Zombies on Broadway (1945) User Reviews

Do Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well...

[gftbiloxi · 6/10 · 23 April 2005]

Paramont had Bing Crosby and Bob Hope; Universal had Abbott and Costello. RKO responded with Alan Carney and Wally Brown--and although they never challenged Crosby and Hope or Abbott and Costello, they were popular enough to justify a dozen or so "B" pictures during the mid-1940s. The best of these is ZOMBIES ON Broadway, a weird little parody similar to Crosby and Hope's ghost-busting flicks and Abbott and Costello's meetings with every classic monster from Dracula to the Werewolf.

What makes ZOMBIES ON Broadway fun is the absolute absurdity of its plot. Carney and Brown are publicity agents hired by gangster Sheldon Leonard to promote a nightclub called "The Zombie Hut"--and much against their will find themselves sent to the island of San Sebastiane with instructions to bring back a real Zombie for the club's opening. Once on the island, they encounter none other than Bela Lugosi, who can still do that voodoo that he did so well in such 1930s classics as WHITE ZOMBIE. This isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination, and it certainly won't make any critic's short list--but it is just strange and weird enough to hold your attention through its fairly short running time. The entire cast plays very broadly, and the script is about as subtle as a wrecking ball, but its all in good fun. Recommended as ultra-light entertainment.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Amusing B-film using zombie theme for comedy...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 26 October 2007]

With a cast including ALAN CARNEY, WALLY BROWN, ANNE JEFFREYS, SHELDON LEONARD and BELA LUGOSI, RKO made an amusing programmer (lower half of double bills) using the zombie theme for laughs.

Sheldon Leonard is an ex-gangster putting up money for a nightclub called The Zombie Hut and promising to present an authentic zombie on opening night. Brown and Carney promise Leonard that they'll come up with a real zombie in time for the Broadway opening of the club.

The story moves from the nightclub to the island of San Sebastian where a weird scientist called Dr. Renault has mysteriously disappeared. On the island, the tone of the film veers between comedy and fright with amusing results--and the team of Carney and Brown seems to be using the kind of material Abbott and Costello found at Universal. The gags are sometimes a misfire but the slapstick situations are fun. Attractive ANNE JEFFREYS is a night-club singer who also gets involved with the zombies when she and the boys go looking for them.

All of the sight gags are reminiscent of A&C at their zaniest. Lugosi plays it straight as the doctor who believes in putting people under "suspended animation" for scientific purposes.

The zombie they return with is a surprise twist. It's all played strictly for laughs and, silly as it is, it works.

Not nearly as bad as it sounds

[krorie · 6/10 · 30 October 2005]

Apparently this film was put together partly with leftovers from the classic Val Lewton film "I Walked With a Zombie." Even the title is somewhat similar and just about as ridiculous. Sir Lancelot is the calypso singer in both movies singing songs that partly predict what has happened and what is about to happen. The main zombie is played by the same actor, Darby Jones, using the same makeup. The stage setting for St. Sebastian Island looks similar to the setting for "I Walked With a Zombie." In some ways "Zombies on Broadway" is actually a parody of "I Walked With a Zombie" and of zombie movies in general.

Brown and Carney, a poor man's Abbott and Costello, do a fairly decent job in the comedy department in this film, though Carney's aping of Lou Costello becomes annoying after a time. Toward the end, a monkey is able to steal the show indicating the level of talent in the cast. Sheldon Leonard does well in his usual role as a mobster who talks tough but tends to be a pussycat. Bela Lugosi and the lovely Anne Jeffreys add a degree of dignity to the goings on. Too bad they were so often wasted in programmers since they were both such gifted performers.

The title is misleading since the movie is actually about press agents Brown and Carney trying to pan off a fake zombie named Sam to a nightclub mobster for his gala opening of the Zombie Club. Brown and Carney are caught and made to travel to St. Sebastian and bring back a real zombie. The movie is fast paced and there are a few belly laughs along the way. Don't expect anything on the level of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" and you won't be disappointed.

