Spook Chasers (1957) User Reviews

With a face like yours you should wear a mask!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 27 March 2011]

***SPOILERS*** With Mike Clancy owner of the Bowery's "Clancy Café" being told by his doctor that he needs to take a vacation out in the country before he pops off because of his acute asthma condition sleazy real estate agent Harry Shalby and his curvy secretary Dolly Owens, who are sipping on a cup of ice cold coffee at the café, see the perfect mark to unload their unsellable piece of real estate that they could't even give away for free.

Getting Clancy to put a down payment on the dilapidate Dolan house Shalby thinks he made a killing in the real-estate market. As it turns out the person whom Shelby may well have ended up killing is himself in that it's in the old Dolan house, belonging the late gangster Wee Willie Dolan, that there's stashed away the money from a bank robbery that he and his fellow hoods Snap Ziggie & Ernie, no relation to Snap Crackel & Pop, hid before he checked, by dying, out!

"Spook Chasers" is about the third or forth movie made by the "Bowery Boys" in their previous incarnations as "The Dead End & East Side Kids" and "Little tough Guys" about ghosts in a haunted house and the plot is by now really getting a bit both boring and repetitive. What's worth watching in the movie is a number of new member of the cast that includes Blinky as the fifth, including Sach Duke Myron & Chuck, member of the gang. There's also the sickly and very excitable Mike Clancy-Percy Helton-replacing the late Louie Dumbrowsky-Bernard Gorcey-and his Bowery Sweet Shop with his Clancy Café. It's there that the boys spend most of their time mooching off on banana splits and ice cream sodas as well as reading, without paying for them, the newspapers and magazine.

***SPOILERS*** The movie has both Shelby & Dolly Owens try to buy back the Wee Willie Dolan house from Clancy who's not willing to sell it back to them even at twice the amount he paid for it. Dolly then tries to find out where the remaining money, from the bank robbery, is stashed by giving Sach spiked lemonade so he'd tell her where it's hidden. Which in fact Sach knows as less about where it's hid as she does. The film builds up to it's less then exciting climax with Snap Ziggie & Ernie having it out with the "Bowery Boys" in the haunted Dolan House. This while two ghosts, really live persons covered with bedsheets, try to scare he boys into showing them where the stolen money is hidden!

Of course it's Sach who found the first stash of cash, by using his head, who accidentally finds the second and far larger batch of stolen and hidden money by him going around in circles and finally hitting the jackpot! That's before the cops came on the scene lead by Lt. Harris played by the "Advantures of Superman" TV series actor Robert Shayne, as Inspector Henderson, who had in his one big scene by far the best line in the film!

late Bowery Boys

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 13 September 2022]

Diner owner Mike Clancy is told by his doctor to get some rest as the Bowery Boys cause general mayhem. Sach (Huntz Hall) tries to help but you know how that goes. A real estate agent and his assistant overhear their conversation and offer a country home for sale. The boys take Mike up to the place but it's a wreck. They try to fix up the place and end up finding hidden loot. The place was formerly owned by a gangster's widow and other gangsters come looking for their money. That's before the ghosts.

It's more of the same from Sach and the Bowery Boys. It's rather late in the franchise and I would think the audience of its time must be getting tired of it all. Aside from some new personnel, this is very much the same old stuff. It's not necessarily good but it's not actually a bad thing. You get what you expect.

A reprise of all the standard "haunted house" gags

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 31 December 2006]

For Bowery Boys addicts, this entry emerges as passable entertainment. The pace is fast enough to disguise the absence of the two leading Gorceys—Percy Helton makes a nice substitute for Louie—though the spooks make rather a late entrance and the sets are neither atmospherically designed nor photographed in true "haunted house" style.

Although George Blair's direction has little other than its paciness to recommend it, the players are noisy enough to keep audiences entertained. Dorothy Fields makes a most attractive villainess, while Huntz Hall runs through his usual routines as the bumble-footed Sach. His timing is sharper than usual, which is a help. Stanley Clements makes an effective straight man.

