Spooks Run Wild (1941) User Reviews

First meeting of the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi is a creaky antique thats fun in the right frame of mind

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 28 January 2006]

Bela Lugosi and the East Side Kids (aka the Dead End Kids aka The Bowery Boys) made two films together. This is the first and best. Its a low budget creaky mystery that some how works despite its short comings.

The plot has the Kids forcibly removed from the streets for two weeks in the country at a summer camp. Not wanting to be watched over they sneak out the first night only to be shot at by a local care taker. They end up taking refuge in an old mansion inhabited where Bela Lugosi is staying. At the same time a "monster killer" is prowling the surrounding area. Confusion, murder and "comedy" ensues.

By no means a great film, and probably only an okay one, this is a movie that needs to be watched at about two in the morning when you're half asleep. Its the stereotypical haunted house film turned side ways,yet again, by Leo Gorcey and his pals. Sure the comedy is beyond low and the plot is predictable, but somehow Bela, in a decent role, lifts this up to be more than just a bunch of 30 year old teenagers running amok. Actually the fact there there is a real plot helps a great deal (The later Bela/ East Side Kids pairing Ghosts on the Loose suffers greatly from essentially being two barely connected halves). Its not great by anyone's definition, but it is fun in a silly way.

If you're in the mood for a haunted house comedy the likes of which they don't make any more (thank God) you can give it a try. While far from great it does have Bela hamming it up which is usually good for an hour entertainment.

The Bowery Boys In A Haunted House

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 29 December 2008]

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?

Dated but fun

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 5 November 2015]

As another reviewer has noted, SPOOKS RUN WILD is a film which perfectly captures the spirit of Halloween, American-style: that is, a night in which kids can be scared by dressed-up ghouls and ghosts and the macabre is celebrated. This film's one in the long-running series of East End Kids movies, in which a group of overage twentysomethings play a gang of feral youths who are always getting into trouble with both the law and various criminals.

This time around, things take a decidedly macabre turn with the police hunt for a serial killer, played to the hilt by a cameoing Bela Lugosi. All of the kids and Lugosi himself end up in a creepy old mansion, where lots of jokes and ghoulish gags arise. Lugosi doesn't have much screen time but is fun when he does show up, and there's a nice role for Angelo Rossitto (FREAKS) as his henchman.

Other than Lugosi, this film is pretty good for being a programmer from poverty-row studio Monogram Pictures. The cast are lively and give dedicated performances and the jokes come thick and fast. Yes, this is dated, but in a fun way, and I still prefer it to 90% of modern American comedy. Sunshine Sammy Morrison, playing the token black comic relief guy (a character trope that turns out to have existed since forever) steals the show with his likable, scaredy-cat humour.

Has Its Pluses, But Probably Could Have Been Better

[Snow Leopard · 30 January 2006]

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.

"Hey, this looks like the place where the plot begins to thicken."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 28 September 2006]

For a while I thought "Spooks Run Wild" and "Ghosts on the Loose" were the same film, both featuring The East Side Kids teaming up with Bela Lugosi. This, the earlier of the two movies is heavier on the haunted house atmospherics which the East Siders use to fire off their gags and one liners. Lugosi comes complete with his Count Dracula outfit and midget sidekick Angelo Rossitto; the long view of his mountaintop retreat is reminiscent of the sinister house in "Psycho".

What's kind of neat about the story as it progresses is that the boys all take turns teaming up with each other as they search for their injured buddy Peewee (David Gorcey) in the huge Billings Estate. Peewee seems to be in a trance after being treated by Nardo (Lugosi), so his pals connect Nardo to the 'monster killer' they heard about on the radio on the way to camp. In between the sound and sight gags, Scruno (Sunshine Sammy Morrison) has some fun with the stereotyped scaredy cat role he's given as the black member of the East Siders - "I'm so scared I'm turnin' white now"; and later - "A white spider, that must have been the ghost of the black widow!" It all comes across as pretty harmless, but done today, the political correctness police would be all over it.

