Ghosts on the Loose

Ghosts on the Loose (which features no ghosts whatsoever) is perhaps the best-known of Monogram's "East Side Kids" series-which doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best. This time, Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the Kids offer to decorate the honeymoon cottage of Glimpy's sister Betty (Ava Gardner!!!) and her new husband Jack (Ric Vallin). Unfortunately the boys end up at the wrong house, a sinister mansion that serves as the headquarters for a Nazi spy ring headed by Emil (Bela Lugosi at his hammiest). The rest of the film is an extended chase-first the Nazis chasing the boys, then the boys chasing the Nazis. The closing "German measles" gag may well be the silliest joke in any East Side Kids or Bowery Boys epic. Incidentally, this is the film in which Bela Lugosi allegedly sneezes out an obscenity. Ghosts on the Loose has been reissued under several titles, notably The East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi.