Spooks Run Wild

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Spooks Run Wild
Directed by	Phil Rosen
Produced by	Sam Katzman
Written by	Carl Foreman Charles R. Marion
Starring	Bela Lugosi Leo Gorcey Huntz Hall
Music by	Johnny Lange Lew Porter
Cinematography	Marcel Le Picard
Editing by	Robert Golden
Distributed by	Monogram Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	October 24, 1941 (USA)
Running time	65 mins.
Preceded by	Bowery Blitzkrieg
Followed by	Mr. Wise Guy
IMDb profile

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.

[edit] 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 Blitzkreig, 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.