Ghost Chasers

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.

The Bowery Boys get involved with spiritualism. Uncle Louie is desperate to contact Jake on the other side. Slip smells a con with his mother is being tricked by a spiritualist. It turns out to be a vast network of con people headed by famous spiritualist Margo the Medium. Sach meets an actual ghost and only he can see it.

It's another Scooby-Doo adventure with The Bowery Boys. It would be more compelling if Slip's mom is being tricked directly by Margo the Medium. It would make their revenge more delicious. It's set to be a fine adventure and then it adds a fun little twist, Edgar. I like Edgar and the premise that only Sach can see him. It has lots of potential fun. It's a bit of a mess but it's The Bowery Boys.

"Ghost Chasers" surprised me, as it's a very enjoyable Bowery Boys film...something I just didn't expect...especially when I learned that the picture was shot in just 6 days!!!

The story involves some phony psychics who are bilking customers out of their money with promises they can talk to their dead loved ones. Oddly, the only one who doesn't fall for any of this is Slip...and he's an idiot! Well, the story gets very strange when Edgar, a 300 year-old ghost shows up because he, too, is mad about the phony psychics and offers to help Sach uncover the gang's dirty tricks. However, no one else seems to be able to see Edgar and you can only assume he appears to REALLY dumb folks!

Overall, this is actually a rather cute installment of the series. Edgar is a very likable character and I loved when he stopped to talk to the audience early in the story! In addition, the film offers some nice twists and kept my interest. Is it brilliant entertainment? Certainly not but it is a very watchable B-movie--and better than you'd expect.

I've seen a few of these "Bowery Boys" romps by now, and they all seem to follow a similar pattern: no matter what the plot or the (supposed) setting, they ultimately end up in a single set (after all, they were made by the infamously cost-conscious Monogram studios), where the boys chase, and are chased around, by crooks. "Ghost Chasers" is no different, except that there is a rare - if brief - dramatic component, with a mother trying to get in contact with her dead son. The film is padded and overlong (even at 69 minutes), though there is the occasional funny line, and "Edgar", the one real, friendly ghost, is amusingly played by Lloyd Corrigan. ** out of 4.

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.