Spooks Run Wild

Just a few quick points. - This was one of the nine little gems that Lugosi made for Monogram (one of the better ones), and it's one of two he made with the East Side Kids. It's important to note that they WERE still kids (teenagers) when this film was made.-- They became "The Bowery Boys" when they grew up (It's mentioned in another comment that this film stars The Bowery Boys-- that's a BIG mistake!). The East Side Kids acted differently than, and looked different from, The Bowery Boys. -- The Bowery Boys films had more of a "Three Stooges" look and feel to them, and had none of the adolescent angst than can sometimes be seen in The East Side Kids films. And let's not forget that both groups grew out of the original Warner Brothers group: "The Dead End Kids."

Bowery Boys meet Bela Lugosi for the first (of two) collaborative efforts. In this standard entry in the comedy horror genre (in which the stereotypically evil character proves to be a good guy), the Boys – this time including Leo Gorcey and brother David, Huntz Hall and good old `Sunshine' Sammy (Ernest) Morrison – are shipped off to summer camp for the needy. On the way, they hear radio reports of a serial murder in the area, by which the boys pretend not to be affected. The camp escorts, played in an excessively understated manner by Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short, are. When the Boys (who seem to be the only attendees of the camp) try to sneak into town for a collective hot date, they attempt a shortcut through the cemetery only to find a riled up graveyard attendant who grants the younger Gorcey a leg full of buckshot. They seek help at the ominous house on the hill, currently housing Lugosi and his dwarf assistant Angelo Rossitto. The Boys are scared shirtless (although they try to play it cool) as they wander through the haunted house, get lost and find secret passages etc etc etc. Somehow O'Brien emerges as the hero after he saves our mostly absent heroine and everything's okay, presumably for the rest of the disadvantaged summer. Veteran director Phil Rosen could claim scores of credits to his name, although this low-budget entry in a long-running series leaves little room for any cinematic flair he may have picked up over the years. Gorcey and Hall put in standard yet enjoyable performances, but Morrison, cast in a typically racist role but doing a good job of it, steals the show.

Fairly innocuous East Side Kids movie that's notable primarily for the presence of Bela Lugosi. Bela doesn't get much to do and appears to only be in this because of his name value. He doesn't seem to be taking the part seriously, either. This is also the first of several movies Bela did with dwarf Angelo Rossitto as his pointless sidekick.

This is one of the movies that is often cited when people talk about the crap movies Bela did when Universal wasn't calling. Truth be told, it's not a bad movie. I actually enjoyed it. But then, I happen to be a fan of the Bowery Boys. Well, they're the East Side Kids here. They were the Dead End Kids first, then East Side Kids, then the Bowery Boys. I like them a lot, especially the movies they made during the Bowery years. They made some of the better movies Poverty Row studio Monogram put out. Obviously, as with all comedy teams, their style won't appeal to everybody. Spooks Run Wild isn't their best movie, and God knows it isn't Lugosi's, but it's an enjoyable way to pass an hour.

Although this East Side Kids feature has its pluses and some good sequences, it probably could have been better. Having Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, and the rest of the gang being paired with Bela Lugosi is an intriguing thought, and it certainly seems as if it could have been the basis for a really entertaining movie. Perhaps the biggest letdown is simply that Lugosi never gets a lot to do, so that he does not really get the chance to become a part of things.

The setup is kind of convoluted, and it takes a fair amount of time to get to the main action, which has the gang roaming around in an old abandoned mansion where Lugosi's character has just taken up residence. Long stretches of the movie are carried simply by the interplay among Muggs and the rest of the group as they explore, stumble around, and get lost in various situations, all the while wisecracking, ad-libbing, and playing with the props.

As always, most of these antics are quite entertaining, but here the actual story is too negligible to sustain its end of things. A more carefully written story, and most importantly a better, less thankless role for Lugosi, could have made much better use of this unusual combination of talent.

Would anyone have believed that an Academy Award would be in the future for one of the participants in Spooks Run Wild back in 1941? I think one would have been told to get a cranial examination. Yet Carl Foreman who wrote the screenplay would be getting one eleven years later for High Noon. Unfortunately blacklist was also in his future.

Academy Award winners didn't usually work at Monogram Pictures, but one starts to learn the trade somewhere in the film business. In this case it's with The Bowery Boys. They've been sent in the charge of Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short to a summer camp. The boys go wandering off and come upon a haunted house occupied by Bela Lugosi.

The usual Bowery Boy monkeyshines are present throughout. When the boys go wandering off however, we're informed that a serial killer is also loose in the area.

It's from Monogram so don't expect all that much. Still it's interesting to see the genesis of High Noon?