Ghost Chasers

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.

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.

GHOST CHASERS turns out to be a well-paced comedy, and a little better than usual. It involves Slip, Sach and the gang trying to expose a phony clairvoyant (or"clairvoyage," to quote the ever-prolific Leo Gorcey). Good fun all around, with some humorous assistance added courtesy of Bernard Gorcey (Leo's dad) as Louie Dumbrowski.

This is my favorite period for The Bowery Boys films (1946-1956), which was the point where they became all-out comedies. Unfortunately, as of this writing, there are no DVDs planned. Hopefully, Warner Bros. will put them out very soon.

**1/2 / ****

While loquacious Leo Gorcey (as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) tries to teach a girlfriend English diction ("How, now, brown, cow…"), simple-minded Huntz Hall (as Horace De Bussy "Sach" Jones) joins "Bowery Boys" William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), Buddy Gorman (as Butch), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) in a séance. The spirit world isn't really contacted, but Mr. Benedict remains a believer; he invites Mr. Hall to join his ghost-contacting group, which intends to contact a dead magician named "Leonardi".

The group turns out to be a racket, as Mr. Gorcey suspects. Gorcey decides to expose the group by persuading fatherly "Sweet Shop" owner Bernard Gorcey (as Louis "Louie" Dumbrowsky) to contact his debtor uncle "Jake" through "Margo the Medium" (Lela Bliss). Hall, meanwhile, befriends 300-year-old pilgrim Lloyd Corrigan (as Edgar Alden Franklin Smith), who steals the show. Edward J. Kay's finely-tuned musical direction, and Mr. Corrigan's spirited mission, help make "Ghost Chasers" an above average series entry.

***** Ghost Chasers (4/29/51) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lloyd Corrigan

"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.