As with other films in this series, an anti-climactic little scene is tacked on after the final punch line (the disappearing ghost).

Bowery Boys #45

[Michael_Elliott · 27 March 2011]

Spook Chasers (1957)

** (out of 4)

The Bowery Boys must battle crooks when a real estate agent sells their friend Mike (Percy Helton) a rundown piece of land. The group end up finding money there, which draws the attention of a couple gangsters who plan on making the boys think the house is haunted so that they'll leave. Number forty-five in the series is a step-down compared to the previous film and you can't help but feel the screenwriters have gone to the well one time too many. The horror-comedy bit was something that the Bowery Boys hit upon countless times and dealing with gangsters was another plot point that they did countless times. There are a few nice jokes here, a great supporting cast but in the end there's just not enough laughs to make the film work. There are a couple good sequences and the ending is one of them as the pacing finally picks up as the boys are running from room to room trying to get away from the "ghosts" that are chasing them. There's a funny sequence early on where Sach has to wait on a table and the incident with the coffee was quite funny. Another good joke is when the group first finds the money. Sadly the screenplay doesn't offer much else as the characters just go through the motions and in the end it really doesn't add up to much. There are countless scenes where Sach proves what an idiot he is but this time it comes off rather annoying because he's just too stupid for his own good. Check out the sequence where he tries to fix a faulty drip and ends up ripping up the entire kitchen. Another example of seeing the same thing too much happens when the girl seduces him into giving out yet more information. This is something you could possible use over and over but I wish they would have at least changed it up a bit. As with the previous film, Huntz Hall and Stanley Clements actually do a nice job together as their chemistry is certainly starting to click. David Gorcey, Jimmy Murphy and Eddie LeRoy actually get more to do here and I thought Darlene Fields did a fine job as the sexy seducer. Helton clearly steals the show as the weak-hearted shop owner whose restaurant appears to be the same set that Louie's Sweetshop was at originally. Robert Shayne has a very funny cameo at the end.

Another entry from the Bowery Grandfathers

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 8 November 2011]

They aren't boys anymore. Leo Gorcey's gone, but Huntz Hall keeps going (just like the energizer bunny), and here he is dealing with gangsters again, as well as a new diner owner (replacing the late Bernard Gorcey) to give IOU's to. Somehow, Huntz and the boys end up renting a country home a gangster has hidden money in, which his cohorts can't find. All pretty familiar, but there are some extremely funny moments, including the initial discovery of the money. Hall's sch-tick is getting a bit tiresome, but the lack of respect he gets from the other "boys" (don't they know he's the sole survivor from "Dead End"?) is a bit unfair. Percy Helton is an amusing replacement for the late Gorcey, whose death lead to his son Leo's retirement due to the grief over dad's death. Helton's performance is a far cry from some of the sleazy roles he played in film noirs such as "The Set Up". The gag at the end is one of the funniest in all of the Bowery Boys movies, and has a nice twist.

"This looks like a spooks do-it-yourself kit!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 21 October 2016]

In this, the fourth Bowery Boys flick without Leo Gorcey, his absence is beginning to get felt. Stanley Clements doesn't have the same charisma (or lack of) as Gorcey's Slip Mahoney, nor does he have the same command of the English language. Although he does chime in with some of Slip's more memorable malapropisms from prior films, like 'nervous shakedown', 'financial typhoons' and 'optical delusions'. Coming from Clements it just doesn't sound the same.

This one starts out at Clancy's Café, the refurbished site of former Louie's Sweet Shop, with owner Mike Clancy the newest foil of the Bowery gang. Percy Helton has the right temperament and demeanor to replace Bernard Gorcey's Louie character, but I wasn't convinced that he had to actually buy the place he was going to, to take a vacation for some rest and relaxation. Speaking of which, when realtor Shelby (William Henry) made his rest home pitch to Clancy, he called it the Pine Crest, but the brochure he immediately handed him called it the Cedar Crest. I guess he got his trees mixed up.

