Zombies na Broadway

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.

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.

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.

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

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.