There's a line Lugosi speaks in the film that reminded me of his performance in 1931's "Dracula". In that earlier film, a wolf howls in the distance and Dracula says to Renfield - "Listen to them... children of the night, what music they make." Under similar circumstances in "Spooks", while walking through the Hillside Cemetery, he remarks - "City of the dead. Do they too hear the howling of the fighting dogs?" I wonder if that line was intended as a tribute to the horror classic.

From the outset, I had the idea that the old switcheroo would take Lugosi off the hook as the monster killer; indeed it turned out to be the spooky Dr. Von Grosch (Dennis Moore) who almost claimed Linda Mason (Dorothy Short) from the camp as his latest victim. Lugosi's convincing along the way though, even getting to use a version of that famous stare down from "Dracula" and "White Zombie".

The diminutive Rossitto appeared with Lugosi a couple more times in pictures, in 1942's "The Corpse Vanishes", and 1947's "Scared to Death". He doesn't have a lot to do in any of the stories, in fact he doesn't even speak in this one, but his presence adds just a slight dash of bizarreness to the proceedings.

At just over an hour in length, "Spooks Run Wild" is a fun diversion, but don't expect a tight script or much in the way of story development. It's all in the gags, one liners and Leo Gorcey's malapropisms. If you're putting together your list of films for Halloween fright night, this would be a good one to start off with.

Harmless humor and atmospheric settings make this a good family Halloween movie.

[bmlittle · 7/10 · 1 June 2001]

In my opinion, one of the better Bowery Boys movies. As with other of their films, the comedy is simple and transparent. The boys play the roles of "spooked" kids very well, and the role played by Bela Lugosi adds much to the storyline. The settings are eerie enough to make the movie a good Halloween movie for both adults and kids. While it isn't spectacular, it is good entertainment if not taken too seriously. If you like old haunted house movies, it's worth a look.

Luigi keep them from leaving the house!

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 23 November 2008]

(Some Spoilers) The East Side kids are at it again this time out of their element, Manhattan's lower East Side, and in unfamiliar territory a haunted house in upstate New York. Trying to get the boys to straighten themselves out PAL lawyer Jeff Dixon, Dave O'Brien, has them enrolled in a camp for the summer to learn the finer things in life like sunshine fresh air and unharmonized milk.

Lead by their fearless and though talking leader Muggs, Leo Grocey, the East Side Kids skip camp and end up being locked up in this creepy and electricity deprived haunted house. It's there where their hounded by this "Monster Killer" who's terrorizing the local population with three murders already under his belt. Muggs together with Danny, Bobby Jordan, and Skimpy, Hurtz Hall, at first try to help fellow gang member Peewee, David Grocey, who was shot, by a night watchman, as he walked through the cemetery near the haunted house. Joined by both Scruno and Skinny, Ernest Morrison & Donald Hines, Muggs tries to get the badly injured Peewee help only to run into the master of the house the mysterious Nardo, Bela Lugosi, and his two foot eleven inch assistant Luigi, Angelo Russitto.

****SPOILERS**** Were ,and the East Side Kids, are kept in the dark to who this "Monster Killer" really is until the very end of the movie when, it becomes obvious to everyone watching, his secret identity is finally revealed. The movie itself,in order to keep he cost down, is so lax in the lighting department that most of the time you can't make out what's happening in it! All this just about cancels out the slap stick action scenes in the movie that the zany East Side Kids are noted for.

The great Bela Lugosi, as Nordo, is about the only reason to watch "Spook's Run Wild" in that like in all the bargain basement films that he was in, during the last fifteen years of his life, Lugosi raise the grad Z-movie up a few notches. It's to his credit that Lugosie doesn't, like everyone else in the movie, takes himself seriously. This has him comes across more of a comedian in making fun of himself then the villain you would have expected Bela Lugosi to be in the film. As for Lugosi, or Nordo's, sidekick Luigi he's so small and hard t follow, in the dark, that at times he looks like a talking, and moving, head without a body attached to it!