With an outlaw gang determined to get the place back from Clancy and the Boys, the usual hi-jinks ensue for a picture with a title like "Spook Chasers". This time though, the prerequisite ghosts and goblins seem to conjure up the appearance of the kind of scary clowns that seem to persist in the culture today, some sixty or so years later. So you have to wonder if the Bowery Boys might have been subliminally influencing Stephen King when he wrote "It". But I wouldn't bet the ranch on that one, folks.

Speaking of future influences, how about Bowery Boy Blinky, portrayed here by Eddie LeRoy. It looked to me like he could have been the inspiration for a character in another apparition themed film to come around in 1984; he had a decidedly similar appearance to Rick Moranis in "Ghostbusters". I guess if you watch enough of this goofy stuff one is bound to come up with all sorts of comparisons like this.

Well if you go for this kind of lunacy, you'll get a kick out of Sach (Huntz Hall) and the boys in this one, even if this is the sixth (by my count) film to enter haunted house territory, dating all the way back to the East Side Kids days of the early Forties. I won't recount them all, loyal fans will know which ones I mean. If you're not watching them all in a row it won't make a bit of difference.

Ghost in the Machine

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 27 March 2011]

Now hanging out at "Clancy's Cafe" in New York City, "The Bowery Boys" are concerned about fatherly proprietor Percy Helton (as Mike Clancy), who has been ordered to get some rest and relaxation. Coincidently, crooked real estate agent Bill Henry (as Harry Shelby) and his busty companion Darlene Fields (as Dolly Owens) arrive to sell Mr. Helton a farmhouse in the country. Insuring that a lack of rest is in the offing, Helton takes "The Bowery Boys" with him to "Cedarcrest", which turns out to be falling apart, connected to gangsters, and possibly haunted!

With two decades behind them, and only three movies to go, "Spook Chasers" was the last time around for what was possibly the group's second most recycled storyline (give or take a few). Despite its frequency, this plot was never one of the Bowery's best.

"The Bowery Boys" herein are: Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones), Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie), David Gorcey (as Chuck), Jimmy Murphy (as Myron), and Eddie LeRoy (as Blinky). Although his assignment did not last, Mr. Helton was a better replacement for Bernard Gorcey's "Louie" than Mr. Clements was for Leo Gorcey. Also note, with his brother and father gone, David Gorcey no longer uses his "Condon" surname. And, this was the first appearance for bespectacled Mr. LeRoy, who would stay for the remaining films.

*** Spook Chasers (6/2/57) George Blair ~ Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Percy Helton, Darlene Fields

A Pale Imitation of the Series at it's heights

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 27 March 2011]

This particular post Gorcey Bowery Boys film is distinguished by having Stanley Clements adopt Leo Gorcey's gift for the malaprop without the same humor. It also is an attempt to use character actor Percy Helton as the proprietor of a Bowery diner as a substitute for Bernard Gorcey. Spook Chasers is just a pale imitation of the series at its height.

A couple of sharp real estate agents unload a lemon of a house on poor Helton who has been prescribed a nice country rest. But the joke gets turned on them when it turns out a whole lot of stolen loot from a former gang boss is found by the Bowery Boys and Helton. Now gangster Peter Mamakos is after it as well as the agents William Henry and Darlene Fields.

Some good bits are in this especially when Fields decides to vamp poor Sach and gets him drunk in the process. Also Sach manages to wreck and mix up all the house utilities in a bit lifted from Abbott&Costello.

The title Spook Chasers comes from the gangsters efforts to frighten the boys away with ghosts as a last gambit. Still it was all done before in this series and elsewhere.

