Ghosts on the Loose (1943)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

William Beaudine

Writer:

Kenneth Higgins (original screenplay)

Release Date:

30 July 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Horror

Tagline:

You'll yell with glee when these happy-go-lucky hooligans invade the shivery domain of the Man of a Thousand Horrors! It's Chill-arious!

Plot:

The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.

Plot Keywords:

East Side Kids | Honeymoon | Haunted House | Beautiful Woman | New York City

Cast

Leo Gorcey	...	Mugs
Huntz Hall	...	Glimpy
Bobby Jordan	...	Danny
Bela Lugosi	...	Emil
Ava Gardner	...	Betty
Rick Vallin	...	Jack
Ernest Morrison	...	Scruno (as Sammy Morrison)
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Benny (as Billy Benedict)
Stanley Clements	...	Stash
Bobby Stone	...	Dave
Minerva Urecal	...	Hilda
Wheeler Oakman	...	Tony
Peter Seal	...	Bruno
Frank Moran	...	Monk
Jack Mulhall	...	Lieutenant

Also Known As:

Ghosts in the Night (UK)
The East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi

Runtime:

67 min (DVD) | 65 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #9178) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | UK:U

Company:

Monogram Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Shot in six days.

Quotes:

Scruno: [whispering] Mister, you dropped your flowers,
[normal tone]
Scruno: I guess he didn't hear me.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

After this movie you might forget what 'laughing' is

This movie is also known as "The East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi". They certainly do, even though Bela in this movie is a Nazi, living next door to a newlywed couple (you might recognize Ava Gardner).

Bela Lugosi and Ava Gardner. How could this go wrong? No idea, but it did. Maybe that's the trouble with comedy. Some jokes just can't take getting older. (Some do, e.g. take The Marx Brothers.) It makes you wonder how films like "There's Something About Mary" will be perceived in the 2020s. Will people still laugh at it, or will they find it as painfully unfunny as I do now? Back to the Ghosts on the Loose: it has all the clichés you can find in those kind of movies. Moving portraits, the police doing a lousy job and so on. And if you don't want me to spoil the last scene, go straight to the next paragraph now. In the end, after the bad guys have been arrested, the East Side Kids are quarantained for getting the German measles. Now how funny is that!? Not at all.

I found it painful to sit out this movie. Beaudine also helmed "Bela Lugosi Meets The Brooklyn Gorilla". I don't even want to think about that one.