Spook Chasers (1957)
** (out of 4)
The Bowery Boys must battle crooks when a real estate agent sells their friend Mike (Percy Helton) a rundown piece of land. The group end up finding money there, which draws the attention of a couple gangsters who plan on making the boys think the house is haunted so that they'll leave. Number forty-five in the series is a step-down compared to the previous film and you can't help but feel the screenwriters have gone to the well one time too many. The horror-comedy bit was something that the Bowery Boys hit upon countless times and dealing with gangsters was another plot point that they did countless times. There are a few nice jokes here, a great supporting cast but in the end there's just not enough laughs to make the film work. There are a couple good sequences and the ending is one of them as the pacing finally picks up as the boys are running from room to room trying to get away from the "ghosts" that are chasing them. There's a funny sequence early on where Sach has to wait on a table and the incident with the coffee was quite funny. Another good joke is when the group first finds the money. Sadly the screenplay doesn't offer much else as the characters just go through the motions and in the end it really doesn't add up to much. There are countless scenes where Sach proves what an idiot he is but this time it comes off rather annoying because he's just too stupid for his own good. Check out the sequence where he tries to fix a faulty drip and ends up ripping up the entire kitchen. Another example of seeing the same thing too much happens when the girl seduces him into giving out yet more information. This is something you could possible use over and over but I wish they would have at least changed it up a bit. As with the previous film, Huntz Hall and Stanley Clements actually do a nice job together as their chemistry is certainly starting to click. David Gorcey, Jimmy Murphy and Eddie LeRoy actually get more to do here and I thought Darlene Fields did a fine job as the sexy seducer. Helton clearly steals the show as the weak-hearted shop owner whose restaurant appears to be the same set that Louie's Sweetshop was at originally. Robert Shayne has a very funny cameo at the end.