There's also Dave O'Brien, as Jeff Dixon, who's reunited in the movie with his wife Dorothy Short who plays nurse Linda Mason. The two are best remembered as the ill fated and tragic young couple in that timeless 1938 anti-pot/marijuana classic "Reefer Madness". There's also in the soundtrack of "Spooks Run Wild" the theme song, or instrumental arrangement , of Lugosi's 1940 mad scientist and horror classic "The Devil Bat" where he played a deranged and vindictive perfume and mens cologne annalist.

Good Flick!

[HemiVic · 7/10 · 6 February 2005]

I have always been a fan of the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys movies. "Spooks Run Wild" is a very good movie which has the boys getting into some funny mischief! The Boys go off to a summer camp and soon discover that there is a spooky old haunted house nearby. "Mugs" meets a pretty blonde in town and decides to sneak out of the camp to pay her a visit. Well, the rest of the East Side Kids decide to follow "Mugs" and all of them wind up in an old graveyard. "Peewee" gets shot by a man guarding the graveyard and the boys bring the injured lad to guess what? ....the spooky old house which is occupied by Bela Lugosi and his midget assistant. Our kindly host, Bela, tends to "Peewee's" injury and provides lodging for the rest of the boys. The boys hear a news report of a mad killer that has been seen heading to the area of the old house! Strange things happen throughout the night with a surprise ending! I liked "Spooks Run Wild" and thought it was quite entertaining! The quality of the VHS version is fair because the lighting in the movie was quite awful! Regardless, it was very enjoyable to watch!

Poor Bela. Reduced to THIS!

[preppy-3 · 4/10 · 15 September 2004]

The East Side Kids vs. Bela Lugosi. The East Side Kids a group of "lovable and funny" juvenile delinquents are sent to a camp to help straighten them out. There also happens to be a killer roaming the country (called "The Monster") right near where the camp is. Around this time Bela with his companion (midget Angelo Rossitto) move into a spooky old house near the camp. The Kids end up in the house and strange things start to happen. Could Bela be the Monster?

Pathetic. There's no real story and things are never fully explained at the end. Lugosi gives this his all but there's nothing for the poor guy to work with. It's real sad to see him reduced to doing crap like this. The East Side Kids aren't as annoying as I thought they would be but none of their jokes are funny (I groaned aloud at a few of them). Nice to see Rossitto but there's no reason for him to be in this--he doesn't even have a word of dialogue! Running about 60 minutes this is at least an hour too long. Boring, senseless and unfunny.

I give it a 4 for Lugosi and some of the East Side Kids WERE kind of engaging.

Fun Comedy-Horror

[Rainey-Dawn · 6/10 · 18 April 2015]

A cute film where Bela Lugosi meets The East Side Kids(Bowery Boys). The movie is fun to watch if you like the older comedy-horror films. I did not bust-a-gut laughing but I did find the film enjoyable - refreshing.

The Boys end up in a boys camp, peewee is shot, there is a murderer on the loose, a strange creepy old house, some humor and, of course, Bela Lugosi. This really is a good family style horror film - good to watch with the kids.

Lugosi has much better films than this one but the movie is a must for Lugosi fans - it's a simple, lighthearted comedy-horror film.

Make it a double feature with Ghosts on the Loose (1943)!

6.5/10

HA Ha! Bela Lugosi!

[Spuzzlightyear · 4/10 · 25 February 2006]

Although the Bowery Boys are (say it isn't true!) starting to grow on me, and I had somewhat high hopes for Spooks Run Wild, because you never know what will happen when Bela Lugosi is on the scene. Unfortunately the 'Running Wild' portion of the title can be aptly used to describe the movie, because this just goes all over the place, and uses weak excuses to justify it's actions. When the boys are on their way to Juvvie camp for getting into trouble, they stop in a town overnight. Also happening to be in this town are a mysterious stranger (Lugosi) and his, uh, midget friend, who everyone is convinced is some sort of monster killer but don't bother to do anything about it. The kids are stuck in Lugosi's creepy house, and basically silly situation after silly situation transpires, without any logic or reasoning building up to a ridiculous conclusion that, if you were casually paying attention, you could have easily picked up from the start.

