Search - Spooks Run Wild (1941) [Remastered Edition] on DVD

East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi for the first time.

James McDonald | Southern California | 03/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The East Side boys make more trouble again. Usually they are sent back to reform school. But this time they are put in a bus and taken to a small town. At a soda fountain shoppe, they hear on the radio that a "monster" killer is on the loose. The boys have a room to sleep in at the camp. At a gas station, Bela Lugosi as "Nardo" (Dracula (75th Anniversary Edition) (Universal Legacy Series) [1931]) comes to town with his midget assistant, "Luigi" (Angelo Rossitto). They are looking for the Billings Estate. The gas station attendent says no one has been there since the killings ten years ago. Later, the gas station attendant meets Dr. Von Grosch (Dennis Moore). He tells the doctor he knows who he is and that he is looking for the "monster" killer. The man up ahead is the monster killer. The gas staion attendent keeps the secret of Von Grosch being in town. The boys go roamin' and they come across the graveyard at the Billings Estate. They are taken into the estate and there they meet the killer. They must stay in this spooky manor overnight. They want to get back to the camp, but they can't leave Pee Wee (played by David Gorcey, Leo's brother) who is under a spell. This is one of the more entertaining and popular films of the series.
Next film in the series is: Mr. Wise Guy (1942)(1943).
In this his last feature film, Donald Haines ("Pee Wee"/ "Skinny") enlisted as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps on December 10, 1941. He was in World War II. They believe he was killed in action on February 20, 1943.
Bela Lugosi returned in East Side Kids - Ghosts on the Loose (1943).
Bela Lugosi with dwarf Angelo Rossitto later appeared in Scared to Death (1947)."

Lugosi vs. the Kids

Ned | Eldersburg, Maryland United States | 06/13/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here we have Bela Lugosi in a horror/comedy movie with the East Side Kids. The Kids are sent to a summer camp where they learn about a monster killer that is loose in the area. While passing through a cemetery, late at night, one of them is shot and they seek help at an old house where Bela, as Nardo - dressed in his Dracula outfit, is a magician who terrorizes the Kids.The quality of the DVD is fair."

FUN BECAUSE OF BELA

Tim Janson | Michigan | 09/29/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There isn't much middle ground when if comes to opinions on the east side kids/Bowery Boys. People seem to love them or hate them. I've always been a fan since I was a kid and a local channel used to show one of their movies every Saturday afternoon.

Spooks Run Wild is the first meeting of the Kids and Bela Lugosi. The second being Ghosts on the Loose. In it..the kids are travelling to a camp out in the sticks where the "monster killer" just happens to be on the loose.

The kids sneak out of their cabin in the middle of the night to walk into town. Cutting through a cemetary Pee wee is shot with buckshot by a night watchman. The rest of the boys carry pee wee to a mysterious old mansion on top of a hill.

The mansion just happens to be home of Bela Lugosi (Nardo the Magician)and his midget assistant Luigi (played by Freaks star Angelo Rossitto).

Well as you might expect the kids run wild throughout the mysterious mansion, hiding out from Lugosi who they are convinced is the killer.

Along the way there's the usual slapstick humor that the kids are known for with Muggs (Leo Gorcey) bossing around the rest of the group. Scruno (Sammy Morrison)steals as he does in ghosts on the Loose with his wide-eyed panic routine.

Of course, Lugosi would turn out to be (once again) the red-herring and the real killer is later revealed as the kids save the day and catch the fiend.

Good fun and just over an hour so it's not a great commitment. Lugosi is his usual menacing self who somehow doesn't remember to tell the kids he's a magician just to make it even more menacing."

Rare Lugosi Comedy

Arthur | America | 05/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At a certain point in his career Bela Lugosi decided that he would take any film that came his way and Spooks Run Wild is a strong example of this.

What you get is a teen summer camp comedy that sticks Lugosi in as a strage ghost/monster/madman as a way to bring the rest of the comedie clips together.

This film is definantly geared towards children with Lugosi stuck in as a name star to draw parents along with them.

Watching it today, it's the sections that were meant to be serious that are the most hilarious and campy, while the orignal jokes fall flat (as they must have even back in 1941.)

Overall a good unusual genre piece."