Well I'll be a Monkey's Uncle!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 24 October 2005]

Advertising that the opening act of the "Zombie Hut" nightclub will be a real live honest to goodness Zombie the two press agents Mike & Jerry, Alan Carney & Wally Brown,come up empty by trying to pawn off a punch drunk boxer, with what looks like a face packed with talcum powder, as a walking dead man. This has them both put on the sh*t list of the gangster owner of the nightclub Ace Miller, Sheldon Leonard.

Needing a Zombie in order to save their necks Mike & Jerry bust their way into a closed midtown museum, thinking that theirs Zombie's in it, and despite the half-hearted objections of the museum janitor Worthington (Nick Stewart),who never thought of calling the police, the two buffoon's end up with the nutty curator Prof. Hopkins, Ian Wolf. Prof. Hopkis tells them that the only person who can get them a true live, or dead, Zombie is the mysterious Dr. Paul Renault (Bela Lugosi), if he's still alive, who was last known to be residing on the small Carribriean island of San Sabastian.

Put on a banana boat by Ace and the boys Jerry & Mike are told that if they don't come back with a Zombie they can forget to come back at all. The two stumble bums end up not only getting involved with Dr. Renault Zombie experiments but end up becoming part of them.

Getting in touch with San Sabastian nightclub singer and dancer gorgeous Jean LaDance (Ann Jeffareys), who's dying to get off the island, the trio end up in the middle of a full-moon Zombie ceremony by the local natives. Escaping from the mob of angry native warriors Mike Jerry & Jean end up getting captured by Dr. Renault and his seven foot tall Zombie assistant Kolaga,Darby Jones, with Mike getting Zombified as a victim of Dr. Renault's Zombie experiments.

Finally getting away from both Dr. Renault and the angry Zombie-worshiping natives the three Mike Jerry & Jean together with a cute little monkey, who took a shine to Mike back at San Sabastian, get on a ship as they sail back to New York City. Getting to the Big Apple just in time for the "Zombie Hut's" opening night's feature Zombie performance With Mike, his eyes bugged out and in a state of suspended animation. As the long sought Zombie is about to make his grand entrance the serum that Dr.Renault injected him with starts to wear off. Unlike the people in the movie it's the monkey who ends up not only saving the show but the necks of Mike and Jerry from getting broken by Ace's thugs.

So-so comedy/horror flick with Bela Lugosi in a very small, despite his top billing in the movie,role as Dr. Renault with the monkey getting all the laughs as well as best lines in the movie.

Sheer Goofiness

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 7 February 2012]

Although the comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney never threatened Laurel&Hardy, Abbott&Costello, or the Ritz Brothers in popularity, the team which was cobbled together at RKO were amusing in several films they did in the early Forties. This film is particularly goofy in an almost Monty Pythonesque way.

Brown and Carney are a pair of press agents who are charged with publicizing the opening of Sheldon Leonard's nightclub which is named The Zombie Club. And the boys promise a real undead person for the opening.

Now normally these guys hiring someone to impersonate a zombie might go over with most folks. But Sheldon Leonard who's been the target of gossip columnist Louis Jean Heydt isn't having any. The boys are charged with finding and bringing back a real live zombie, and don't tell me that that is an oxymoron.

A tip from eccentric scientist Ian Wolfe sends Brown and Carney to the Virgin Islands where another scientist Bela Lugosi is doing experiments creating zombies. Now of course Lugosi is not only sinister, but he makes Wolfe look like Jonas Salk. The boys also meet up with Anne Jeffreys and the three of them have all kinds of fun with Lugosi and his zombies.

Nothing great about Zombies On Broadway, but it's a goofy fun type film and one to enjoy on a rainy afternoon.

Bela Lugosi tackles Wally Brown and Alan Carney

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 20 July 2021]

1945's "Zombies on Broadway" marked the first of three titles under Bela Lugosi's new RKO contract, his first teaming opposite the studio's answer to Abbott and Costello, tall and thin Wally Brown with short and pudgy Alan Carney. Like the later "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla," he reigns in a studio jungle conducting sinister experiments, here a zombie master unlike Murder Legendre from "White Zombie," attempting scientific means to produce zombies using a special serum of his own making. Brown and Carney play their regular characters of Jerry Miles and Mike Strager, working as publicity agents for a new club owned by gangster Ace Miller (Sheldon Leonard), but in promising a genuine zombie for The Zombie Hut they are forced to journey to the Caribbean island of San Sebastian to seek out Lugosi's Dr. Paul Renault, on the advice of museum curator Hopkins (Ian Wolfe). Renault would rather the world believe him dead, delighted to test his new serum on Mike, kidnapped from his bed by actual zombie Kolaga (Darby Jones). Jones and unbilled calypso singer Sir Lancelot repeat their roles from Val Lewton's "I Walked with a Zombie," five zombie masks called for by makeup artist Maurice Seiderman, little more than bulging pop eyes for an effect both comic and creepy, Lugosi confined almost entirely to the film's second half with only 10 minutes screen time. He actually gets a chuckle when assistant Joseph (Joseph Vitale) tells Miles and Strager that Dr. Renault is merely studying a banana blight, but the doctor insists it is coconuts: "oh, Joseph is color blind!" The antics of Brown and Carney offer some amusement but the material for surefire laughs just isn't there, later reunited with Bela for a much better comedy, "Genius at Work," offering a larger part for Lugosi and a last pairing with master screen villain Lionel Atwill (only a few weeks after completing this mad scientist fiasco, he would be cast as Joseph in Val Lewton's Boris Karloff vehicle "The Body Snatcher").

For what it is, it isn't so bad after all,...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 3 September 2006]

It's very obvious when you watch this film that RKO was trying to rip off the Abbott and Costello formula. This was due to the incredible success of Abbott and Costello and because RKO's BEST comedy team at the time was the Ritz Brothers--who were about as funny as listening to dial tone on a telephone. While the two leads (Wally Brown and Alan Carney) are NOT all that reminiscent of Bud and Lou in acting and talent, the writing is often dead on the mark (a bad pun, I know). Many times during the movie, I found myself remembering very, very similar dialog and situations in several Abbott and Costello films. And, of all those films, I think this one is closest in style (but certainly not in quality) to ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.

The duo is assisted in their attempt to overcome mediocrity by teaming them with Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist (I know this role must have really been a major stretch for Bela's talents). While Lugosi is fun in the film, he really doesn't have all that much to do--a bit of a waste of his talents. Also, Anne Jeffreys is the female lead in the film. Oddly, BOTH Jeffreys AND Lugosi were re-teamed just a year later with Brown and Carney in GENIUS AT WORK--you'd have thought that given the very limited success of THIS film they would have tried something different.

So did the attempt to copy the originals succeed? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the film was a diverting and mildly entertaining film--just like a real Abbott and Costello movie. But, a resounding NO because the duo did very few films together and now in the 21st century they are all but forgotten--just an odd little footnote in history. I guess this just goes to show you that "there ain't nothing like the real thing, baby".

Pretty good B-comedy with Lugosi

[funkyfry · 5/10 · 8 November 2002]

Somewhat tepid but occasionally funny as Brown and Carney do their best to be RKO's Abbott & Costello. They play press agents for a nightclub who promise a "real live zombie", which their mobster boss insists they produce. This leads them to San Sebastian, Bela Lugosi, and the guy who was the zombie in "I Walked with a Zombie" and other films. Many scenes are played very straight -- of course, with bad jokes and puns thrown in. Lugosi, in particularly, is asked to play everything straight as a scientist after the secret of zombie making.

Uninspired, but Anne Jeffries does look great.

Cheap Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Zombies on Broadway (1945)

*** (out of 4)

RKO comedy has Wally Brown and Alan Carney going to an island to look for a zombie for their gangster boss' new club. Once on the island the run into a crazy scientist (Bela Lugosi) who might just be able to help them. This film doesn't get too many good reviews but I'll give it one because for some reason the comedy team makes me laugh. They certainly aren't in the same league as Abbott and Costello but their dumbness works on me but I'm not really sure why. The supporting players do nice work and that includes Lugosi who actually gets to do some nice comedy here.

Dumb, but not completely awful

[Yarmouth · 6/10 · 8 February 2000]

This is a film I saw when I was a child, and I remember thinking it was cool in a bizarre sort of way. I recently saw it again, and although it did not hold up the way, say, Citizen Kane did, I did laugh at the parts I remembered and my affectionate memories were not completely wiped out. Any movie with Lugosi is a treat, and for my money any movie with Zombies is a must see.