My Favorite East Side Kids Movie

[wdbasinger · 8/10 · 23 August 2006]

Being a fan of old "B" moves from the 1930s and 1940s, this is a real gem from one of the so-called Poverty Row studios, in this case, Monogram Studios. Some of these so-called Poverty Row films have a charm all their own. I am a fan of both Bela Lugosi on one hand and The East Side Kids on the other. The East Side Kids started off as a group called the Dead End Kids from Warner Studios and I prefer their films that they made for Monogram. Other good movies of the series are "Ghosts on the Loose" (also with Bela Lugosi as well as a young actress named Ava Gardner), "Bowery Blitzkrieg", and "Mr. Wise Guy".

Anyway, "Spooks Run Wild" is the best of the lot with fine old fashioned atmosphere (great cemetery scenes and a creepy old house), great wisecracks, and hold-on-to-your-seat suspense with a misanthropic villain called the "Monster Killer".

Great film for Holloween.

Dan Basinger

some Scooby Doo silliness

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 8 July 2019]

The East Side Kids are sent from New York City to a camp in the mountains. There is a Monster Killer on the loose and the public is scared. The boys run off. While crossing a grave yard, Pee Wee is shot. The boys bring him to a mansion where they are let in by the mysterious Nardo (Bela Lugosi) and his dwarf assistant Luigi.

I don't know much about the East Side Kids. They evolved from the Dead End Kids. It's an easy concept to understand. Non of the "kids" are familiar to me although their characters are perfectly recognizable. It has a Scooby Doo feel. It's not that funny and honestly, the print is pretty dark. The filmmaking is relative B-movie level. Fans of the series may enjoy it or may despite it. I don't know. I don't mind the Scooby Doo aspect and Bela gets to be Bela.

Spooks Run Wild (1941) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 8 July 2005]

I've often joked in the past about some people's boundless (my words) affection for the later incarnations of The Dead End Kids but, actually, this and GHOST ON THE LOOSE (1943) are my first encounters with them. So, what's the verdict, then? Simple: their shtick is more tolerable when taken in smaller doses as was the case in DEAD END (1937) and ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938).

This is instantly forgettable stuff and I can't see it having much rewatchability value in the future...especially since Bela Lugosi turns out to be a good guy after all! Didn't he learn his lesson with MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935)?

The East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi

[cinema_universe · 23 July 2001]

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."

"You scared the health outta me."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 26 February 2014]

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.

Spooks Run Wild

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 15 October 2016]

Although the quality of print was less than ideal, the film is dark and often murky, it nonetheless offers another fun spooky mansion, and Spooks Run Wild uses Bela Lugosi beautifully. By the early 40s, Lugosi was consigned to roles painting him as the bogeyman, but this film, while playing off the Dracula persona, does offer a pleasant twist regarding who he really is. There's an irony in this film: the East Side kids are creeped out by him so they always assume the worst, constantly trying to leave or flee his presence. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and their New York City Bowery buds are up to no good, caught being mischievous and shipped off to a camp for rehabilitation, go for a walk in the woods, when one of them (David Gorcey) is injured on a barbwire fence. Locating the old Billings mansion, the boys find Lugosi and his dwarf assistant, needing a place to rest and possible medical care. The night in this ominous mansion, where candlelight is the method of seeing in the dark, proves eerie for the boys as David walks about in a trance with the expected cobwebs, spiders, skulls, objects moving on their own, and never-ending rooms in the place while they try to find their pal. Lugosi is obviously enjoying the part as he never appears too malevolent or sinister, except the iconic "camera draws in to his predatory face as he approaches in close-up", talking to the boys with that thick accent (I personally never tired of despite his criticism for not trying to master the English language) that is almost always polite and civil. It is exactly right to me, this approach, so that what he might or might not be is left to us to determine. The radio announcement of this 'monster killer' does lay seed to whether or not Lugosi is him. Subplot includes a nurse (Dorothy Short) looking for the boys while the camp counselor (Dave O'Brien) remains disenchanted with being nursemaid to them. Dennis Moore is supposed killer hunter out to find Lugosi, but his presence seems anything but heroic. Good atmosphere and Lugosi's charisma help balance the film's dedication to the quipping kids always scattered and confused. Favorite scene for me: the knight's armor and how some of the kids no not what to do. As often was the case, the cops only show up at the very end once the killer is revealed. How the supposed haunts are explained away when Lugosi's occupation is revealed is quite the twist.

