This week, we had no idea what we were in for, but we were excited to see that Bela Lugosi was the star. There was also a group of youths that Mom recognized. She called them the Bowery Boys, but I guess they were also called East Side Kids or Dead End Kids.
Captain Midnight is taking a group of misfit kids to camp to try and get them to shape up. Bela and his "little" friend are headed up to the abandoned castle to hang out when the guy at the filling station labels them as the notorious "monster" who has been terrorizing the countryside. When the boys sneak out for some nighttime excitement, they decide to take a shortcut through the cemetery and one of them gets a shock (because we never saw an injury on him) from a shotgun blast. They end up at the spooky castle with Bela.
This movie was pretty fun. The slapstick humor involving Bela made up for any annoyance from the stupidity from the boys. I will say that Captain Midnight wasn't very chivalrous, though. He wasn't on board to search for the kids under his care or follow his woman around.
One of the actors in this looked really familiar, but I never figured out why. This was Donald Haines's last screen appearance. He was more of a child actor, but he played the role of Skinny in this film. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Forces and didn't return from a strafing mission over Rommel's forces during the Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. RIP young man.
This movie was silly enough to be entertaining. If you're looking for a serious movie, give this one a pass. I liked it, though, and think it deserves the Good Movie! stamp of approval!
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