Spook Chasers

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 15 October 2016]

This go-around, Sach and the Bowery Boys (only David Gorcey, of the usual accompaniment of Gorceys, is part of the gang, which includes chisel-chin Stanley Clements and Eddie Leroy (in think-lens glasses yet cannot see!)) encounter the mob and a crooked real estate agent/assistant team while staying at a supposed haunted farmhouse in the country. Huntz Hall, with his litany of goofy expressions thanks to his elastic face and active eyes, once again goes for broke as the bubble-headed dolt literally headbutting a wall causing a cache of cash to shower all over him from a hiding place behind a painting! Poor café owner, Percy Helton, is in need of a vacation, primarily because of the Bowery Boys (!), when the doc tells him his health is in jeopardy. Enter rotten real estate agent, Jimmy Murphy, and his bombshell secretary (Darlene Fields), seizing on the opportunity to take advantage of Helton, selling him a dump which looks like a palace in their misleading brochure. Soon the Bowery Boys and Helton go to the farmhouse and see for themselves what the café owner blew his savings on…cob-webbed, with doors coming off their hinges, tables breaking apart, and faucets leaking, this property is in need of serious repairs, or maybe a demolition. When the gang use some of the found stolen money to pay off the property, the agent and secretary, along with the house's former owner's mob associates, have a vested interest in investigating for *more* cash….as does Helton and Bowery Boys who turn down the chance to have the property bought back from them. The ghosts are obviously tricksters under bed sheets and skull novelty Halloween masks, but there is the bed that is pulled into a wall and a bookcase that rotates adding to the house's "personality". I don't think there is anything in this film you haven't seen before, although Huntz, to his credit, isn't deterred by the tired haunted house comedy formula (or the "house in disrepair" comedy), mugging to his heart's content. His attempted painting of a birdie in a clock and repair of the leaky faucet are desperately begging for laughs, but maybe there will be some who respond in kind. Like a lot of slapsticky physical comedy, "Spook Chasers" finds plenty of time for bodies pummeled by objects, villains running around trying to catch their intended victims, folks falling over furniture, a melee of fists flying (and often missing) and people trying to keep from getting hit among other scuffling and tripping make up a large majority of the running time. If you are a Bowery Boys fan, this is liable to entertain you a bit more than others…and it wants so badly to entertain you. Huntz' spiked lemonaide as Fields uses her feminine wiles to get the dirt on the found money might be a highlight if just because she's so luminous in her evening attire which accentuates her figure. No offence to Clements—who is always ready to blow a gasket because Huntz is such a clumsy and dysfunctional goof—but Leo Gorcey's absence is noticeable. My favorite gag: Clements' unfortunate cup of joe and sandwich mishap due to Leroy's clumsiness with some black paint and the paintbrush.

A-Haunting We Will Go!

[hollywwood · 10/10 · 29 September 2007]

I really enjoyed this Bowery Boys caper "Spook Chasers". In it, Sach (Huntz Hall), Duke (Stanley Clements) and the rest of the boys accompany sweet shop owner Mike Calncy (Percey Hilton) to his newly acquired country home "Cedarcrest". Upon arriving, they discover that the dwelling is nothing more than a ramshackled old farmhouse. Furthermore, it's haunted! Or is it? Gangsters start to figure prominently in the proceedings (sort of like in Abbott and Costello's "Hold That Ghost"). I must say that Stanley Clements was likable as Leo Gorcey's replacement in the series. He had appeared in one of the early East Side Kids movies "Ghosts on the Loose" (1943) and then stayed away from the gang until 1957 (when Leo Gorcey left the series). Gorcey's brother, David, is here as Chuck. He had been one of "the boys" since the East Side Kids series (featuring Leo Gorcey) had commenced at Monogram in 1940. It's too bad that the film "Spook Chasers" is rarely seen. It would be nice to see these later Bowery Boys films, which were made by Allied Artists, get released on DVD.

You know it's not prime viewing material when it's a post-Leo and Bernard Gorcey picture.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 10 November 2016]

Following the death of Bernard Gorcey ('Louie') in a traffic accident, his son, Leo ('Slip'), decided he'd had enough and retired from The Bowery Boys. After all, he'd completed 40 films in the series as well as those made with previous incarnations (such as the East Side Kids). However, instead of just allowing the series to die, the studio was apparently greedy and decided to make seven more pictures! However, the chemistry isn't there and the film highlight Huntz Hall alone....with Stanley Clements ('Duke') playing a Slip- like character and Percy Helton ('Mike') playing what was essentially Louie's part. Because this is a late Bowery Boys film, it's one of these third-rate imitations of a second-rate series.

