The 45th Bowery Boys film, Spook Chasers, epitomizes the changes to the series after Leo Gorcey's departure. This time, the overgrown boys, now headed by Huntz Hall's Sach and Stanley Clements' Duke, help a friend restore a dilapidated farmhouse. When they discover a pile of money hidden in the walls, they don't realize it's the loot from a bank robbery, but the bank robbers do. Before long, the crooks are trying to convince them the house is haunted. The plot is similar to Abbott and Costello's Hold That Ghost (1941), but it's still fun to see the gang running from ghosts and crooks. Hall's drunk scene, when a femme fatale tries to find out where they found the money, is a delight. With the death of Gorcey's father, Bernard, the Bowery Boys lost their usual hang-out, the malt shop his character ran. For a while, stories focused on the boarding house where they all lived. With this entry, however, they moved to the Clancy Café, run by Mike Clancy (Percy Helton). This would be Helton's only appearance as Mike. He was replaced by Dick Elliott in the final three films.

By Frank Miller