CRAZY KNIGHTS (1944)
(a.k.a. GHOST CRAZY)
Article #56 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-11-2001
Posting date: 9-24-2001

In this movie, three idiots end up in a haunted house with scary noises, ghosts, and gorillas. If there’s more of a plot than this, I’m not going back in there to dig it out.

There’s something about really lame horror comedies that brings out the crankiness in me. At least THE GORILLA managed to work up a little atmosphere; this movie tries to be a total laugh experience and totally fails. It stars Billy Gilbert, Maxie Rosenbloom and Shemp Howard in an attempt to turn them into a team; this is the second of three movies made by these people. All three can be amusing in small doses in other movies; as a comedy team, they have no real chemistry or reason to be working together. Granted, they don’t get much help from the script, but I will have to admit that the script is not TOTALLY useless; if you’re moving, you could use the paper as packing to keep your fine china from breaking.

If you think seeing Shemp Howard getting scared, jumping up and landing in Billy Gilbert’s arms is the height of hilarity, this movie is for you. For me it was 63 minutes of my life lost; it is by and far the lamest horror comedy I have seen, and that’s saying a lot.