SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Cortechba Overrated

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

mark.waltz Any film that has a conversation about how to make prettier pickles is classic in my book, and this ends up being probably the best of the Bowery Boys films,an Abbott and Costello style horror film. There's a Lurch like Butler (Grisom, whom they keep referring to as Gruesome) who gets the predictable reaction when he orders Sach and Slip to "walk this way", a series of wacky relatives and an exotic Theda Bara like vamp, all gathered together in a spooky mansion where it's best to expect the unexpected. Some great character comics (among them Ellen Corby and Lloyd Corrigan) have a ball emoting dramatically for laughs. Corby has a tree monster who happens to like cats (as a snack, I'm sure), and Gruesome, err Grisom, takes a potion that makes him Mr. Hyde's long lost twin. A funny looking robot and a gorilla round out the ensemble of wacky creations/creatures.There's more laughs in this single entry than all of the series up to that time. The script is filled with funny gags and dialog ("The living of today are the skeletons of tomorrow"), and it's an interesting set design as well. Corby, looking like granny without the Tweety Bird, will delight her fans from "The Waltons", looking the same but no match for her no- nonsense matriarch as she regrets the lack of living flesh for her funny looking tree. Minimal screen time of the gang for all but Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall doesn't matter, as the wacky characters of this madhouse are entertainment enough.

Scarecrow-88 Bowery boys, Slip and Sach (Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall) want to find a property so the kids can have a sandlot for their baseball, but the location for which they desire is owned by the dreaded oddball family, the Gravesends. Slapstick, plays on the English language (Gorcey's specialty is using words that have no business belonging in the sentences they find themselves), kooky characters, energetic cast (even if the humor might be dated, the cast give it their all), and busy plot (towards the end, all hell breaks loose as the Bowery Boys run around trying to keep from being killed as the family tries to either take their head or feed them to a hungry tree (don't ask)) keep this film moving like a locomotive. It doesn't stay still long enough to really contemplate just how preposterous it gets (and wants to get). As far as the monsters: there's a giant robot that obeys the commands fed from a microphone, a gorilla (yep, the gorilla once again!), tree kept in a hall that is fed by Ellen Corby (yes, Grandma Walton!), a vampire (the sultry Laura Mason), mad scientists John Dehner and Lloyd Corrigan, and the tall, deep-voiced butler (Paul Wexler). Steering through all the hi-jinks are the Gorceys (eventually, Bernard and David, along with Benny Bartlett, come looking for their boys, encountering the crazed Gravesends themselves) and Hall, looking to survive and, still on mission, get permission for the sandlot. Dehner wants Hall's brain as a replacement for his gorilla while Corrigan wants to put Hall's head on his robot! That duel for Hall often leads to him nearly knocking at death's door (Wexler even has a hatchet, ready to cleaver the poor guy in two!), but fate always rescues him in the nick of time. The tree even eats Slip's sandwiches and drinks his milk after a nighttime visit to the kitchen! The robot is a star of the movie, often losing its head when walking erratic without proper command…reason why Corrigan wants to get him Hall's head! Dehner even has Hall on the operating table, interrupted by visits of the other Bowery boys right before surgery!You get plenty of Leo and Huntz playing off each other (it is the Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges comedy team dynamic), through insults and ribbing. Plenty of physical humor is at the fore, too, besides the nincompoop goof antics of Leo and Huntz. Everyone's in on the fun, with little subtlety in sight. Just try and figure out what Leo means by some of the words he uses incorrectly in his sentence vocabulary! Included in the cache of mocked horror clichés is the Jekyll/Hyde monster, transformed from an experimental fluid meant to give the drinker attractiveness, instead causing a manic, hairy-faced, toothy beast, for which both Wexler and Huntz become far too aware. Was it fun? I thought so, but it is all so chaotic and harried, the cast doesn't take a breath, so this kind of comedy is an acquired taste.

Michael_Elliott Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters, The (1954)*** (out of 4)Fast-paced and fun entry in the series has Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) traveling to a creepy mansion so that they can ask the owners if the Bowery kids can use their lot to play ball. Soon the duo are being held captive by the mad scientists who want to use their brains in some crazy experiments. After several so-so entries, it's good to see the series back with a winner as this one perfectly mixes the laughs with the various horror elements. This is clearly influenced by the Abbott and Costello flicks but that's not a bad thing especially when you get such a winning film. I really loved the fact that Bernds was back behind the camera as he kept the action coming very fast and helped keep everything moving. The laughs are plenty as we get countless good jokes including one that must have been seen by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder as it would later be used in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. At one point the creepy butler tells Sach and Slip to "walk this way" which they do by mocking the way he's walking. Other funny jokes include the various horror elements including a sexy vampire, a living tree who eats humans, a killer gorilla and a robot who keeps losing its head. All of these elements are perfectly blended into the story and we also get a kind old lady who wants to feed the fat Slip to her tree. Both Gorcey and Hall are on the top of their game and deliver fine performances. The comedy here is pretty wide ranged as we get a lot of physical stuff but also a lot of one liners and both of them deliver just fine. Bernard Gorcey has a couple funny bits including a very good incident with the gorilla. Some might be disappointed that the "monsters" aren't Dracula, Frankenstein or the Mummy but it really doesn't matter because of how well everything works here. A lot of the jokes fall on their face but that's only because so many are flying around that your bound not to have them all work. Fans of the series will certainly find this to be a winner but I think even those who can't stand them will find this one entertaining.

lemon_magic I think what distinguishes this BB film from the 3 others I've come across is that the setting is more interesting, the support cast has better characters to play, and for some reason Huntz Hall's usual manic mugging and mannerisms seem more appropriate to the setting. I suppose that's because this is very similar in tone and structure to some of the Abbott and Costello films, and Hall's over-the-top double takes and freak outs work the same way that Costello's would in similar situations. I have to say that it was very clever of the producers to make this "Bowery Boys Meet THE Monsters", instead of "...SOME Monsters", because the title makes you think you will see Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein's monster, etc...instead, we get some generic substitutes. But I wasn't really disappointed...rather than have the classic Hammer archetypes be cheapened by yet another comedy ripoff, the screenplay just has fun with the idea - for instance, one is "a" vampire, and makes no attempt to pretend that this is the "Prince Of Darkness", so it doesn't hurt to see the idea played for cheesecake value. So it is with the mad scientists, the robot, the man eating plant, the Jekyll/Hyde formula, etc. The "monsters" are different enough from the usual run to add an element of freshness to the film. Also, the timing seems a little tighter and the director keeps things moving along. The "house full of monsters" set up allows for a nice rapid fire series of sight gags and word play and slapstick, and (as I said), the supporting cast get to be funny and interesting in their interaction with each other, as opposed to just being the straight men for the Boys.There's actually a bit of an Addams family dynamic that makes things go better than if the monsters just lunged out of the closet at our Boys. This was my fourth Bowery Boys film (how I came to see four of them is a long story), and I can't say I'll be unhappy if I never see another one. But it was the most enjoyable of the four, and it raised my opinion of their abilities and their film career.