Sadly Over-hyped

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Earlier this year, I had watched the East Side Kids' horror/comedy Boys of the City. So this one is in the same vein with the added attraction of Bela Lugosi to provide the atmospheric flavor. I remember enjoying the earlier one but this one had me partly bored since it took a while before Bela showed up and I didn't notice too many wisecracks from the kids during most of the narrative. In fact, whatever funny lines and scenes there were came mostly from Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison doing a patented scared Negro stereotype caricature but not in too demeaning a manner. There's also some nice scares near the end and I also liked the final scene. So on that note, Spooks Run Wild is at the least, worth a look for fans of the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi.

Bela Lugosi's eyes could haunt a house even if he didn't charge for it, as comic Groucho Marxx once said (supposedly to Lugosi's rival Boris Karloff) and here, Lugosi gets to go up against the most dangerous opponent he had since Van Helsing: the Bowery Boys! O.K., so this was a part of their "East Side Kids" days, but whether Dead End Kids, East End, or Bowery, they are still the same, comically utilizing malapropisms every chance they get and driving everybody around them crazy with their non-conformist ways. Now they are being taken on a summer vacation to the country, and what do they do? Escape from their chaperone's and head into a local cemetery where one of them gets shot. So where do they go for help? A mysterious large house up in the hills where the dwarf (Angelo Rossito) opens the door to them. How convenient that the new owner Lugosi had time to install a door knob that the diminutive Rossito could reach and that the little man actually had the strength to open it.So reality is never a requirement when you've got Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Sammy Morrison and the others around. It's all about the gags, and here, the spooky nature of the plot adds some very comical ones, whether it be a candle that follows the unsuspecting nearby or lots of secret passages and a set that looks like it could have been made for Dracula's castle. The plot concerns a fiend on the loose who is rumored to be of a supernatural nature (what kind of supernatural creature is never mentioned, but hints of being a vampire or wolf man are mentioned), and of course, Lugosi (whose car is pulling three coffins) is the main suspect. Lugosi is the polite, perfect host, but the boys all realize that something is amiss and plot to take him down.It's all innocent fun, wrapped up in just over an hour, and perfectly entertaining. Lugosi would go on to do one more feature with the boys ("Ghosts on the Loose"), but this is definitely the better of the two. It is interesting to note that the best Bowery Boys movies were always those that had a fantasy element to the story. In this one, they also seem to be at an appropriate age, which considering that the series would continue for another 16 years makes this more realistic, at least on that level.

Spooks Run Wild (1941) * 1/2 (out of 4)The East Side Kids get into trouble once again so a councilor decides to take them on a trip for two weeks to get away from the city. They end up in a small town and decide to walk away from shelter and end up in a creepy haunted castle with a strange man (Bela Lugosi) inside.SPOOKS RUN WILD isn't a very good movie as it does very little "right" but at the same time I must admit that I watch it quite often because there's just something rather charming about it. Seeing The East Side Kids mix it up with Bela Lugosi should have made for a much better movie but it's obvious this was made on the cheap and very quickly. I'm sure most of the scenes here could have done better but they weren't really going for quality but instead something to get onto movie screens quick.I think the greatest thing the film offers is Lugosi in a very colorful performance. I'm sure he was probably wondering why he had to appear in something like this but the actor still gave it his all and delivered a rather fun performance. Just check out the highlight of the picture when Lugosi goes to complete terror when a skeleton is coming after him. So much energy and passion can be seen here, which is something only Lugosi could deliver. The rest of the cast are good in their roles but there's no question that the screenplay didn't give them much to work with.Again, SPOOKS RUN WILD is a pretty poor movie. The dialogue is rather weak and there's no question that there's not too much to the actual story. Still, if you're a fan of Lugosi then it's pretty much worth watching just for his performance alone.

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)?