When the film begins, Mike is told by his doctor to retire as his job at the cafe is killing him. However, he unwisely buys a place sight unseen and it turns out to be a termite-trap! He's furious...until they discover a hidden treasure in this craptastic home. However, Mike and the gang are idiots...and the fact that they AREN'T angry about being swindled makes the crooks suspicious. Plus, the Boss says he wants that property back...as some loot is hidden there! So, as we've already seen in MANY Bowery Boys films, it becomes a haunted house flick with baddies trying, yet again, to scare the boys away from the place. Talk about unoriginal!

The chemistry just isn't right---and I would say that about ALL the later Bowery Boys films. While I am not a huge Leo and Bernard Gorcey fan, they were what everyone associates with the films...not just Huntz Hall and his idiot act. B-movie series like this and the Ma and Pa Kettle films being continued AFTER losing one of the leads is, perhaps, a way to squeeze a few dimes off a moribund series...but it seriously short-changes the audience. Not worth your time.

Huntz needs more help than Stanley Clements.

[horn-5 · 17 April 2006]

Hanging out in Mike Clancy's (Percy Helton) diner, the Bowery Boys are engaged in their usual loafing sessions; Sach (Huntz Hall) works on a puzzle book; Duke (Stanley Clements) chows down on Clancy's Iris stew special, and Myron (Jimmy Murphy), Chuck (David Gorcey) and Blinky (Eddie LeRoy)are looking at the pictures in the eatery's library of comic books.

Two diner, real-estate agent Harry Shelby (Bill Henry)and his assistant, Dolly Owens (Darlene Fields), hear that Mike has been ordered by his doctor to take a long rest in the country. They sell him "Cedar Crest," -a paradise in the mountains---which actually had been a robber's hideout. Mike and the Bowery Boys move to the place and find a dilapidated farmhouse. While doing repairs, they find a secret compartment containing new banknotes. Thinking they have found a recluse's treasure, they pay off the mortgage on Cedar Crest.

This draws the attention of three hoodlums, Snap (Peter Mamakos), Ziggie (Ben Welden) and Ernie (Robert Christopher), who order Shelby to buy back the place. Sach, Duke and Mike refuse the offer, even when told the place is haunted. Meanwhile Dolly has vamped Sach---an easy task---into revealing how they got the money to pay off the mortgage, and she and Shelby devise a plan of their own of obtaining the house with many greenbacks in deposit.

A few nights later, the six residents find themselves harassed by a pair of phantom-like goons, and attacked by three loot-hungry gangsters.

"What a nice place to grow poison ivy."

[utgard14 · 4/10 · 2 November 2016]

The Bowery Boys get mixed up with gangsters in an old dark house in this tired entry, the forty-fifth in the series. Humpbacked Percy Shelton plays the cafe owner Mike, yet another attempt to replace the irreplaceable Bernard Gorcey. I like him in many other roles but he's not quite the right fit for the exasperated old gentleman that has to put up with the boys' hijinks. Huntz Hall does OK but he continues to be 'off' without Leo Gorcey. He just doesn't have the same chemistry with boring Stanley Clements and he seems to be trying too hard with the constant mugging for the camera. David Gorcey and Jimmy Murphy are their usual forgettable selves. Eddie LeRoy also joins the gang as Blinky. He makes no impression. Darlene Fields plays the obligatory eye candy. It's a comedy but it's not very much fun. The haunted house gags are worn-out and, at this point, Sach making stupid faces just isn't cutting it anymore.

another chapter, minus leo and his dad

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 12 March 2023]

The bowery boys, minus the owner of the franchise, leo gorcey, and his dad bernard. Bernard had died in an odd car accident in 1955, and leo made his last bowery film in 1956, crashing las vegas. In spook chasers, when mike and the guys buy a ramshackle house, they think it's a big money pit. But when the previous owners decide they want the house back, things begin to go wrong. And why do they really want it back? The usual wacky bowery boys shenanigans, but without the word play and slip's leadership, it's definitely a weaker story. They only made a couple more after this. Directed by george blair. He had directed a bunch of superman works. The bowery boys had also made "spook busters in 1946.

