Reviews (8)

East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi for the first time.
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 aroom to sleep in at the camp. At a gas station, Bela Lugosi as "Nardo" (Dracula [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 he series is: MR. WISE GUY (1943). The East Side Kids "Spooks Run Wild", Donald Haines was in World War II. It is not known if he was Missing In Action or died.

BAD DVD
i bought this dvd [SPOOKS RUN WILD] and another [KID DYNAMITE] from alpha video and these dvd's would not play at all. i was very disappointed and will not buy any products from ALPHA again.

Excellent spook classic!
Once again the boys (East Side Kids/Bowery Boys/Dead End Kids) hit the target on the bullseye. I remember seeing Spooks Run Wild on late night T.V. when I was younger. I was waiting up to see the classic Cushing/Price/Lee (Hammer mostly) films that came on late on Friday nights (I believe it was Night Flight)....once upon a time. I didnt get what I expected, instead I got this comedy that cracked me up. It reminded me of The Three Stooges/Abbott & Costello/Little Rascals........with a spooky twist. I've always loved those old horror comedies.......the way they show fear is always a winner. Hopefully Roan Group (Yep, Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame....Toxic Avenger for the Lamen) will re-release this one as well, like Ghosts On The Loose. It will be more expensive, however like all of the Roan/Troma releases it will be packed with quality & extras. Fun for the whole family!

Campy, harmless fun
This entry in the Eastside Kids series finds the boys at a country summer camp for inner-city troublemakers. One of them gets hurt and they wind up in a house "haunted" by Bela Lugosi.
Production values are low (typical Monogram) but the fun factor is high as Bela chases the boys around for 2 or 3 reels until the rather disappointing finale.
Best for fans of the Eastside Kids/Bowery Boys or Bela Lugosi but B-movie fans should also enjoy it.

Good poverty row comedy
Lugosi plays it straight and the Boys ham it up. Just what you'd xpect. Good fun ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The East Side Kids get into horseracing.
Well, the East Side Boys finally made it out of the haunted mansion in BOYS OF THE CITY (1940). They are suppose to be painting a wall in town, but Leo Gorcey has decided he wants to be a jockey. Knuckles (Dave O'Brien) and Algy (Eugene Francis) must keep an eye on this gang to make sure they finish the job. They made a mess of it, so Knuckles told them to go hide at there old stable hang-out. The boys decide to race a throughbred they own called, Blue Knight. If Seabiscuit could win and make money for everyone, so could Blue Knight. After all, the horse is from Kentucky. Guess who they train to be the stable jockey? Muggs. The boys are: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Sunshine Sammy Morrison, David Gorcey (Leo's younger brother) and Donald Haines. The next films are: PRIDE OF THE BOWERY (1941), FLYING WILD (1941), BOWERY BLITZKRIEG (1941).

The movie is good but the print could be better
This 1940 East Side Kids movie is one of the very first in Monogram Pictures' long-running series (which eventually became The Bowery Boys). These early entries stress rowdyism over comedy routines, so there's more drama than comedy, but Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison is very enjoyable as the black kid, and Bobby Jordan is enthusiastic as Leo Gorcey's confidant. In this story, Gorcey wants to be a jockey but he's secretly afraid of speed, and his stubbornness almost ruins the hopes of his friends. Clarence Muse is excellent as a journeyman horse trainer; in one charming scene he sings a spiritual without accompaniment, and Morrison jumps up and dances to it. Joseph H. Lewis's direction gets the most out of the limited budget, by shooting largely outdoors and using careful compositions. Huntz Hall is not in this picture but David Gorcey is, and fans should enjoy seeing him.

The source print used on this DVD is a Savoy Pictures reissue of the late 1940s. The first few minutes are missing (but not essential to the plot; the print must have been edited by some TV station at one time), the image is slightly cropped, and the contrast is only fair. The movie is good enough to overcome the DVD's technical flaws. If this is your favorite East SIde Kids movie you'll be a bit disappointed by the print, but you can't beat the budget price. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The East Side Kids search a spooky manor.
It began with DEAD END (1937). the boys came from the Broadway play and landed their first starring role togehter. After DEAD END (1937), Warner Bros. made six films with them in 1938 and 1939. Some of the cast still known as The Dead End Kids joined The Little Tough Guys in nine films for the new Universal and the serials 1938-1943. However in 1940, Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan became The East Side Kids from 1940-1945 for Monogram Pictures Corp. Billy Halop and Bernard Punsly did not join them. They continued as The Dead End Kids with The Little Tough Guys. The East Side Kids came about from the film EAST SIDE KIDS (1940) and although the gang we enjoyed are not in that film, they spawned into the next film BOYS OF THE CITY (1940), which is considered the first official film for the beginning of the East Side Kids. Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey are top billed. Huntz hall and Gabriel Dell are not in this one, but returned to the Gorcey/Jordan gang later in the film series. David Gorcey plays "Pete". He is the younger brother of Leo. Also part of the new gang is Sunshine Sammy Morrison as "Scruno", Donald Haines as "Pee Wee", Hally Chester as "Buster" and Frankie Burke as "Skinny". Frankie Burke (as of this writing is still alive) played the younger "Rocky", the James Cagney character in ANGELS WITh DIRTY FACES (1938). All the boys are invited to the Judge's manor. However, his manor is a spooky one full of secret passageways. They brought the boys hoping they could prevent a murder. Other scary films with the East Side Kids are: SPOOKS RUN WILD (1941) and GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE (1943). The next film in the series is: THAT GANG OF MINE (1940).

