***SPOILERS*** The "Bowery Boys" headed by Slip & Sach go out of their way to get the local kids a place to play stick-ball where they can't cause any damage to the community. In the breaking windows of local store owner especially those of Louie Dumbrowsky's Sweet Shop on the Bowery.Finding a sandlot that belongs to the Gravesend Family Slip & Sach, after making an appointment, drives out to the Gravesend Mansion in far off Long Island to get the families approval in letting the kids play in their lot. What the boys find instead is a bunch of mixed nuts who become obsessed in using them for their crazed brain transplant experiments as well as being used as food for their pet a man eating Venus Fly-trap plant. There's also the lovely Francine Gravesend an honest to goodness vampire who hasn't had a good meal or bite in years and finds both Slip & Sach's blood supply just what she needs to keep her from drying out.Better then you would expect "Bowery Boys" flick with the boys being targeted from a number of crazed medical experiments by the both man of the house Dr.Derek Gravesend and his crazy brother Anton for their own separat and insane operations. Sach to have his peanut brain transplanted into Derek's pride and joy Cosmo a 400 pound lowland gorilla who had recently appeared in a movie with Bela Lugoi and a pair of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis wannabes. As for slip his brain is to be used by Anton as the thinking machine for his robot Gorog who by walking into things keeps losing his head in the movie. It's Aunte Ameila Gravesend who got even better and more useful plans fro the boys in having them fed to her flesh eating plant since she's run out of stray cats and dogs in the neighborhood that she keeps it alive with! And last but not least there's the Gravesend family butler Grissom, or as the boys pronounced it "Gruesome", who himself ends up as one of the Gravesend bothers experiments that went wrong. That happens when Grissom or Gruesome mistakingly gulps down what looked like a harmless glass of coke and turned into a modern version of the Neanderthal Man.The usual slap sticks with Slip & Sach that keep the laughs flowing in the movie but by then you can see the "Bowery Boys", after 34 films, were starting to run out of ideas and that their antics on screen were starting to get a bit stale. It was in fact Cosmo the gorilla and Gorog the tin man as well as Amelia's cute and lovable flesh eating plant together with the Gravesend, for-runners of the Adams, Family who really made the movie "The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters" well worth watching.

The title The Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters is somewhat a misnomer since there are no real monsters in the film, just a weird family who'd like to make one. A 'temporary' one does appear, but you'll have to see the film to find out just exactly what I mean.Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall ran into a few unworldly types in their various films. In this case what brings them to the house of the Gravesend family is they're representing the kids in the neighborhood who would like to use a vacant lot that the family owns for a baseball field.What an interesting crew the Gravesends are, a kind of Vanderhof family from You Can't Take It With You on steroids. Three siblings, John Dehner, Ellen Corby, and Lloyd Corrigan all pursue their various scientific interests and their butler Grisson aka Gruesome played by Paul Wexler. Dehner and Corrigan have made tests on Huntz Hall and discover he's got the proper cranial capacity for a brain transplant. But they're fighting over whether it will be Dehner's gorilla or Corrigan's robot. Corby has a Venus Man-Trap plant that needs feeding and the black sheep of the family is Laura Mason who is a vampire who also needs feeding. With this family she gets leftovers. The boys have their hands full with this crew and in one of their better films, the audience will have its laughs full.

I gave it a 7 because I like the Bowery Boys. This is good, clean fun for the whole family. Just like Bugs Bunny, there are plenty of jokes for kids and adults.The "Hall Tree" is moving. The robot is a drag. The skulls and skeletons are grave. The dialogue is classic "Sach." The Boys are the Keystone Cops as always.The "bad guys" in this seem to have been the inspiration for the later TV series, The Adamms Family. If you like campy misdirection and "The Boys", you'll like this. If you've never seen The Bowery Boys in action, this is a great movie to start.

Growing up in new jersey i remember them showing the Bowery boys movies every Sunday,and being a monster fan this was my favorite Bowery boys movie,huntz hall and Leo gorcey want to turn a vacant lot into a baseball field for the Bowery kids so they will have a safer place to play baseball,actually called stick-ball in new jersey and new york. they find it is owned by some kooky Addams family types.there's a gorilla in a cage,a man eating plant,and a big clunky robot.its all slapstick hijinks when the Bowery boys show up,some people called this the poor mans Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.though not as good its funny,especially Leo gorceys vocabulary.as a Bowery boys movie i would say its the best one.made by allied artists(earlier known as monogram pictures)the Bowery boys went through many name changes, the Clancy street boys,dead end kids,eastside kids,and later the Bowery boys.i give this vintage gem 7 out of 10.