Just not the same

[buddydavis · 3/10 · 14 September 2022]

I wanted to love this movie, like all the other Bowry Boys featuring Leo Gorcy, but the spark is simply not there. The storyline was good as well as the script itself, the direction was good, and the rest of the cast were good but without Gorcy it just did not have the timing or spark that Gorcy would inject. Not to say that Huntley didn't do a good job, but its almost like he tried too hard to not be a Gorcy standin all the while essentially being a better-looking and younger Gorcy wannabe. The entire time I kept thinking what a treat this could have been if only....oh well, see what you think....

Much like the other Bowery Boys movies I have seen: crap!

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 1 July 2019]

If you're a fan of The Bowery Boys' particular brand of madcap humour, then you'll probably enjoy this one despite the fact that it a) closely follows the format of several of their other films, and b) it doesn't feature chief Bowery Boy Leo Gorcey (although that's not a big loss in my opinion). On the other hand, if like me you find their knockabout antics hugely irritating, then Spook Chasers isn't going to change your opinion about the 'boys': it's got the same lame jokes as before (Stanley Clements taking over Leo Gorcey's malapropisms), the same dumb slapstick, the same corny villains, and Huntz Hall doing his same old gormless moron routine. I hated every stupid minute of it.

The stale plot sees cafe owner Mike Clancy (Percy Helton) being conned by realtors Harry Shelby (William Henry) and Dolly Owens (Darlene Fields) into buying dilapidated property Cedarcrest, previously a robber's hideout. Together with Horace Debussy 'Sach' Jones and his pals, Mike drives to the old dump and starts to fix the place up. Hilarity ensues as Sach gets the plumbing and electrics mixed up and short-sighted Blinky (Eddie LeRoy) accidentally dips his paintbrush in someone else's mug of coffee (yes folks, that's comedy gold right there!). Eventually, Sach does a pratfall, lands on a tea trolley and crashes into a wall, causing a painting to fall and reveal a stash of cash.

Meanwhile, Shelby is approached by gangster Snap Sizzolo (Peter Mamakos), who wants to buy Cedarcrest, knowing that there is a fortune somewhere in the house. Clancy won't sell, so Shelby and Owens decide to try and scare him and the boys into leaving, dressing up as ghosts. More hilarity ensues as the Bowery Boys are tricked into thinking the place is haunted, the shysters using a variety of hidden passageways, revolving bookcases and disappearing beds to achieve the effect (it's amazing what hidden features you can find in a criminal's hideout). Eventually, Snap and his men also turn up to use brute force, but are foiled by the boys and the timely arrival of the police.

I found the whole thing childish, predictable, and wearisome, and can honestly say that I didn't crack a smile the whole way through.

2.5/10, rounded up to 3 for the lovely Darlene Fields, who helped make things a little less painful.

SPOOKY HOUSES & THE BOWERY BOYS

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 13 September 2022]

There's something about those old black and white movies, especially around Halloween, or at least late at night. Although Leo Gorcey left the series a year earlier, SPOOK CHASERS is still a funny Bowery Boys episode. Huntz Hall is Huntz Hall, and goofier than ever, this time with Stanley Clements (who actually went back to the early days of the EAST SIDE KIDS in the 1940s.) Clements is not Gorcey, but he's ok with malaprops and in a way more of a straight man to loony Hall, much like Abbott was to Costello; at least he's smart enough to let Hall get clobbered by the ghosts. The old cobwebbed haunted house setting has its moments, similar to the THREE STOOGES at times, especially with Hall acting like Shemp and fixing the plumbing! An added treat is veteran Percy Helton as exasperated Mike, the owner of the sweet shop. Louie (Bernard Gorcey) still is missed.

See for the memories, especially all us big kids who grew up watching the gang. WARNER BROTHERS BOX SET dvd.