Customer Reviews

Bowery Boys: Ghost Chasers [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Dead End Kids begot the East Side Kids. And the East Side Kids begot the Bowery Boys. This Grade B comedy from the early '50s has the charm of a bygone era. Our heroes, overage juvenile delinquent clowns in silly hats, hang around Louie's sweet shop with no visible means of support. They run up IOUs for banana splits and root beer floats. The gang's greatest talent is to find creative ways to get into trouble. In this outing Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey), "Sach" (Huntz Hall), and the boys try to stop a fake spirit-medium gang from bilking sweet old ladies of their money. The laughs are low brow, but what they lack in quality, they gain in quantity. Slip mangles the English language as he uses big words incorrectly. Sach rolls his eyes and has more spastic body movements than a nervous dog with active fleas. In the hierarchy of classic comics, if we place the Marx Brothers at the top and work our way down, the Bowery Boys would be on the level just below the Three Stooges. These modest little comedies are targeted at a "kiddies" audience. Although today's high-tech kids will probably look askance at the silly antics, the film will please both nostalgia fans and viewers searching for "G" type fun to share with the family. Nothing sophisticated about this little movie, just sit back and enjoy the nonsense.

This is the 22nd film in he Bowery Boys film series. They began with DEAD END (1937) as the Dead End Kids and then later as The East Side Kids. In 1946, they became the Bowery Boys for 48 more films from 1946-1958. We saw some of the boys, now men, grow up from teenagers in Dead End (1937) to being in their 30's. For the Bowery Boys film series, unfortunatly, their is only six films available on VHS , but rumor is that all of them will soon be available in public domain. In this review, I will list the approx. age of the main Bowery Boys cast. Leo Gorcey 36, Huntz Hall 31, William Benedict 34, David Gorcey 30. Huntz, Bill and David are interested in the supernatural. They try to hold a seance in the backroom of Louie's shop. But of course, the joke is on Huntz and David. Later, Huntz and Bill go to a United Mediums of greater New York seance. Tonight, Margo the Medium trys to summons the spirit of Leonardi. While the performance is going on, a real nice 17th Century ghost, Edgar Smith, appears to us and tells the viewer he has plans of ending this quackery. Probably the most delightful ghost picture and more enjoyable of all the gang's films.

I have been a fan of the Bowery Boys for many years and this is the one movie I have been looking for for several years. I was hoping for DVD but VHS was fine.

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***THIS IS THE BEST BOWERY BOYS MOVIE IN THE SERIES****I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR IT FOR YEARS****I WATCHED IT YEARS AGO UP NORTH IN MICHIGAN DURING A LUNCH BREAK WHILE SNOWMOBILING***GOOD MEMORIES***