This comedy duo horror movie from a bygone era was a little too braindead for me. It's watchable, but not really worth dying for.

[ironhorse_iv · 5/10 · 13 May 2017]

Made in an era, where the word 'zombie', meant, the fear of being turned into a mindless, slave automaton, against one's will, rather than the rampaging, bloodthirsty reanimated corpse that wants to consume human flesh. I found this comedy directed by Gordon Douglas, about two American men, Jerry Miles (Wally Brown) and Mike Strager (Alan Carney), tasked in finding a real-life Voodoo zombie for a Haiti-themed nightclub in New York to be six feet under, below-average, both in storytelling and in presentation. Without spoiling the movie, too much, while, I wouldn't call this movie, the worst comedy horror B-film, RKO ever produce. I can say, it's nowhere near the best. I found the writing by Lawrence Kimble, Robert Faber, Charles Newman and Robert E. Kent to be, very bad, even for 1940's standards. First off, the plot makes little sense, even for a comedy. First off, who builds a night-club in NYC, based on dark magical practices of the Voodoo religion? I can see, New Orleans, maybe, doing that, but New York City. It's so out of place. It's like constructing a discothèque with an Aztec sacrifice table in downtown, Chicago. It's just doesn't fit. Also, why does a NYC club, need a real-life zombie in the first place? It's like if Luxor in Las Vegas, just decide to have real-life smelly curse mummies in its casinos. It's just doesn't work. Another thing, wrong about this film, is the fact, that I have really have no clue, why they felt to turn the sequel to great 1943's scary movie 'I Walked with a Zombie', into a comedy, so soon after the movie, released. It's like, instead of making 1935's 'Bride of Frankenstein', they choose to make 1948's 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'. It just doesn't work, because fans of the first movie, will hate it, for making the monster, they fear, into a laughing stock. The tongue-in-cheek attitude would ruin, the gritty, dark image that the original filmmakers were trying to do. I felt that, is what happen, here! In the first movie, actor, Darby Jones's unnamed zombie was somewhat scary. However, in this movie, they make him, into a bug-eye joke. At least, with the other fictional movie monsters, they didn't make, fun of them, until years later, when the limelight of fear starting to fade. Even with that, the film is still unfunny. The devious straight man and the dimwitted comic shtick from Brown & Carney just didn't landed for me. There wasn't much, clever word play, or snappy dialogue for Brown & Carney to work with. How was they supposed to impersonate Bud Abbott & Lou Costello without much witty interchange. These goofy hokey buffoons, seems to be, missing the key ingredient that makes Abbott & Costello famous. Even the pratfalls, weren't that impressive, as many of the stunt works were too unrealistic for any of them to look real. While, Brown & Carney impersonating of the comedy duo, Abbott & Costello was nowhere as annoying as Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis lookalike performers, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, from 1952's "The Boys from Brooklyn" AKA "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla". I just found, the acting from them, to be, a little less memorable than the 1952 movie with a similar premise. However, I did think, Bela Lugosi's acting in this, was lot better than "The Boys from Brooklyn". In that movie, it seem like Lugosi didn't give a crap about being typecast, yet again as another mad scientist. At least, here, Bela is trying to take it, serious, as Professor Paul Renault, a man trying to create a mind control serum, even if he's hardly in it. He hasn't yet, destroy his movie career due to his drug addiction to morphine and methadone. So, that is a plus. And to be fair, while this performance is not as good, as 1932's 'White Zombie', I have to say, it's one of Bela's stronger later outings. Also, that, isn't the only thing, good, about this movie; I also found the musical numbers with singer/dancer, Anne Jeffery to be ever-so lovely, even if she was throwing knives, during her set. She was one tough cookie; beautiful, poised and vivacious. Another, great musical number came from the calypso singer, Sir Lancelot, who sung a variation of the song, he sang in on Val Lewton's classic, 1943's movie, 'I Walked with a Zombie'. While, it's not as good as the original. It was pretty catchy. Nevertheless, I kinda upsetting by racist minstrel show, feel of the movie. It was hard to watch, the African-American performers act like dim-witted, lazy, superstitious buffoons. It's equally as cringe-worthy, when Carney felt to do, a comedy act, in black-face. I really didn't like how minorities were made to look like servers and lesser beings to the other races. Another reason, why I really didn't like this movie, is how cheap, the production was. It was pretty jarring to see, them chipping away on re-used sets from 1943's film 'The Ghost Ship' & the RKO's Tarzan movies. Overall: I have to say, this 'night of the jiving dead' movie was just way, too stupid for my taste to really like. In the end, I just can't recommended watching it. It's better off, staying in the dirt nap, where it belongs.