Ghostly Classic Crime Comedy Mystery!!
Muggs and the gang are arrested for opening up a fire hydrant on a blistering summer day.Their friend Knuckles gets them off the hook by promising to take the gang to a summer camp in the upper Adirondacks to keep them out of mischief.On their trip they meet a judge and his entourage who are having car trouble.Knuckles offer the judge and his group a ride and when they arrive to the judges mansion and then their car fails with the judge reluctantly offering the gang to stay there.The judges mansion is dark,creepy with a graveyard out in front and an eerie housekeeper inside.The boys can detect trouble and when the judge is murdered and it's up to boys to solve the mystery.Great East Side Kids Classic!! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Leo Gorcey must fight in the ring. Huntz Hall joins gang.
Huntz Hall now joins the East Side Kids, who was over with Billy Halop, Bernard Punsly and Gabriel Dell as the Dead End Kids helping the Little Tough Guys and still will until 1943.
Well as you can see Leo Gorcey with Huntz Hall, Sammy Morrison, Donald Haines and David Gorcey are still up to no good. Leo hits "Monk" (Bobby Stone) and then puts shoe polish on his nose. Policeman Tom decides to stop them and reminds the gang of reform school. He wants to talk to the kids in the Pool Hall. In the Pool Hall is Clancy (played by Keye Luke of Charlie Chan film series, Kung Fu tv series, 1972-75,86 as "Master Po"). Later, Monk tells Bobby Jordan a lie that Leo had said something about his sister. Monk's plan works and Leo and Bobby fist fight. The police show up and the kids make a run for it. Leo ges caught. Policeman Tom talks Leo into fighting in the ring for the Golden Gloves. Can Leo and Bobby ever be friends again? Bobby ends up in the hospital and Leo gives him a special gift of life. In the next film, the boys meet Bela Lugosi and have to chase some spooks in SPOOKS RUN WILD (1941).

Gotham/Alpha DVD is bad, look for the Platinum Disc DVD
If you are a Bowery Boys - East Side Kids fan, you know these low budget dramadies are entertaining. Unfortunately, the DVD issued by Gotham Distributors/Alpha Video is almost unwatchable. A Washed out picture and distorted soundtrack take away from the enjoyment of this movie.
HOWEVER, if you can find the PLATINUM DISC CORPORATION DVD, you will enjoy a sharp clear picture with excellent contrast and a crisp clear soundtrack worthy of DVD.

For What It Is . . . Not Bad
Before there were the Bowery Boys, there were the East Side Kids, and if you thought the Bowery Boys was a low budget series, wait until you catch the East Side Kids. Compared with the production values in the East Side Kids Series, the later Bowery Boys semeed like MGM.

A note of difference: though both were released by the same studio, Monogram, the 22 pictures of the East Side Kids were independently produced by Sam Katzman and his Banner Films company. Once the popularity of the series was established, the Boys wanted more money and so Katzman gladly turned the series over to Monogram, who renemd it "The Bowery Boys.For the 60 or so films that would come out, each was a money maker for this "B" studio and helped finance some of their stabs at "A" billing and the respect it brings.)For students of film, Katzman has a defined niche in history as one of the giants of the exploitation movie. Consider the title of this movie, "Bowery Blitzkreig." One would assume that somewhere along the line Nazis and other bad guys of WWII would be added.

Nope, this is a film about Golden Gloves boxing as Muggs (Leo Gorcey) fights the crooked racketeers of the game while still finding time to donate blood to pal Danny (Bobby Jordan), shot while resisting crime. The performances are nothing new: Gorcey and company simply honed their roles from their previous stint as the Dead End Kids for Warner Bros., but they are entertaining.

The transfer is not the greatest, but we must keep in mind that prints of this movie were probably treated with benign neglect at the best. (I wonder how many of the 22 movies actually survived.) Even so, the movie is clear with only a few glitches and actually lacks the darkness that distinguished most of the series on television.

All in all, it's a little slice of nostalgia (How many of us remember whiling away our Saturday or Sunday afternoons watching these on a local channel?) at just the right price. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A Weak Entry In The Series
Pride Of The Bowery finds the Eastside Kids at a CCC camp with a bunch of other "kids".
Muggs (Leo Gorcey) can't seem to keep out of trouble in this film.
The plot is thin, the acting atrocious, the production values almost non-existant.
Best for fans of the Eastside Kids.

