User reviews

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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").

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".

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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...

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!

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

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.

Press agents Jerry Miles (Wally Brown) and Mike Strager (Alan Carney) promise to get a zombie for ex-gangster Ace Miller's new club Zombie Hut which is opening on Friday the 13th. A reporter ridicules him for bringing a fake one. Now, he demands the boys to get a real zombie. The boys go to Professor Paul Renault (Bela Lugosi) on the savage island of San Sebastian.

This is not particularly funny. The two leads are not that funny either. They are no Abbott and Costello. It takes about twenty minutes into the movie to get to Bela Lugosi. I can see that the movie wants to be funny. The performers aren't able to deliver.

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.