Product Details

• Actors: Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Ernest Morrison
• Directors: Phil Rosen
• Writers: Carl Foreman, Charles R. Marion, Jack Henley
• Producers: Pete Mayer, Sam Katzman
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Timeless Multimedia
• VHS Release Date: September 6, 1994
• Run Time: 65 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303250777
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,966 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Taking cognizance of the Halloween season, Monogram's Bela Lugosi and the East Side Kids yesterday played hob with hobgoblins and a script which must have been the distillate of some addled witch's brew. The sum total as represented in "Spooks Run Wild," which opened at the Central, is less horror than horrible. With situations aparently borrowed from the better known chillers, Mr. Lugosi is, by turns, a necromancer, a murderer and a magician. The kids, extrovert recruits from the Dead End school, are supplied with all the appropriate thriller appurtenances from the old creaky mansion where they are loosed to the graveyard, sliding panels and coffin-filled attic. And, of course, they intermittently cringe before the baleful gleam in Mr. Lugosi's eyes.

Perhaps the whole business is supposed to be as authentic as a papier-mâché skeleton. Anyway, in this case, it's not the spooks who are wild. --The New York Times

From the Actor

A Hollywood icon of considerable note, the Russian-born Phil Rosen came to America as a child and never looked back. He proved his acumen with such black-and-white masterpieces as The Young Rajah (with legendary heartbreaker Rudolph Valentino) Beggars in Ermine, Two Wise Maids and the inspiring biopic Abraham Lincoln. The film Spooks Run Wild was a daring experiment in unusual casting and theme that paid off very well indeed at the box office.

THE PLOT: Evil is afoot at Hillside, an under-populated town where a bunch of underprivileged juvenile delinquents, led by Muggs (Leo Gorcey) are brought to attend summer camp. There are reports of a bloodsucking monster on the loose in this one-horse-and-buggy town, and three people have already been drained to death. But the disgruntled degenerates aren’t worried - escaping from the camp is more of a priority. Jeff Dixon (David O’Brien) is highly disturbed over being put in charge of this bunch. He had been hoping for a quiet vacation at Hillside so that he can write his Law thesis. His fiancée, Nurse Linda Mason (Dorothy Short) is out of her mind with boredom. On the scene arrive the sinister Nardo (Bela Lugosi) and his weird midget sidekick Luigi (Angelo Rossitto) with inquiries about the ill-omened Billings Estate, with Dr. Van Grosch (Dennis Moore) hot on his heels. Meanwhile, the wild bunch from summer camp encounters misfortune while taking a shortcut though the local graveyard. Young Peewee (David Gorcey) is shot by the sexton, and they seek help at the brooding Billings Mansion - right into the hospitable clutches of evil Nardo! While Jeff Dixon and Nurse Mason are looking high and low for the missing group, Peewee turns into a zombie. The gang is forced to incapacitate Nardo and Luigi to comb the mansion for their missing friend. But, bad as they already are, things are not as they seem at Billings Mansion. Can you bear finding out the truth?

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi for the first time., March 16, 2004

By 

James McDonald (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Side Kids - Spooks Run Wild (DVD)

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).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lugosi vs. the Kids, June 13, 2002

By 

Ned "java_ned" (Eldersburg, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Side Kids - Spooks Run Wild (DVD)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare Lugosi Comedy, May 2, 2006

By 

Arthur (America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spooks Run Wild (1941) [Remastered Edition] (DVD)

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.