Zombies on Broadway

Buy This Item Zombies on Broadway by Turner Home Entertainment  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 11-27-2008     Much in the same way "The Monkees" were manufactured by Hollywood to take advantage of Beatlemania, the comedy team of Brown and Carney was created by RKO to try and clip off some of Abbott and Costello's huge success in the 1940s. While the Brown and Carney films are not objectionable, Bud and Lou did not have to stay awake at nights worrying. The chief distinction of this team is that in each film they made they played the same characters: "Jerry Miles" and "Mike Steager." Why they didn't just use their own names, in the fashion of Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, and occasionally Abbott and Costello, is a mystery. The single biggest problem with Brown and Carney, though, is that they aren't funny. In particular, Alan Carney seems completely incapable of generating a laugh -- and he's supposed to be the comic partner, though Wally Brown is actually better at timing and double takes. Chubby and rubber faced as he is, Carney nonetheless misses every opportunity to finess a gag through a reaction. His "comic" expression of fright looks more like David Hedison's as he's about to be eaten by the spider in "The Fly," and his constant, high-pitched, babyish scream "Miiiiike!" (Carney's version of "Heyyyy, Abbott!") is just annoying. That said, "Zombies on Broadway" is probably their overall best effort. The plot is suitable insane, the acting suitably broad, the music suitably brassy, and there are even a couple of suitably creepy moments involving Darby Jones as a shuffling zombie. What really makes this film worth a look, though, is the performance of Bela Lugosi, which belies the frequent comment that he never really understood comedy. His rendition of the old Three Stooge "dresser-with-a-life-of-it's-own" routine is funnier than anything Carney does in the film! "Zombies on Broadway" is pleasant, but your sides won't ache. Reader Reviews This scared the pants off me (figuratively) when I was a little kid. And it did the same for my daughter when she saw it some years ago, when she herself was 7 (child abuse? no: she's a sane 21-year-old now). As reviewers below note, it's a pretty sappy comedy, but amusing for all that. And if you're a kid, the zombies are SCARY! And the hypos full of zombie juice are REALLY SCARY! So: watch this for mindless fun if you're an adult, or show it to an impressionable kid for a creepy thrill. This gets 5 stars for nostalgia value (for me)-- your mileage may vary....

Zombies on Broadway Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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