Moviecut—Zombies on Broadway

source: Zombies on Broadway

Zombies on Broadway

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.

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.

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.

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.