I can't believe I actually liked this movie,...sort of

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 14 July 2007]

I have been and always will be a person who hates the Bowery Boys (a.k.a, The East Side Kids or The Dead End Kids). Most of it is because several of the actors associated with this series were obnoxious and unlikable (Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall come immediately to mind). The rest of it is because most of their films are poorly written and terribly unfunny--a real problem when they are supposed to be comedies! In light of my hatred, SPOOKS RUN WILD came as such a surprise. Okay, it isn't high art or a must-see film, but considering it paired the unfunny group with Bela Lugosi (who at this point in his career would appear in anything--and I do mean anything), it was much, much better than it should have been and is an agreeable time-passer.

The obnoxious teens go off to summer camp for underprivileged inner city kids. Oddly, even though the radio announces that a serial killer is loose, they STILL take the boys to the camp which is exactly where the maniac was spotted. Perhaps they thought that their deaths would be a public service. Anyway, the guys decide to wander around at night (huh?) and eventually find themselves in a haunted mansion with Bela Lugosi and his silent dwarf assistant, Luigi. Considering that Lugosi is dressed a lot like Dracula, it isn't surprising that the boys think Lugosi and Luigi are killers and they spend most of the rest of the film running about the mansion getting into trouble. Considering everything, it's amazing how patient Lugosi's character was with the boys, as he seems to take all their antics in stride (perhaps that was the morphine kicking in).

The film features some decent though not big laughs. Many of the best lines are delivered by the Black member of the gang, Sunshine Sammy. Now in the 21st century, his being called "Sunshine Sammy" and a few of his antics might be seen as very politically incorrect. However, in context, he was an excellent character and very progressive for the day. He was as liked as any White member of the gang in the film and they didn't make any of the stereotypical "Black guy in a haunted house" jokes.

Overall, this is an important film for Bela Lugosi fans. I am certainly one of them and have even seen just about all his very worst films. I had resisted seeing this one because I thought being from Monogram Films (a very low-budget studio) and with the East Side Kids it would be just another bad horror flick--but I was pleasantly surprised. Others might also enjoy it, but it's not much more than a fair time-passer.

FYI--The boys and Lugosi teamed up again two years later in GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE. It isn't as good as SPOOKS RUN WILD, but it is still quite watchable.

enjoyable spoof

[Cristi_Ciopron · 7/10 · 14 December 2015]

This is Lugosi's 1st movie with the East Side Kids, and one of his several with Dave O'Brien, someone as conceited and astringent as ever ('The Devil Bat', 'Bowery at Midnight'), here he's shown as nasty, to the kids as well as to his girlfriend.

In fact, this one had the working title 'Ghosts …'.

The 2nd movie made by Lugosi and the kids was better written, but the kids gave more bombastic performances, especially H. Hall. Though 'Spooks …' seems better budgeted, and certainly looks good and is nicely acted, Rosen wasn't as good a director as Beaudine, and the movie is somewhat bland, somewhat less lively, a bit lazy, and with a less good script; but Lugosi looks awesome, with another side of his talent: the nonchalant gentleman, chivalrous and handsome (his character is shown as not taking offense at the kids' repeatedly roughing him up, or being nasty), moreover he seemed pleased with his role. It begins with very nice footage of urban life, before the kids are sent to the camp. So, the 1st movie has a better look and acting, a fancy storyline, with the self-explained old house, almost a '30s movie, and it relies more on spoof, the intriguing things, like the attendant's insight, are comparatively loosely handled; the 2nd has better a better director and also script and feel, dynamism as zest in handling the subplots, appeal, the subplots (the newlyweds, the old couple, the policemen) are better handled, and funnier, here the several subplots are either teases, or barely sketched (the host walks about the house, the counselor, the constable, Van Grosch). The main difference is the one between a spoof and a comedy. Beaudine handled better than Rosen a better script. Here, the actors playing townspeople act reasonably well, yet the direction is less preoccupied with them than it should have; another difference is that the 2nd movie could boast a better cast (not only the bride, but some supporting roles as well). Let's mention two teases: the likable locations at the beginning (given that the storyline went somewhere else) and the boys marching through the underground tunnel, resurfacing in the cemetery to keep a council, deciding what seems at 1st an obviousness (to confront the bird, since they lack silver bullets and onion), then coming across with a good trick, scaring their host. So, though perhaps not as good as its follow-up, this 1st show isn't to be dismissed.