When I was young

[theekstroms · 8/10 · 31 October 2007]

This kind of movie just doesn't exist in history books anymore. When I was young and went to the "movie theater", ate Turkish taffy till I pulled a tooth, this kind of movie made me happy. I loved the silliness even when I was small. Today, I fear, not much happiness leaves the theater these days, only sophistication. Until this film was ran on TCM, I forgot about how much I liked the actors, Walley Brown, Alan Carney, Bela and Anne Jefferys. I believe Anne could still make it today in movies, 61 years after this film was made. If you love cinema that was actually made, but not PC, this is a funny film. I guess you can sum it up..I like ALL the actors. Hey, but then again, I guess little today about American history is PC today. Wish I could buy it.

Fun Flick

[Rainey-Dawn · 7/10 · 19 October 2015]

A very cute film... I had a lot of fun watching it. If you like fumbling criminals, mad scientists, zombies and zany comedies then this movie should tickle your fancy.

Two inept press agents are ordered to the island of San Sebastian to get a zombie for an opening night publicity stunt of a nightclub -- they don't want an actor playing a zombie they want a real zombie!! *Eek!* Enter Professor Paul Renault (Lugosi) and zombies are popping up everywhere.

Great cast, weird looking zombies, funny story, bizarre comedy... yes this film would make a great afternoon... I recommend making it a double feature with a film like King of the Zombies (1941).

7.5/10

"It seems a waste to make a beautiful girl a zombie."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 13 July 2015]

Horror comedy starring Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's resident Abbott & Costello knock-offs. The duo play two idiots working for nightclub owner (and gangster?) Sheldon Leonard. They come up with an idea for the opening of the club that involves zombies (the voodoo kind, not the Romero kind). But first they have to find a real zombie, so they head to a Caribbean island where they meet up with mad scientist Bela Lugosi. Bela's hard at work creating zombies and tormenting pretty Anne Jeffries. I guess it's up to our moronic heroes to save her.

Looking at some of the rave reviews on here made me wonder if we saw the same movie or if I was just being too critical. I've seen it twice now and it just does little for me. I love these types of movies usually and I am, of course, a fan of Bela Lugosi. But Brown & Carney are just not funny and Bela is given little to do but take his role too seriously for a comedy. Nick Stewart is very funny in a small role. Maybe he should've been the star instead of the two nitwits. Darby Jones play a zombie, complete with his "I Walked with a Zombie" fake bug eyes. It's watchable enough for fans of old horror comedies but don't expect many laughs.

Agreeably silly movie.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 24 October 2015]

Wally Brown and Alan Carney probably don't come up that often when people talk of classic comedy teams. They do come off as a bargain version of Abbott and Costello. That said, they do manage to be likable enough and passably amusing, in this mostly enjoyable nonsense about Jerry (Brown) and Mike (Carney). Jerry and Mike are press agents for a former mobster turned entrepreneur, Ace Miller (the well cast Sheldon Leonard). Ace is starting up a nightclub named The Zombie Hut, and Jerry and Mike have promised an authentic zombie for the opening. So it's off to San Sebastian they travel to try to procure one of the living dead; here they encounter a beautiful singer (the ravishing Anne Jeffreys) and a nefarious scientist (the great Bela Lugosi, who is the main reason to watch this) trying to contrive his own zombies.

