Bela Lugosi had battled Van Helsing, befriended Frankenstein's Monster and bitten The Wolf Man. By 1941, what was left? Only the most horrifying confrontation of all - the East Side Kids, who were the real stars of Spooks Run Wild (1941).

By 1941 Lugosi was almost 59-years old and parts in Universal Studio horror pictures, such as his gypsy werewolf at the beginning of The Wolf Man (1941), were getting smaller and smaller. Looking for better opportunities offering more screen time, Lugosi signed with the Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures in early 1941 and was soon starring in Invisible Ghost (1941). The few who reviewed it thought it was poor but the audience for Monogram Pictures did not read reviews. The year was just half over when Lugosi was rushed into his next assignment.

Bela's co-stars, The East Side Kids, went through several names and types of movies in their long career. Starting out as the stoop dwellers in Samuel Goldwyn's high-class drama Dead End (1937), they then moved to Warner Brothers becoming The Dead End Kids in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and They Made Me a Criminal (1939). By the early 1940's they moved to Monogram where their name was changed to The East Side Kids and their movies from dramas to slapstick comedies. Later they changed names, if not styles, again, becoming The Bowery Boys.

Apparently Lugosi had a much higher opinion of himself than his co-stars. Arthur Lennig, in his book The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi, reports that East Side Kid Huntz Hall asked Bela, "Well, Mr. Lugosi, what do you think of the Bowery Boys?" Lugosi raised his eyebrows theatrically and replied, "Scum!"

Lugosi probably did not think much of the script either, little suspecting he was reading the words of a future Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Spooks Run Wild was the first credited screen play for Carl Foreman who would go on to write such classics as High Noon (1952), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). He also later became blacklisted during the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigations for fear that he would indoctrinate Americans by injecting movies with Communist propaganda. Viewers with active imaginations are encouraged to detect whether Bela Lugosi or Huntz Hall became unwitting mouthpieces for Stalin's insidious plans.

Director: Phil Rosen
Producer: Sam Katzman
Writers: Carl Foreman, Charles R. Marion
Cinematography: Marcel Le Picard
Art director: Fred Preble
Musical directors: Johnny Lange, Lew Porter
Editor: Robert Golden
Cast: Bela Lugosi (Nardo), Leo Gorcey (Muggs), Bobby Jordan (Danny), Huntz Hall (Glimpy), Sunshine Sammy Morrison (Scruno), Dave O'Brien (Jeff Dixon).
BW-65 min.

by Brian Cady