A-Haunting We Will Go (1942) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

After being arrested for loitering in Arizona and released with orders to leave town immediately, Stan and Ollie have no money for transportation. They accept the job of escorting a coffin to Dayton, Ohio, believing it will provide them with free passage. They remain unaware that their employers, Frank Lucas and Joe Morgan, are gangsters working for the wanted criminal Darby Mason, and that the coffin contains evidence of criminal activity rather than just a corpse.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, they are warned they must leave town because there's no transportation available, setting up their desperate decision to take the coffin job.

• coffin
• transportation
• Dayton
• Stan
• Ollie
• criminals

Darby Mason is a wanted criminal who operates through a network of gangsters, including Frank Lucas and Joe Morgan. He is the true mastermind behind the coffin scheme, using Stan and Ollie as unwitting couriers to transport his criminal cargo. The movie reveals he is wanted for murder, and Investigator Steve Barnes sets up an elaborate trap to capture him at the Dayton theater.

• Darby Mason
• gangster
• wanted
• murder
• Steve Barnes

When Stan and Ollie load the train, they mistakenly take Mason's trunk thinking it belongs to magician Dante. Upon arrival in Dayton, the trunks are swapped: Mason's trunk goes to the theater where Dante is performing, while Dante's trunk is sent to a sanatorium. This mix-up triggers a chain of mistaken identities, suspicious behavior, and escalating chaos at the theater, ultimately enabling the investigator's trap to work.

• trunk
• mix-up
• theater
• Dante
• mistaken identity

Dante is a traveling magician whose trunk gets mistakenly mixed up with Mason's criminal cargo. While Stan and Ollie are being conned and stripped of their money during the train journey, Dante steps in as a helpful figure and provides them with financial assistance, saving them from ruin. His trunk's presence at the theater later becomes central to unraveling the criminal scheme.

• Dante
• magician
• trunk
• financial help
• train

Investigator Steve Barnes goes undercover as an attorney named Kilgore, using a fake inheritance search as bait to lure Mason out of hiding. The trap is set at the Dayton theater where the trunk mix-up has drawn everyone together. Barnes announces publicly that the inheritance search is actually a sting operation, cornering Mason and his accomplices in the theater basement where they finally face justice.

Foreshadowing: Barnes operates under the alias Kilgore from the beginning, hinting at his true identity as a law enforcement officer.

• Steve Barnes
• Kilgore
• trap
• Mason
• theater
• investigator

Cornered in the theater basement by Investigator Barnes's trap, Darby Mason confesses to murder. The confession exposes the criminal plot behind the coffin scheme and brings the murder case to a resolution. The basement confrontation serves as the turning point where the truth about the criminal operation finally comes to light.

• Mason
• confession
• murder
• basement
• theater

During the train journey to Dayton, confidence men target Stan and Ollie, managing to strip them of all their money and leave them penniless. The duo becomes vulnerable and desperate until the magician Dante intervenes with financial help. This incident demonstrates how easily the pair fall victim to deception despite their good intentions.

• con men
• train
• scam
• money
• confidence scheme

In the finale, as Ollie searches for Stan, he discovers him in a bizarre state that appears to involve magical shrinking, a surreal comedic moment that plays with stage magic. This strange sight adds an absurd, whimsical layer to the already chaotic climax, blending the crime plot with classic Laurel and Hardy slapstick surrealism.

• Stan
• shrunken
• magic
• finale
• surreal

Frank Lucas and Joe Morgan are gangsters who work as operatives for Darby Mason. They hire Stan and Ollie to transport the coffin, presenting the job as a simple delivery but actually involving them in a criminal scheme. They remain in the background pulling strings until the trap is sprung in the theater basement.

• Frank Lucas
• Joe Morgan
• gangsters
• Mason
• criminals

The coffin contains a corpse, which is part of Darby Mason's criminal operation. Stan and Ollie believe they are simply escorting a body to Dayton for burial, but the coffin and its contents are actually central to Mason's criminal activities. The true nature of the cargo remains hidden from the duo throughout most of the film.

• coffin
• corpse
• cargo
• Mason
• criminal operation