Haunted House

So 1940 wasn't only the year former Our Ganger Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison started playing Scruno in Monogram Pictures' East Side Kids movies, or that other former OG member Mary Kornman made her final picture for the same studio called On the Spot, it was also the year former OG director Robert F. McGowan made his final movies for the exact same studio. One of them was this one which starred Marcia Mae Jones-who previously appeared in McGowan's OG shorts Birthday Blues and Mush & Milk as well as with other former OG member Jackie Cooper in The Champ-and Jackie Moran. They are a couple of teens intent on getting an innocent man out of jail. McGowan provides some good humor as well as wonderful atmosphere concerning the title object which only appears near the end. So on that note, I recommend Haunted House. P.S. Another player familiar to OG fans is Clarence Wilson, who played a meanie in the series shorts, Shrimps for a Day and Little Sinner.

This is a mystery for teenagers so Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys fans may like this one. The main sleuth is an office boy named Jimmie at the down-at-heel Brownsville Bugle. It's a small town newspaper where the editor's chair is so in need of repair and Jimmie's press car keeps breaking down on all of it's journeys. Jimmie likes to take his hand at writing his wannabe writing columns for the newspaper when the editor Albert Henshaw is away.

Jimmie is really upset when a nice old man named Olaf is sure to be convicted of the murder of Mrs Blake in the town. He tells all about this to a newly-arrived girl named Millie who has come to stay with her uncle Albert Henshaw the editor. She encourages Jimmie to pursue his suspicions and together their sleuthing in the old broken-down press car. But their enthusiasm gets the better of them and they just get called mischief makers when they wrongfully suspect one of the town's citizens.

Jimmie loses his job at the Brownsville Bugle and thinks about moving away to pursue his journalistic dreams elsewhere. But then more clues about Mrs Blake's murder emerge and he is persuaded to stay. He and Millie go on a sleuthing adventure that has them in a spooky house during a thunderstorm. They have to sort through dusty box files and decipher an enigmatic poem to gather their evidence.

Some viewers may find the youthful enthusiasm of the young heroes a bit much to take at intervals. But this teen mystery has plenty of pace and a pleasant small town setting where "human nature is pretty hard to figure" sometimes.

Although the house concerned isn't haunted, it's merely the crime scene of a murder, young Jackie Moran who works in a small town newspaper is determined to find the killer and prove his worth to editor George Cleveland. He's also showing off for Cleveland's niece Marcia Mae Jones who's visiting from out of town.

For a cheap Monogram programmer it's not Gone With The Wind, but not all that bad either. Moran barks up a wrong tree at first, but eventually gets it right. Imagine having your grandmother being the alibi for your first suspect.

The murder turns out to be a cover-up for another crime. The victim was a wealthy widow and her killer is one whom she gave her trust. And a rather obvious choice.

Not a bad film, but not one to write home about.

Don't let the title of this scarce movie fool you. It's not a haunted house movie & it's not an "old dark house" type of movie. It's a simple murder mystery movie with teenage leads. They do spend about 5 of the movie's 70 minutes inside an old spooky house, but that's hardly enough to warrant naming this movie "Haunted House"! Not a bad movie, although a bit redundant. The acting is OK, there's a neat old hot rod, but it's neither juvenile enough to please that movie crowd, nor scary, nor mysterious enough to please those movie crowds. I rate it 5/10 (& that's being a bit generous).

This is the story of two kids who try to get their friend Olaf cleared of murder charges. Olaf worked for a rich old lady who turned up dead. Despite Olaf being a jovial guy he appears to be the only suspect and so was brought up on charges. Jimmy and Millie are the only two people who believe in their friends innocence and so begin to snoop around and find out that all is not as it seems.

I somehow think this film seemed nostalgic even in 1940 when it came out. This is very much a period piece who's period has long gone. It seems aimed at the juvenile market than the adult market. The mystery, while strong is hampered by the gosh, gee attitude of the kids, who seem stuck somewhere around twelve despite being old enough to drive. The friction between the adult murder mystery and the childishness and imaginativeness of much of the proceedings make for an odd mix where everyone loses.I know that sounds like a stupid reason for not liking the movie, but if you saw the film you'd probably understand what I was getting at.

This is one of those films that almost works but doesn't quite do so. By almost working it doesn't quite reach the level of watchablity and so falls into the pit of "why am I bothering". This isn't to say that the film is a total write off, its not (the mystery in a different frame work would be great), its just the whole thing doesn't quite work the way it should. If you run across it and are curious try it it may strike you differently,