FORMAT: DVD (REWATCH)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(As posted on February 7th, 2008)
The East Side Kids/Bowery Boys were always best when they had real talent to play off of. When they worked for Warner Brothers studios, the boys starred alongside the likes of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and John Garfield. When they were relegated to the poverty row Monogram studios, the biggest star they could get was Bela Lugosi. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see a Lugosi movie than anything Bogart was in.
Lugosi plays Nardo, a vampire like “monster” who hangs out in a decrepit mansion in the middle of nowhere along with his midget sidekick (Angelo Rossitto). The boys stumble upon the mansion and have to stay the night. Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall) and Danny (Bobby Jordan) contend with giant spiders, floating skulls and suits of armor that move around all by themselves. In the end, we learn Lugosi is really a swell guy after all and he helps the boys capture the “real” monster.
Lugosi isn’t given a whole lot to do, but he’s as fun to watch as always. He returned to the series two years later for Ghosts on the Loose. Spooks Run Wild isn’t as fun as that flick, but to me, any movie in which Rossitto plays Lugosi’s sidekick is automatically worth checking out. Dave O’Brien co-stars as the boys’ guardian. He also starred with Lugosi in The Devil Bat the previous year.
Scruno (“Sunshine” Sammy Morrison), the token black Kid of the group gets the movie’s best line: “If I’m yellow, then you’re color blind!”
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