending is confusing as it ends up back at the radio station before they are even married. Was it all just a dream, everything at Aunt Kate's creepy old mansion, with hidden passages and an ancient butler and maid? Dom DeLuise actually won the "Razzie" award for best cross dresser. He is a riot as crazy Aunt Kate. Confusing? Gida and Gene get married twice: First at the "haunted" mansion and again in the city. I suspect that maybe Gilda was already sick and they had to wrap it up quite quickly? It's her last film and it's only 82 min. I enjoyed it because of her bravo performance alone and that's why I rated it up so high. Is it a great film? Hardly, but everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun making it!

Having heard for years how awful Haunted Honeymoon was and long wanting to see Gilda Radner in her last movie, I taped this last night while the Emmys were on. Now that I've seen it, I can now say nobody in the cast and crew have anything to be ashamed about. I love the performances in the radio studio with Radner and Gene Wilder playing characters in a show with the same title as film. Dom DeLuise is amusing as Aunt Kate. But I want to really praise the hard-of-hearing butler Pfister (Bryan Pringle) who, because Wilder tells him his fiancée is slightly deaf, keeps shouting at Radner. And, yes, like many other comments here, I love Wilder's using someone else's legs as his in front of policemen. I also loved the "Ballin' the Jack" number between DeLuise and Radner and Radner's joke about the bug on the windshield. So in short, if you're a fan of all three stars, seek this out by all means!

Okay, so it wasn't everyone's best work. If you look at it with no presupposed ideas about everyone, you will find a nice funny movie. There are bits which are priceless. If you think of the humor they were all trying to put forth with Gilda so sick and Gene so worried, maybe it will help to understand somewhat why more attention wasn't paid to a script or to more proper editing. I still find it a breathe of fresh air compared to a lot of movies released in the last 20 years. And isn't it rather funny to see an Englishman do an American accent badly, which was what they were supposed to be doing? It is a comedy, for crying out loud. It wasn't made as a movie to win a Nobel peace prize, but I am sure you will smile and even chuckle a little. Pop some popcorn, settle back, and enjoy.

Haunted Honeymoon is set in the 1930's & starts in a radio studio where 'Manhattan Mystery Theatre' is going out live, actor Larry Abbot (Gene Wilder) & his co-star Vickie Pearle (Gila Radner, Wilder's then wife & her last film before she died) are soon to be married. However the engagement to Vickie has set a screw loose in Larry's head & he often can't control himself on-air. The shows sponsor Charlie (Lou Hirsch) is about to fire him when Larry's psychiatrist Brother Dr. Paul Abbot (Paul L. Smith) assures Charlie that he can cure Larry by literally scaring the condition out of him when the entire Abbot family meet up together at their large ancestral mansion to celebrate Larry's engagement. As the guests begin to arrive strange things start to happen, Larry's Aunt Kate (Dom DeLuise) talks of a Werewolf, a family member (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) is murdered shortly after being told the contents of rich Aunt Kate's will, Larry begins to start seeing ghosts & quickly discovers not everything is as it appears...Staring, co-written & directed by Gene Wilder this is one tragic mess of a film, just about a complete failure on almost every level. The script by Wilder & Terence Marsh is supposed to pay homage to the old dark haunted house mysteries from the 30's like The Cat and the Canary (1939) among others. Unfortunately it also tries to mix other genres as well, comedy, musical & horror, quite simply it doesn't work in the slightest. The comedy elements are so unfunny I couldn't believe it, I did not laugh once during this film. It tries far too hard with all out slapstick, comedy sound effects & sequences which probably looked OK on paper but ended up being far from OK in the finished product. Scenes of Wilder trying to pass a dead body off as a living person by dancing with it in front of two idiotic cops (Billy J. Mitchell & R. J. Bell) is embarrassing to watch, or a scene in which Wilder is sitting on top of a stuffed moose head hiding from a snake is just dumb & Dom Deluise in drag as Aunt Kate is a truly hideous & laugh free image. Not one single moment of supposed comedy in Haunted Honeymoon worked for me, the jokes are far too drawn out & predictable. The mystery elements are better but are all but lost amongst the lame attempts at humour & nothing is explained, the killer is revealed but how he achieved certain things are unclear like them walking down a wall & those crazy mirror effects. There is even a brief musical interlude as Vickie & Aunt Kate perform a little number, once again it just comes across as embarrassing to watch. I also hated the ending, it makes a mockery of everything that precedes it & is just lazy & clichéd. One area in which Haunted Honeymoon does succeed is with it's good atmosphere, the period production design & sets are excellent & really capture the feel of those old horror mysteries. The cinematography & special effects are good & generally speaking Haunted Honeymoon is very well made with that Hollywood polish about it. The acting is pretty bad by all involved including Wilder whom I usually like, perhaps he was more concerned about behind-the-camera activities as director rather than acting in front of it, Dom Deluise is highly annoying & irritating as Aunt Kate. As far as I'm concerned Haunted Honeymoon is a complete failure as either a horror mystery or a comedy & I just can't see what sort of film goer this would appeal too & enjoy it. Haunted Honeymoon was Wilder's last directorial effort to date which says it all really, you have been forewarned!