Spooks Run Wild *** (1941, Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall) – Classic Movie Review 5665

Director Phil Rosen’s spoofy 1941 horror comedy film stars a spooky Bela Lugosi as Nardo, the  owner of a creepy old mansion, who brings chills to the spines of the East Side Kids – Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Danny (Bobby Jordan) and Glimpy (Huntz Hall) – in the supposedly haunted house.

The comedy generates a fair amount of good lighthearted fun, with plenty of amusing gags, all thrown together in a great hurry with a low budget by producer Sam Katzman at Monogram Pictures. Thanks partly to Lugosi’s amusing turn as Nardo the monster, this is one of the boys’ best films. It is the seventh of the 22 East Side Kids series of films.

Also in the cast are Sunshine Sammy [Ernest] Morrison as Scruno, Donald Haines, Dave O’Brien, Dorothy Short, David Gorcey, Dennis Moore, P J Kelly, Angelo Rossitto, Guy Wilkerson, Jack Carr, Pat Costello, Joe Kirk and Rosemary Portis.

It is written by Carl Foreman, Jack Henley and Charles R Marion, shot in black and white by Marcel Le Picard, scored by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter, and designed by Fred Preble.

Lugosi also co-starred in the 1943 East Side Kids effort Ghosts on the Loose.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5665

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