Peewee was Muggs' real-life brother. Pat Costello has a small role as the driver.

Rosemary Portia makes a nice bit part, as a waitress.

The directors of the installments were usually the savvy Lewis (three movies, all in '40), W. Fox (9 movies, in '41-'45), Beaudine (6 movies, in '43-'45); from '42 on, W. Fox and Beaudine were the directors.

Though H. Hall was included relatively lately as an East Side kid, he had been one of the Dead End Kids, on a par with Gorcey, Dell and Jordan.

The kids arrive at the camp; and the old house isn't their host's.

Lugosi gets roughed up a bit by the kids two times. In a story about a sexual predator, he's not the one. Muggs perusing a book belongs to his intellectualized outlook.

Though mostly a farce (and some of the uncanny occurrences witnessed by the kids, like the skull and the moving boll and the skeleton, must or could be attributed to their anxiety, as their host explained them beforehand, while others, like the secret passages and the tunnel leading under the phony tombstone, can't be, and the weird attendant is straight fantasy), when Van Grosch attacks the girl it doesn't look like an attempt to murder her, Dorothy Short's struggle with Van Grosch looks like a rape, and it seems appropriate that sexuality was a topic for a series mainly aimed at teenagers.

When it was Still Fun

[CaressofSteel75 · 6/10 · 8 August 2020]

Leo Gorcey & the East Side Kids take on Bela Lugosi as they search for the mysterious "monster killer" in a creepy, secluded house.

I've always been a sucker for old haunted house flicks, and even though there's not much to this one, it's still one of my favorites. The East Side kids were still pretty fresh in 1941, and for this one they brought in Sammy Morrison to round out the gang, probably with the intent making him the true comedian of the group. He was good in this, but he never really seemed to gel 100% with this series. (Based on something he said later, I don't think he liked this series very much).

I always like to see Bela Lugosi, but it's also a shame to see him in a Monogram quicky after all the great features he'd been in just a few years before.

Yes, this one is pretty dated looking now, but there's nothing wrong with taking a look back into something like this to remember how it was. The East Side Kids made some fun movies.

The East Side Kids in "Fright Night"

[lugonian · 3/10 · 31 October 2010]

SPOOKS RUN WILD (Monogram, 1941), directed by Phil Rosen, the seventh in the "East Side Kids" series, is probably best known due to its presence of top-billed Bela Lugosi, the master of horror, whose role as Dracula (Universal, 1931) has made his legendary. Although routinely done on a limited scale, and being a far cry from similar themes produced over at Universal, this entry gets by for what it is - a comedic horror mystery.

The story begins briefly in the tenement district of New York where the East Side Kids, consisting of Danny (Bobby Jordan), Glimpy (Huntz Hall), Skinny (Bobby Stone), Pee Wee (David Gorcey), Scruno (Sammy Morrison) and its leader, Muggs Maginnis (Leo Gorcey), labeled underprivileged, being escorted by the police into a bus headed to the country for summer camp, as arranged by Jeff Dixon (Dave O'Brien). Dixon, a young man studying to become a lawyer, has a rough job ahead of him looking over these kids while working on his thesis. As the bus makes a stop in a small town called Hillside, the boys enter a sweet shop where Muggs takes an interest in a counter girl named Margie (Rosemary Partia). As Muggs arranges a meeting time with her, an announcement is heard over the radio warning residents to be aware of a "Monster Killer" on the loose. In the meantime, a mysterious man, Nardo (Bela Lugosi) and his dwarf assistant, Luigi (Angelo Rossitto) drive through town in a trailer full of coffins heading for the Billings Estate, which has been unoccupied for ten years. Later that evening, Muggs, sneaking out of camp to keep his date with Margie, is followed by his friends. Taking a short cut through the cemetery, Pee Wee is shot by a caretaker. Injured, the boys take him to a nearby mansion on top of the hill where Nardo offers his assistance by giving Pee-Wee a sedative and a room to rest for the night. As overnight guests, the East Side Kids encounter strange happenings, including Pee Wee roaming about in a zombie-like trance. As Linda Mason (Dorothy Short), Jeff's girlfriend and the camp nurse, goes out to search for the missing boys in the dead of night, she soon encounters a Doctor Von Grosch (Dennis Moore) for assistance.

