Spook Busters

Although the name of the film might give you the idea that it was the ancestor of the immensely successful Ghostbuster films of the Eighties, Spook Busters has the Bowery Boys get into the ghost business quite by accident.

Not that there are any real ghosts in Spook Busters, but the people where newly graduated exterminator Leo Gorcey has been hired to rid the place of six legged pests by the rental agent are keeping up the rumors it's a haunted house because of the experiments they're conducting. But when chief scientist Douglass Dumbrille takes one look at Huntz Hall, he decides Hall would be a grand subject for his latest experiment. What is that you say, why merely to exchange Hall's brain for that of a gorilla's and vice versa. Just the sort of stuff that movie mad scientists go around doing, though one does have to ask why.

Douglass Dumbrille who was one of film's best villains at both a serious and a comic one. He's best known for being the shyster lawyer Mr. Cedar in Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. But in a comic vein we've seen him roll down a department store floor after The Marx Brothers in The Big Store and in an Indian suit after Lou Costello in Ride 'Em Cowboy. Dumbrille really enjoyed the comic villain roles and he looks like he's having an equally good time with the Bowery Boys as a mad scientist.

You can't expect too much from Monogram Pictures, but Spook Busters is a good example of the Bowery Boys and their shtick.

Because this is an early Bowery Boys film, it features more than just Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall). Bobby Jordan and Whitey are on hand and the film is a better than average one for the team as a result. In the later films, any real pretense of a gang of friends is gone and it basically was the Slip & Sach Show...and the pictures were much more repetitive and less enjoyable.

The film begins with the boys graduating...from exterminator school. Soon they have their own insect extermination business and they are asked to take care of a creepy mansion that appears to be abandoned. But, there's actually a nutty scientist hiding in the basement doing experiments. At first he tries to scare away the boys but when he meets Sach he knows he'll be the perfect candidate for a brain transplant with gorilla!

Surprisingly enough, this enjoyable nonsense is pretty typical of a Bowery Boys film! The weird haunted house and brain transplant are both themes that would be repeated many times during the course of this franchise. It's very enjoyable if you like that sort of thing...and for others it might be a bit of a trial to get through this B-movie silliness.

Spook Busters

The hardest part of ghost hunting is violently murdering the innocent to increase business.

Fortuitously, the restless spirits in this comedy are just a ruse by the resident.

Receiving their first job after graduating exterminating school and starting their own business, The Bowery Boys (William Benedict, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, David Gorcey) head to a haunted house to rid it of its unwanted inhabitants.

Accompanied by their friends (Gabriel Dell, Tanis Chandler), the gang enters the mansion unaware that the mad scientist (Douglass Dumbrille) within plots to use one of their brains for transplant into his gorilla.

Merely the fourth instalment in the long running series, Spook Busters, née Ghost Busters, remains one of the comedy troupe's most recognized and rambunctious episodes, thanks mostly to the inclusion of the zany primate.

But in the end apes are much easier to capture than ghosts on account you can club them.

Yellow Light

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Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are the ringleaders this chapter of the Bowery Boys. lots of puns, turns of phrase. They get hired to investigate strange goings on in an old mansion. some fun co-stars... character actor Chester Clute is in here as the real estate agent. Douglass Dumbrille had a dark side to his characters; usually played the bad guy. and Gabriel Dell appears now and then in the Bowery Boys films. Gorcey's brother David and father Bernard are also in here. the usual recipe of slapstick humor and word play get us to the end of the film. fun signs in the real estate office, where all the places for sale are crossed out, highlighting the shortage of houses after WW II. its pretty okay. aint nothing new here. but entertaining enough. Directed by William Beaudine; had directed a bunch of the Bower Boys films.

This is one of the better movies in this series because there's a lot going on. A spooky mansion, a beautiful girl, crazy doctors who want to remove brains, mysteries upon mysteries, slapstick, funny lines, funny words, and funny situations. It even has a slow-motion fight scene.

The boys want to make money as exterminators. They get a job at a mansion. The mansion is full of mysteries and strangeness. That sparks the action and the comedy.

As I said this is one of the better ones. Sure, it might have lots of recycled elements, but all movies have that. Every movie ever made has that. But this is a good Saturday movie. Popcorn not included. Bring your own. And enjoy the film.