More modern viewers may wince at racist aspects to some characters and script details. Otherwise, this proves watchable enough for 68 lively minutes. The performers do their best; the supporting cast also includes Frank Jenks, Ian Wolfe, Louis Jean Heydt, and Sir Lancelot, who popped up in the more serious genre fare produced by Val Lewton and RKO. There's nothing particularly riotous or atmospheric in "Zombies on Broadway", but it has its mildly entertaining moments. One of the best bits is saved for the end, and it involves putting on an act for some natives. (The monkey is so cute in this scene.) Ms. Jeffreys plays a fairly tough and resourceful woman, not quite the typical victim. When she is face to face with zombie slave Kalaga (Darby Jones), she doesn't scream, but faints instead.

Bela Lugosi fans will want to see it for him. Even when working with second rate or third rate (or even worse) material, he never seemed to phone it in, and he's a delight as our conniving villain.

Fun ending, too.

Five out of 10.

Would have preferred "Mexican Spitfire Meets a Zombie".

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 30 January 2017]

The comedy team of Alan Carney and Wally Brown could hardly be called comedic. They strived too hard to be Abbott and Costello and were just not funny. A few of their movies have amusing moments, but that's because of their supporting cast. In the case of "Zombies on Broadway", what struck me was the obvious use of two characters from "I Walked With a Zombie": the calypso singer (Sir Lancelot, singing a variation of the song he sang in that Val Lewton classic) and the haunting zombie played by Darby Jones who maintains that peaceful silence with only subtle hints of menace.

Also added for the thrill of horror fans is Bela Lugosi as the mad doctor using his own research to create zombies and the beautiful Anne Jeffreys as the nightclub star who leads Carney and Brown to the world of voodoo and zombie creation. So in a sense, it is a sequel, just as " Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" is to the Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolf Man series. The eerie atmosphere is greatly aided by some good photography and moody lighting and music. A few funny moments hit here and there (as do a few thrills), but it's pretty second rate even if Lugosi does come off unscathed.

ZOMBIES ON Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 12 March 2007]

This horror comedy pits Bela Lugosi against a by-now forgotten comic duo - Wally Brown and Alan Carney - whose intention, obviously, was to pose a threat to the success of the Abbott & Costello team (but this was not to be); their antics here aren't exactly deplorable, but neither are they very inspired...

Anyway, the film is more interesting for the various elements it borrows from one of the classic Val Lewton horrors (like this film, an RKO production), namely I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943): not only is the narrative partly set on the island of San Sebastian (in fact, the Broadway section is restricted to the first half and the final reel!) but it also utilizes two cast members (in virtually the same roles) - Darby Jones as the bulging-eyed zombie and Sir Lancelot as a local troubadour (even his haunting song from the earlier film makes an appearance here, albeit with revised lyrics). Another connection with the Lewton horror cycle is cinematographer Jack Mackenzie (who shot ISLE OF THE DEAD in the same year as ZOMBIES ON Broadway); as for director Douglas, while he may have been chosen for this film because of his comedy background - having helmed among others the Laurel & Hardy vehicle SAPS AT SEA (1940) - his greatest success probably came when he made one of the milestones of horror/sci-fi cinema, THEM! (1954).

Lugosi (with eyebrows ridiculously joined together) is a long-lost scientist obsessed with bringing the dead back to life, and Joseph Vitale (who resembles Joe Spinell!) is his sinister-looking aide. The supporting cast also includes Sheldon Leonard (who appeared in two Abbott & Costello comedies) as a gangster threatening our heroes, Ian Wolfe as an eccentric museum curator and an old acquaintance of Lugosi's, and Louis Jean Heydt (Joe Brody in THE BIG SLEEP [1946]) as a radio personality trailing Leonard's shady exploits. As I said, the film's climax relocates to the U.S. and has Carney, Leonard and Brown (in that order) take turns donning the zombie make-up!

Zombies on Broadway was my first exposure to the obscure comedy team of Alan Carney & Wally Brown

[tavm · 6/10 · 14 July 2015]

