Ghost Chasers

While loquacious Leo Gorcey (as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) tries to teach a girlfriend English diction ("How, now, brown, cow…"), simple-minded Huntz Hall (as Horace De Bussy "Sach" Jones) joins "Bowery Boys" William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), Buddy Gorman (as Butch), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) in a séance. The spirit world isn't really contacted, but Mr. Benedict remains a believer; he invites Mr. Hall to join his ghost-contacting group, which intends to contact a dead magician named "Leonardi".

The group turns out to be a racket, as Mr. Gorcey suspects. Gorcey decides to expose the group by persuading fatherly "Sweet Shop" owner Bernard Gorcey (as Louis "Louie" Dumbrowsky) to contact his debtor uncle "Jake" through "Margo the Medium" (Lela Bliss). Hall, meanwhile, befriends 300-year-old pilgrim Lloyd Corrigan (as Edgar Alden Franklin Smith), who steals the show. Edward J. Kay's finely-tuned musical direction, and Mr. Corrigan's spirited mission, help make "Ghost Chasers" an above average series entry.

***** Ghost Chasers (4/29/51) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lloyd Corrigan

GHOST CHASERS turns out to be a well-paced comedy, and a little better than usual. It involves Slip, Sach and the gang trying to expose a phony clairvoyant (or"clairvoyage," to quote the ever-prolific Leo Gorcey). Good fun all around, with some humorous assistance added courtesy of Bernard Gorcey (Leo's dad) as Louie Dumbrowski.

This is my favorite period for The Bowery Boys films (1946-1956), which was the point where they became all-out comedies. Unfortunately, as of this writing, there are no DVDs planned. Hopefully, Warner Bros. will put them out very soon.

**1/2 / ****

I watched Ghost Chasers (1951) on TCM this morning. Whitey takes Sach to a meeting of mediums at a mansion and they watch a seance. Meanwhile, Slip learns that Mama Parelli is being billed out of $100 by a phony medium. Mama wants to contact her son, who was killed in the war. Slip decides to use Louie as bait to trap these crooks. Louie wants to contact his dead uncle to,find out wheee he hid all the money that he owed Louie before he died. When the BBs converge on the mansion, Sach meets a friendly ghost named Edgar who only he can see. Edgar is able to perform all types of supernatural tricks. Eventually, the Boys confront the phony mediums, but Routine 5 is stoped cold by mass hypnotism. It's up to Sach and Edgar to save the day, with help from Louie's new counter girl, Cynthia, and her private detective boyfriend, Jack Eagen.

This Bowery Boys entry is pretty dull. There's little action and the script is mostly unfunny. Not much slapstick, either. Whitey, Chuck, and Butch are much more prominent in Ghost Chasers than they have been in the recent movies. But Sach and Slip are in very few scenes together. At first, it's Sach and Whitey, and then Sach and Edgar interacting. Slip operates mostly on his own. This BB movie is disjointed from the start and it doesn't improve as it goes along.

When Leo Gorcey's mother's neighbor Argentina Brunetti starts spending money and borrowing from people to talk to her dead son, it becomes time for the Bowery Boys to spring into action. In their own inimitable style Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the gang track down a whole gang of these fake mediums led by Lela Bliss.

In their quest they're aided and abetted by a real ghost, a gentlemen in a Quaker suit played by Lloyd Corrigan. Corrigan also communicates to the world through a medium and the one he's chosen is Huntz Hall. He finds him an amiable fellow and one with 'a nose like Cyrano'.

Corrigan is pretty useful when the guys invade the haunted house where the fake mediums do their thing. Of course he creates some real tricks, my favorite being the creation and disappearance of doors when needed.

All in all a good Bowery Boys film, the best scenes are those that involve Lloyd Corrigan and Huntz Hall.

GHOST CHASERS is a whole lot of fun as the gang exposes a fake spiritualist racket, headed by Margo the Medium! You may notice the bad guys mansion (complete with sliding doors and hidden rooms) is the same old dark house used in SMUGGLERS COVE a few years earlier.

Also a super gag running through the film where Sach (and only Sach) can see and hear Edgar the ghost, who is just hanging around the mansion. Edgar is played by none other than popular character actor and director Lloyd Corrigan.

This episode also features some solid supporting players, like Philip Van Zandt as a phony doctor, Robert Coogan (Jackie's brother) as goofy detective Jack Eagan, Argentina Brunetti as Mama Parelli (Slip's neighbor who is being duped by the ghost racket) and Lela Bliss as Margo. Best line department: the gang is locked in a room that is flooded, to which Slip yells, "I think the walls are sweating!"

This was one of the first Bowery Boys to be released on vhs in 1992. Remastered via Warner Brothers dvd box set in 2012. The sets generally contain eight episodes each. Check out the classic color covers and movie posters.