The Gas House Kids (Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, Benny Bartlett, Rudy
Wissler, Tommy Bond) want to go to Hollywood to meet their idol, big
screen detective Lance Carter (Michael Whalen), and somehow end up taking
abode in the haunted house of benign but utterly mad scientist professor
Crawford (Milton Parsons), who presently performs experiments on the dead
body of his former colleague to receive soundwaves from the past (don't
ask). But that, actually, is not what's supposed to worry the boys, it's
the weird noises coming from everywhere, and the dead body of a realtor
that appears out of and disappears into thin air on a regular basis. Soon,
the police investigates the case and the boys are put under house arrest,
but they manage to sneak out and get none other than Lance Carter to work
on the case ... bad move, because Lance Carter is part of the problem and
not the solution. You see, there is a gang of cutthroats in the
professor's basement who are looking for a treasure and who have actually
killed the realtor - and Lance Carter is one of them. With the police
being inefficient, Lance Carter constantly derailing investigations, the
Gas House Kids bungling things up as their second nature and the professor
constantly misjudging the situation, it's nothing sort of a small miracle
that the whole affair comes to a solution eventually, but after numerous
chases through secret corridors, the discovery of more hidden panels than
you can shake a stick at, and also thanks to a speaking parrot who just
won't shut up, the baddies are all arrested eventually, and the treasure
is found ... Run-of-the-mill old dark house movie featuring all
the elements you'd expect from a movie of this sort, like hidden panels,
secret corridors, a skeleton and the like. The problem with this one
though is that it's neither particularly spooky nor particularly funny,
and the Gas House Kids as a teen gang just don't really come
to life like the Bowery
Boys they are imitating, mainly because their characters are
not nearly as sketched out, and individually they simply aren't funny
enough to really carry the film. Not really worth your time.
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