Monday, August 23, 2010

ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY / RKO - 1945

Welcome everbloody to tonite's Moldie Oldie Fun Feature supplied to us once again by Prof. Grewbeard, it's ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY and stars RKO's answer to Hope & Crosby and Abbott & Costello in the mid-forties, Brown & Carney!! Throw in Bela Lugosi, Anne Jeffreys and Sheldon Leonard, and you gots yerself a barrell of laffs!! And, because its RKO, this is a great little production all the way around!

Music is by Roy Webb, who had a whopping 264 composing and also 11 soundtrack credits from 1929-60! Check out some titles he worked on... ALIAS FRENCH GERTIE, AGGIE APPLEBY - MAKER OF MEN, HIPS, HIPS HORRAY, AUTOBUYOGRAPHY, CRACKED SHOTS, KENTUCKY KERNELS, SILLY BILLIES, NIGHT WAITRESS, BRINGING UP BABY, THE MAD MISS MANTON, BOY SLAVES, WILDCAT BUS, TOM, DICK AND HARRY, CAT PEOPLE, HITLER'S CHILDREN and THE BODY SNATCHER!

So, time for the show!.. Come on in little Dungeon helper and buddy, Rufus The Gnat. Here's the big red 'GO' button for you to press and start our Eariffic Earclip! Hit it, Rufus!.. ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY!

Wally Brown and Alan Carney play Jerry and Mike, they're publicity agents who are hired by gangster Sheldon (I SPY) Leonard to promote a nightclub called... The Zombie Hut! To their chagrin, they'll find themselves on the island of San Sebastiane where they are to try and bring back a real (live?) Zombie for the club's opening!!

Mike and Jerry get a lesson in voodoo and zombies before they head for the island. Check out the black Cadillac!

Leave it up to RKO to have a teriffic shot like this of an island!

Here's Sir Lancelot as the uncredited calypso singer who greets the passengers with a song as they leave the ship.

Of course, Bela's up to his old tricks, this time he's another zombie master using terror to rule the territory!

Darby Jones plays Kolaaga, The Zombie. Darby had a total of 32 acting credits which includes TARZAN THE FEARLESS, SWING HIGH, SWING LOW, TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS and ZAMBA!

This is Angela Gomez as the knife throwing dancer at a club on the island. Here, she busts this guy's liquor bottle just as he take a big swig.

Okay, that is one freaky still!.. Probably not recommended for wallpaper on your desktop!!

Mike is captured by Kolaaga and turned into a zombie by Bela. You have to admit, the zombie eye makeup is very effective and is a real hoot when Mike smiles!! They must have been cracking up on the set!!

Here's a classic comedy routine with Bela, the monkey that stole his syringe is hiding in the chest, Bela opens up one drawer and the monkey pops up in a different one, like in Scooby-Doo, good stuff.

Kolaaga, fed up with Bela, tosses him into a freshly dug open grave!!

The natives stop Jerry, Mike and Jean from boarding the ship, but when they see that Mike is a zombie, they run like Hell! Mike is then to be the zombie needed for the club's opening...

While waiting to go on stage, Mike starts staring at a showgirl while she takes off a stocking...

And viola, female anatomy snaps him out of his zombified state and jolts him back to the the land of the living. Looks like Jerry's doing pretty good himself!

The boss is tricked and he becomes the Zombie for the opening...

So, Mike gets the last laff, and he thinks Jerry got turned into the real hero, the uncredited lil' monkey!!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

4 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

BOI-OI-OINGGGG!!!...

Christopher said...

Saaay!..We need a real zombie for The ZoMbIe HuT!
Watched this one not too long ago,not too shabby.Quite a few I walked With A Zombie connections.
With Zombies all the rage again,why can't we get a good ol' tropical Zombie picture??

Suzanne said...

I LOVE THIS! It so reminds me of Val Lewton's "I Walked with a Zombie." Especially the singer. I need to see this film NOW!

TABONGA! said...

Psycho Sue - Thanks for yer comments, we love monster gurls here at The Dungeon - Oh, an' Rufus sez... bzzt, buzz buzz!

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