Having previously seen many movies starring obscure comedy teams like The Ritz Brothers, Olsen & Johnson, and Wheeler & Woolsey, this particular one may star the most obscure of them all-Alan Carney & Wally Brown. Presumably, they were RKO's answer to Abbott & Costello. Carney even does a comic take of being frightened like Lou first did on Hold That Ghost and subsequent films after that though Alan's version has him not being able to make a sound when being so as opposed to Lou's temporarily having to repeat letters in words before going to the next one. Anyway, here this team has to deal with gangster Sheldon Leonard who wants a real zombie at his nightclub opening. So they go to an island where they encounter a couple of characters (Sir Lancelot and Darby Jones) from Val Lewton's I Walked with a Zombie. They also encounter Bela Lugosi and a stunning blonde singer played by Anne Jeffries. I thought Carney and Brown were a little amusing if not hilarious. And Lugosi has a pretty funny scene with a monkey in file drawers. Oh, and I also liked when Carney made himself darker, he looked authentically so instead of the "white lips" caricature of other Caucasion performers. So on that note, Zombies on Broadway is worth a look. P.S. In once again identifying players and things from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-in other films, not only was Sheldon Leonard from that one, so was a piece of music used here for some female dancers dressed as island natives. It would eventually also be used to portray the sleazy atmosphere of Pottersville when George Bailey walks through what would have become of his beloved Bedford Falls if he'd never been born...

Zombies on the Ritz.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 31 October 2016]

Getting to the final hours of IMDb's Horror board's October Challenge,I decided to finish the event with a short and sweet shot of Bela Lugosi. Looking online at public domain Bela flicks,I stumbled on a Horror Comedy of his that I've never heard of before,which led to me dancing with the zombies.

The plot:

Putting on a fake image of "going straight" gangster Ace Miller decides to hype his new Broadway nightclub by getting a zombie to appear (who else would the crowds want to see!) Struggling to find a zombie in the area,Miller pushes his press agents Jerry Miles and Mike Strager to find a zombie before the opening night.Traveling to the West Indies,the guys soon get much closer to than they ever expected.

View on the film:

Chipping away on re-used sets from RKO's Tarzan movies,director Gordon Douglas & cinematographer Jack MacKenzie find get out of jail free cards to flash the flick with a bit of style, via bright white lights for the smoking hot sun of the West Indies,to bringing a surprisingly eerie atmosphere to life,in lighting the zombies in silhouette. Juggling light Comedy and Horror,the screenplay by Lawrence Kimble/ Robert Faber/ Charles Newman and Robert E. Kent strike a fine mix of wacky,playful slap-stick round boo-hiss gangsters and slightly creepy Voodoo zombies, (no meat eaters here!) which stands out by actually being respectful to the traditions of the West Indies.Staying in the background,Bela gives a chirpy,scene- stealing performance as Professor Paul Renault,as Wally Brown and Alan Carney get into their groove with quick-fire exchanges and joyfully silly physical Comedy,which causes the zombies to dance off.

Quite a decent little zombie comedy.

[Prichards12345 · 6/10 · 14 July 2019]

Zombies on Broadway, astonishingly enough, turns out to be a sort of semi-sequel to Val Lewton's I Walked With A Zombie! Some of the cast from that movie turn up, including Darby Jones playing a different member of the undead, and of course, the august presence of Bela Lugosi helps keep things on the straight and narrow when Brown and Carney turn up.

I have to confess I haven't seen any other of their movies, but I quite enjoyed them in this outing, which I believe was their final film together. They may be less gifted than Abbott and Costello but frankly they are also less annoying, mugging a lot less than the more famous duo.

The Island where all the shennanigans takes place, is of course St. Sebastian, which again featured in the earlier Lewton movie. When Carney and Brown arrive searching for a real zombie for the nightclub of a former gangster (on pain of a cement overcoat after promising him a real one which turns out to be a fake), the action is brisk and reasonably entertaining.

Lugosi, perhaps suprisingly given his talent for spoofing his image, plays it pretty straight; although one scene with a monkey made me smile.

All in all, perhaps a bit better than you might expect.

Can a Zombie dance? Can a zombie be a headliner?

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 25 April 2015]

It appears that RKO scraped together some left overs from I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE to make a quick buck or two as a sequel. Gordon Douglas directs this comedy about two hapless publicists Jerry Miles(Wally Brown)and Mike Strager(Alan Carney)trying to slip a fake zombie past their ex-mobster boss Ace Miller(Sheldon Leonard), who is wanting to impress some of his cronies at his nightclub. The inept Miles and Strager find themselves going to the Caribbean to recruit a real zombie to bring back to New York. In search of this special talent, they run into Professor Reanult(Bela Lugosi)performing experiments on natives. I think I've already spoiled it for you.

