Haunted House (1940)

So 1940 wasn't only the year former Our Ganger Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison started playing Scruno in Monogram Pictures' East Side Kids movies, or that other former OG member Mary Kornman made her final picture for the same studio called On the Spot, it was also the year former OG director Robert F. McGowan made his final movies for the exact same studio. One of them was this one which starred Marcia Mae Jones-who previously appeared in McGowan's OG shorts Birthday Blues and Mush & Milk as well as with other former OG member Jackie Cooper in The Champ-and Jackie Moran. They are a couple of teens intent on getting an innocent man out of jail. McGowan provides some good humor as well as wonderful atmosphere concerning the title object which only appears near the end. So on that note, I recommend Haunted House. P.S. Another player familiar to OG fans is Clarence Wilson, who played a meanie in the series shorts, Shrimps for a Day and Little Sinner.

The title "Haunted House" gives the impression that this Monogram poverty row teenaged comedy is going to be something totally different than it actually is. "Teenaged Detectives" or even "The Boy who got the Scoop" might raise this up only a bit of a notch, but even if reflected accurately, the whole movie would be a boring rip-off of the "Nancy Drew" series. I give Jackie Moran credit for making his newspaper assistant a likable young man, desperately trying to break into the business as a journalist, but thwarted by his cantankerous boss (George Cleveland), he is tossed back into the copy room. His main goal is to prove that the sweet Christian Rub (who is on trial for murder) has been framed. When Cleveland's spoiled niece (Marcia Mae Jones) arrives, Moran sets out to prove Rub's innocence even more vigorously and gets into all sorts of trouble, accusing the wrong people and losing his job. And then there's the fact that the only inclusion of an even remotely haunted house comes at the very end where the culprit is discovered inside the victim's home, all boarded up simply because nobody lives there anymore. Certainly not at all haunted, even by the victim's ghost. A few amusing moments don't make for an overall good movie, and even with some great character performers (Rub, Cleveland, Clarence Wilson to mention a few), this one ranks as a Z-grade dud.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, don't let the title fool you. While this is a good movie, it contains no haunted house, but makes up for it with plenty of suspense. The title and a less than honest summary drew me into the movie, but I was not disappointed, in fact I'm upset that there aren't more great movies like this in circulation today.Jimi Atkins wants to be a reporter, but he isn't thrilled at the way the press is making his friend Olaf out to be a murderer, which he is on trial for. Jimi's about the only person in the town that knows Olaf is innocent, but with all the evidence against him, has little luck in convincing anybody. Then a ray of hope enters when his employer's niece, Mildred, arrives for the summer. After hearing Jimi's stories of Olaf, and seeing him at the courthouse she decides he can't be a murderer after being so nice, and besides that, 'he doesn't look like a murderer'. So now Jimi and Mildred are eager to get on the trail of the real murderer, though in their detection, twice they seem to strike out in finding the real murderer to clear Olaf's name, but they won't give up.They figure out the only place to find evidence that could clear Olaf and lead them to the real killer is in the house of the murder victim, which seems to be inhabited by something or someone else. They find out who the real killer is, and are in a race to find the evidence to back up their story to the newspapers. An exciting murder/mystery that'll have you on the edge of your seat and cheering for the juvenile detectives. 10 out of 10.

Don't let the title of this scarce movie fool you. It's not a haunted house movie & it's not an "old dark house" type of movie. It's a simple murder mystery movie with teenage leads. They do spend about 5 of the movie's 70 minutes inside an old spooky house, but that's hardly enough to warrant naming this movie "Haunted House"! Not a bad movie, although a bit redundant. The acting is OK, there's a neat old hot rod, but it's neither juvenile enough to please that movie crowd, nor scary, nor mysterious enough to please those movie crowds. I rate it 5/10 (& that's being a bit generous).