Crazy Knights

Heading on a vacation from exhibiting a gorilla in traveling shows, Bernard Sell and his assistants, Billy Gilbert, Shemp Howard, and Art Miles -- the last is the one in the gorilla suit -- stop for the evening in a haunted house at the invitation of the owner, Jayne Hazard. Minerva Urecal is the housekeeper, Tim Ryan the detective who comes around, and Maxie Rosenbloom shows up as Miss Hazard's chauffeur.

Gilbert and Howard have the mugging turned up to eleven here as they run through many of the gags for haunted-house comedies that have turned up in movies for more than a hundred years. As you might expect from such old pros, their timing with each other is good, even if I've seen the same gags elsewhere and preferred them that way. Nonetheless, this must have been successful for Monogram under the super-efficient direction of William Beaudine, because Howard, Gilbert, and Rosenbloom -- but not Miles -- ganged up in another Monogram comedy the following year.

It's a very close call, but haunted house comedy Crazy Knights might even be worse than laugh-free screwball murder mystery The Gorilla (1939), which starred talentless comedic trio The Ritz Brothers.

Billy Gilbert (who steals Oliver Hardy's appearance and mannerisms), Shemp Howard and Bernard Sell play three carnival folk who find themselves spending the night in a creepy old house where things go bump in the night. Ghosts appear in the neighbouring graveyard, a killer is on the loose, and the guys' sideshow gorilla escapes from its cage.

With a plot that could be written on the back of a small postage stamp, the majority of the film comprises of Gilbert and Shemp being scared stupid by the spooky occurrences, with the emphasis on 'stupid'. This really is comedy at its most unsophisticated and tiresome, the stars' puerile buffoonery proving irritating in the extreme.

2.5/10, rounded up to 3 for eye-candy Jayne Hazard as blonde heiress Joan Gardner, the only good thing about the whole sorry mess.

Back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Three Stooges were a stage act called "Ted Healey and His Stooges". They consisted of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine. However, for some reason Shemp wanted out as he wanted to be a solo act...and his timing was terrible as the team was discovered and went to Hollywood fame. It was only after Curly's stroke in 1946 that Shemp returned to the team. In the interim, he appeared here and there in films and also starred in a few very low budget comedies. Here in "Crazy Knights", he's paired with other familiar supporting actors--Billy Gilbert and Maxis Rosenbloom--and they oddly go by their actual names.

When the film begins, Billy is doing a traveling act with a gorilla. However, much of the time it's really Shemp in a gorilla costume. Obviously they aren't much of an act and as they're traveling to the next town they meet up with Maxie and his employer, Mr. Gardner (John Hamilton). Someone is trying to murder Gardner and the three morons decide to help the guy. With help like this, you pretty much assume Gardner is a goner!

The three stars of the film all are what you might expect--rather loud and about as subtle and sophisticated as strippers working at a Baptist barbecue! Normally in films, they are supporting characters but here they are the show...and it's a mix that might not appeal to many viewers. Overall, it's about what you'd expect from a haunted house film starring three idiots and with a budget of about $857.93! Not exactly brilliant nor a film for anyone who isn't VERY patient with their tiresome and mostly unfunny antics.

Even those with a high tolerance for 1940s rubbish films will have a hard time getting through "Crazy Knights" (aka "Ghost Crazy"). It was poverty-row studio Monogram's attempt to create a viable comedy team in the wake of the success of Abbott and Costello, and the continuing popularity of The Three Stooges. The idea was to team the ubiquitous Billy Gilbert with Shemp Howard (who at the time was between his stints with the Stooges) and Lennie-like boxer Maxie Rosenbloom. The three don't act as a trio; Gilbert (who is costumed exactly like Oliver Hardy) and Shemp work as a team, and Rosenbloom joins in about half-way through. The rest of the cast in this haunted house "comedy" is largely unknown, save for John "Perry White" Hamilton, who at this point in his career was bouncing back and forth between major and minor studios. Oh, and since this is a 1940s scare farce, there's also a gorilla. Gilbert--who acts as both slap-happy straight man and overacting, spluttering comic--Howard--who plays it with a tough guy edge--and Rosenbloom pull out every stop to try and get a laugh, but the script (the fault of Tim Ryan, who also plays the detective), the premise, and the utter cheapness of the film defeats them all. Seen today, the picture is a time capsule of the kind of no-budget, no-talent movie-making that existed during the Golden Age, but it's awfully hard to imagine audiences so starved for entertainment that they'd actually pay to see this.

Billy Gilbert and Shemp Howard teamed up to make so-so comedies, and Ghost Crazy is an amusing film, although it's a shame that the director, who went on to direct other horror comedies, didn't improve on his lighting techniques. Some scenes are filmed too brightly to see what's going on, while other scenes are filmed too darkly.

Anyway, Billy and Shemp, along with their friend Don are circus performers who get caught up doing good deeds because of Don's romantic interest in the leading lady. The film has moments that resemble scenes from "The Gorilla" and "The Blue Room". Abbott and Costello, and indeed, Laurel and Hardy might have done a better job, but this film is watchable.