Also featured in this time stealer: Joseph Vitale, Anne Jeffreys, Frank Jenks, Russell Hopton and Darby Jones is the zombie.

Titillating title

[RDenial · 8/10 · 20 July 2005]

Brown and Carney were not too bad. They were better than some of the comments make them out to be. They couldn't touch Abbott and Costello, but I have seen far worse from more famous duos. I would have liked to have seen them with better writers. Just a note that Brown and Carney were reunited briefly in the 1961 film "the Absent Minded Professor". This is an OK comedy for those who like old fashioned comedy like I do. The thing that disappoints is that the title itself gives rise to images of zombies invading a Busby Berkley type musical or an army of zombies pursuing fleeing New Yorkers through the theater district. I was imagining the scene from Golddiggers of 1933 with Ginger Rogers singing "We're in the money" being invaded not by the cops but by zombies. Sadly, we get none of that. If you can get past the title then you will find an amusing little film. I would like to see George Romero remake it.

Nightclub of the Living Dead.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 29 April 2023]

Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With A Zombie clearly inspired this dreadful horror comedy, which stars Abbott and Costello wannabes Wally Brown and Alan Carney as bumbling press agents Jerry and Mike, who have promised to provide a real life zombie to promote new nightclub The Zombie Hut.

When radio broadcaster Douglas Walker (Louis Jean Heydt) hears of the preposterous promotional stunt, he sees an opportunity to publicly humiliate the club's owner, ex-gangster Ace Miller (Sheldon Leonard). With his reputation at stake, Miller tells Jerry and Mike that if they don't deliver a zombie by opening night, they'll pay with their lives. The pair are put on a steamer to the Caribbean island of San Sebastian, where mad scientist Dr Renault (Bela Lugosi) has been experimenting with a zombie serum...

Even Abbott and Costello at the top of their game would have struggled to make this nonsense work; Brown and Carney have no chance. The gags are lame, the plot is predictable, and it's sad to see Lugosi reduced to performing in such a pitiful excuse for a comedy. Also appearing in the film are Anne Jeffreys as pretty club entertainer Jean, with calypso singer Sir Lancelot and Darby Jones repeating their roles from I Walked With a Zombie. However, it is a monkey in a waistcoat who steals the show.

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for Lugosi, whose presence elevates the film a touch even though it looks like he is going through the motions.

One for Brown and Carney fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 26 April 2018]

Producer: Ben Stoloff. Executive producer: Sid Rogell. Copyright 20 April 1945 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 26 April 1945. U.S. release: April 1945. Banned in Australia. 68 minutes.

U.K. release title: Loonies on Broadway.

SYNOPSIS: Two Broadway press agents ask a weirdo professor for a zombie to exhibit in a nightclub musical revue.

COMMENT: Almost any Bela Lugosi movie is worth seeing. Even this inane script cannot dampen the Master of Transylvania. True, his role is subsidiary, but what a time he has!

Little more than a collection of talky corn, this rather strained comedy actually centers on the fast-voiced talents of Brown and Carney, who (aside from guest appearances) made eight films for RKO as a comedy team in the first half of the 1940s. This was number six. Here they are supported by an enthusiastic cast, headed by the attractive Anne Jeffreys.

Whilst the RKO art department has contributed some impressive sets, other credits are routine, Douglas's direction in particular coming across as surprisingly static and unlively. At least he gives the players their heads. A pity the screenplay is so inept.

Broadway?

[AaronCapenBanner · 2/10 · 20 October 2013]

Wally Brown & Alan Carney(would-be Abbott & Costello copies) are press agents forced by their nightclub-owning boss to go to the island of San Sebastian, where they are to find Professor Paul Renault(played by Bela Lugosi) who has a reputed technique for turning people into zombies, which is exactly what is wanted as a publicity stunt in the nightclub's opening night. The two men are bumblers, who nonetheless hassle the Professor, forcing him to go after them... Silly, clumsy, and entirely unfunny farce has aged quite badly, though Lugosi still tries; he would later work with the real Abbott & Costello when they met Frankenstein, and he once again played Dracula!