Too Bad!
I completely agree with the other reviewer's opinion this edition stinks! It's ashame the East Side Kids series doesn't get better treatment. I understand these films are pretty much considered bottom of the barrel poverty row entertainment whose appeal to modern day audiences is extremely limited at best, but c'mon if your gonna take the time to release the stuff at all at least make sure it's watchable. The antics of Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the boys have a certain charm that deserves to be remembered in a better form than this! If you've never checked out or even heard of the East Side Kids before do yourself a favor and look them up, trashy teen exploitation from a time long ago, corny yet hip (I guess for it's day?!), the 30's and 40's equivalent of today's Road trip and American Pie type teen flix (minus the sex of course!). Let's hope these pics get released in better form some day!

BEWARE of this Alpha Video DVD, it is BAD!
I can not tell you much about the movie, the Gotham Distributors/ Alpha Video DVD is so bad that I had to stop it 10 minutes in and force the store to accept the return of an open DVD.
The AUDIO is DISTORDED, making it very hard to understand Leo Gorcey's humorous banter.
The VIDEO is WASHED OUT so that you can not see their faces.
The film print they used was also splicy, but that would have been tolerable if you could see & hear the movie. Wait until someone like Platinum, Front Row, Brentwood, or Goodtimes releases this public domain title.

A joyless B movie
This undistinguished effort (which seems like a promotion for Franklin Roosevelt's CCC camps of that time) is very disliked by most of today's film historians and critics. Though not a total turkey, it's still very slow-paced and, like the majority of the Bowery Boys/East Side Kids films, is badly dated. If there is a message in this movie, it gets lost in uninspired, forced humor, uneven scripting, and generally unappealling performances. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Leo Gorcey must fight in the ring. Huntz Hall joins gang.
Huntz Hall now joins the East Side Kids, who was over with Billy Halop, Bernard Punsly and Gabriel Dell as the Dead End Kids helping the Little Tough Guys and still will until 1943.
Well as you can see Leo Gorcey with Huntz Hall, Sammy Morrison, Donald Haines and David Gorcey are still up to no good. Leo hits "Monk" (Bobby Stone) and then puts shoe polish on his nose. Policeman Tom decides to stop them and reminds the gang of reform school. He wants to talk to the kids in the Pool Hall. In the Pool Hall is Clancy (played by Keye Luke of Charlie Chan film series, Kung Fu tv series, 1972-75,86 as "Master Po"). Later, Monk tells Bobby Jordan a lie that Leo had said something about his sister. Monk's plan works and Leo and Bobby fist fight. The police show up and the kids make a run for it. Leo ges caught. Policeman Tom talks Leo into fighting in the ring for the Golden Gloves. Can Leo and Bobby ever be friends again? Bobby ends up in the hospital and Leo gives him a special gift of life. In the next film, the boys meet Bela Lugosi and have to chase some spooks in SPOOKS RUN WILD (1941).

Gotham/Alpha DVD is bad, look for the Platinum Disc DVD
If you are a Bowery Boys - East Side Kids fan, you know these low budget dramadies are entertaining. Unfortunately, the DVD issued by Gotham Distributors/Alpha Video is almost unwatchable. A Washed out picture and distorted soundtrack take away from the enjoyment of this movie.
HOWEVER, if you can find the PLATINUM DISC CORPORATION DVD, you will enjoy a sharp clear picture with excellent contrast and a crisp clear soundtrack worthy of DVD.

For What It Is . . . Not Bad
Before there were the Bowery Boys, there were the East Side Kids, and if you thought the Bowery Boys was a low budget series, wait until you catch the East Side Kids. Compared with the production values in the East Side Kids Series, the later Bowery Boys semeed like MGM.

A note of difference: though both were released by the same studio, Monogram, the 22 pictures of the East Side Kids were independently produced by Sam Katzman and his Banner Films company. Once the popularity of the series was established, the Boys wanted more money and so Katzman gladly turned the series over to Monogram, who renemd it "The Bowery Boys.For the 60 or so films that would come out, each was a money maker for this "B" studio and helped finance some of their stabs at "A" billing and the respect it brings.)For students of film, Katzman has a defined niche in history as one of the giants of the exploitation movie. Consider the title of this movie, "Bowery Blitzkreig." One would assume that somewhere along the line Nazis and other bad guys of WWII would be added.

Nope, this is a film about Golden Gloves boxing as Muggs (Leo Gorcey) fights the crooked racketeers of the game while still finding time to donate blood to pal Danny (Bobby Jordan), shot while resisting crime. The performances are nothing new: Gorcey and company simply honed their roles from their previous stint as the Dead End Kids for Warner Bros., but they are entertaining.

The transfer is not the greatest, but we must keep in mind that prints of this movie were probably treated with benign neglect at the best. (I wonder how many of the 22 movies actually survived.) Even so, the movie is clear with only a few glitches and actually lacks the darkness that distinguished most of the series on television.

All in all, it's a little slice of nostalgia (How many of us remember whiling away our Saturday or Sunday afternoons watching these on a local channel?) at just the right price. ... Read more