Spooks Run Wild

Infobox Film
name = "Spooks Run Wild"


caption = "Spooks Run Wild" Theatrical Poster
director = Phil Rosen
producer = Sam Katzman|
writer = Carl Foreman
Charles R. Marion
starring = Bela Lugosi
Leo Gorcey
Huntz Hall
music = Johnny Lange
Lew Porter
cinematography = Marcel Le Picard
editing = Robert Golden
distributor = Monogram Pictures Corporation
released = October 24, 1941 (USA)
runtime = 65 mins.
preceded_by = "Bowery Blitzkrieg"
followed_by = "Mr. Wise Guy"
amg_id = 1:46167
imdb_id = 0034224

"Spooks Run Wild" is a 1941 film and the seventh film in the East Side Kids series, starring Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Bobby Jordan. Released in 1941, it was directed by Phil Rosen, in his first and only outing in the series, and produced by Sam Katzman (under the company name "Banner Pictures"). It is based on an original script by Carl Foreman and Charles R. Marion.

Overview

Since the series inception in 1940, the East Side Kids films had been, for the most part, a well balanced mix between comedy, drama, and social relevance. Following Huntz Hall's introduction into the series with 1941's "Bowery Blitzkrieg", which made famous the Gorcey/Hall banter, producer Sam Katzman decided that the seventh film in the series would not only be a change of pace, but, would also be one of the biggest East Side Kids extravaganzas yet.

With that in mind, Katzman enlisted the screen writing team of Carl Foreman and Charles R. Marion to pen the screenplay, which would feature Monogram's two most popular draws for the first time together on screen: Bela Lugosi and the East Side Kids.

At the last minute, with "Bowery Blitzkrieg" director Wallace Fox already attached to Columbia's The Lone Star Vigilantes, Katzman hired Russian-born director Phil Rosen, who had just finished filming Monogram's "The Deadly Game" to helm the production.

"Ghosts in the Night" began filming in Early August 1941, around the same time as "Bowery Blitzkrieg" was making its way into theatres. By the time filming wrapped only a week and half later, the film's working title was changed to "Spooks Run Wild" and hit theaters on October 24, 1941, just in time for Halloween.

External links

*imdb title|0034224
* [http://www.archive.org/details/spooks_run_wild Public Domain MPEG from Internet Archive]