As with most film series placing its central characters in horror genre cycle or in a residence believed to be haunted, SPOOKS RUN WILD offers nothing new considering how the East Side Kids were involved in similar situations earlier in its second entry, THE GHOST CREEPS, re-titled BOYS OF THE CITY (1940). SPOOKS RUN WILD benefits greatly with Lugosi aboard dressed mostly in black attire as if he were Count Dracula. At one point he's addressed by Muggs as "Mr. Horror Man." There's the usual antics provided by kids ranging black member Scruno's encounter with a white spider; Muggs nearly getting trapped inside a coffin; to Glimpy's reply to Danny of having "gone to night school" as his reasoning as to how he can read in the dark, a reply repeated by Huntz Hall playing Sach to Leo Gorcey's Slip in THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS (1954). Containing much of the familiar Monogram and P.R.C. stock underscoring, SPOOKS RUN WILD, set mostly in the dark of night with the gang carrying lighted candle plates, makes way to some fine suspense with laughs. Actually not bad of this type, with an interesting conclusion rounding up its story.

Distributed on home video in the 1980s, later available on DVD as companion piece to GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE (1943), the second and last East Side Kids comedy featuring Bela Lugosi; SPOOKS RUN WILD has turned up on occasion on Turner Classic Movies (with re-issue Astor Pictures Studio logo in place of Monogram) where it premiered in May 2004. Next in the series, MR. WISE GUY (1942)(**).

Integrated Cast In The 40's

[santurcedc · 10/10 · 22 October 2020]

I remember watching Spooks Run Wild as a child growing up in the 60's during segregation in the South. I was interesting to see a Black character like Ernest Morrison in the Bowery Boys and the Little Rascals. It was rare see white boys having a Black friend and hanging out together. When I look back at seeing this movie, there wasn't any hit or talk of racism. This is an entertaining and funny movie to see.

Boredom runs rampant.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 26 November 2017]

Bela Lugosi meets the East Side Kids in this terribly dated 'poverty row' horror comedy from Monogram Pictures. Lugosi plays the mysterious Nardo (Bela Lugosi), who travels to a creepy abandoned house with his dwarf assistant Luigi (Angelo Rossitto); also turning up at the run-down building are the 'kids', led by obnoxious delinquent Muggs (Leo Gorcey), who arrive looking for help after Peewee (David Gorcey) is wounded by a trigger-happy cemetery caretaker. When the kids meet Nardo, they mistakenly believe him to be the escaped maniac that has been terrorising the area, and try to escape, but anyone familiar with this type of film will realise the true identity of the killer within seconds of his appearance.

With dreadfully weak comedy (including several racist gags at the expense of Scruno, played by Sunshine Sammy Morrison), some seemingly supernatural shenanigans easily explained away at the end of the film, a fair bit of lousy day-for-night photography, and lots—and I do mean LOTS—of aimless wandering around the house (which is replete with hidden passageways), Spooks Gone Wild is tedious entertainment from start to finish. The plot (what there is) is clunkier than an old suit of armour, the gags are creakier than a secret doorway, and the direction is as lifeless as the skeleton hanging in one of the rooms. One for Lugosi completists only (or fans of The East Side Kids, if any exist)!

pleasant entry in suitably entertaining series

[Matt Moses · 24 June 2001]

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.