Notes
Both actors were under contract with RKO Radio Pictures. The two actors appeared in three films in 1943 when RKO decided to team them together as their answer to Abbott and Costello. [1] Brown and Carney's first film as a team was Adventures of a Rookie, which has some similarities to Abbott and Costello's 1941 film Buck Privates . RKO Pictures sent Brown and Carney on a vaudeville tour together in 1944. [2] Brown's screen character is usually "Jerry Miles" and Carney's is usually "Mike Strager." The only exceptions are Seven Days Ashore , Step Lively , and Vacation in Reno . Actress Anne Jeffreys appeared in four of Brown and Carney's films.
Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work on radio and in film and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and early 1950s. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is one of the best-known comedy routines of all time in the world, and set the framework for many of their best-known comedy bits.
Buck Privates is a 1941 musical military comedy film that turned Bud Abbott and Lou Costello into bona fide movie stars. It was the first service comedy based on the peacetime draft of 1940. The comedy team made two more service comedies before the United States entered the war. A sequel to this movie, Buck Privates Come Home, was released in 1947. Buck Privates is one of three Abbott and Costello films featuring The Andrews Sisters, who were also under contract to Universal Pictures at the time.
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. In its original incarnation, as RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum.
Most of their films had connections to other films. Brown and Carney's third film Step Lively was based on the same play that inspired the Marx Brothers film Room Service . Zombies on Broadway is a semi-sequel to the Val Lewton film I Walked with a Zombie , in which Sir Lancelot reprises his role as a singer. Their film Radio Stars on Parade is notable for having appearances by several popular radio personalities of the time: Don Wilson, Ralph Edwards and Skinnay Ennis.
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them in the top twelve. They are widely considered by critics, scholars, and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be inducted collectively.
Room Service is a 1938 RKO film comedy directed by William A. Seiter, based on the 1937 play of the same name by Allen Boretz and John Murray. The film stars the Marx Brothers and also features Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Alexander Asro, and Frank Albertson.
Zombies on Broadway is a 1945 American zombie comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It stars RKO's imitation Abbott and Costello Alan Carney and Wally Brown as a pair of men who are tasked with finding a real zombie for a zombie-themed nightclub. Sheldon Leonard, as a former mobster turned nightclub owner, and Bela Lugosi, as the mad scientist who created the zombies, also appear.
In 1945, writer Monte Brice went through older RKO scripts to find a new idea for Brown and Carney's next - and last - movie and decided on a remake of Wheeler and Woolsey's 1935 film The Nitwits , which became Genius at Work . [3] Genius at Work also starred Bela Lugosi, as well as Lionel Atwill in his last film appearance. This film would become Brown and Carney's eighth and final film together as a team as the studio dropped the two comedians' contracts in 1946. [4]
The Nitwits is a 1935 American comedy film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay written by Fred Guiol and Al Boasberg, based on a story by Stuart Palmer. Released by RKO on June 7, 1935, the film stars the comedy duo of Wheeler & Woolsey, with featured roles being filled by Fred Keating, Betty Grable, Evelyn Brent and Erik Rhodes.
Genius at Work is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins and written by Monte Brice and Robert E. Kent. The film stars Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Anne Jeffreys, Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi. The film was released on October 20, 1946, by RKO Pictures.
Lionel Alfred William Atwill was an English stage and film actor.
On occasion Brown and Carney appeared in the same film but not together ( Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event , Vacation in Reno ). For 1961's The Absent-Minded Professor , they were listed in promotional material as "the comedy team of Brown and Carney" as though it was designed as a comeback, but they shared no scenes.
Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins and written by Charles E. Roberts and Dane Lussier. It is the sequel to the 1942 film Mexican Spitfire's Elephant. The film stars Lupe Vélez, Leon Errol, Walter Reed, Elisabeth Risdon, Lydia Bilbrook and Hugh Beaumont. The film was released on July 17, 1943, by RKO Pictures.
Vacation in Reno is a 1946 film directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring Jack Haley, Anne Jeffreys, Iris Adrian, Wally Brown, Alan Carney, and Morgan Conway.
The Absent-Minded Professor is a 1961 American comic science fiction family film produced by Walt Disney Productions based on the short story "A Situation of Gravity" by Samuel W. Taylor. The title character was based in part on Hubert Alyea, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University, who was known as "Dr. Boom" for his explosive demonstrations. The film stars Fred MacMurray as Professor Ned Brainard.
After the team's split, Brown continued working in films and appeared on television shows such as I Married Joan , Wagon Train , and My Three Sons until his death in 1961. Brown had also been teamed with Tim Ryan in the Columbia Pictures short film French Fried Frolic in 1949, and with Jack Kirkwood in four RKO Pictures short films in 1950 and 1951. Carney also continued working in films, appearing in Walt Disney films and also had a cameo as a police sergeant in Stanley Kramer's 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . [4]
I Married Joan is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1952 to 1955. It starred veteran vaudeville, film, and radio comedian-comedy actress Joan Davis as the manic, scatterbrained wife of a mild-mannered community judge, the Honorable Bradley Stevens.
Wagon Train is an American Western series that aired on the NBC television network, 1957–1962 and then on the lower rated newer American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 1962–1965. Wagon Train first aired on September 18, 1957 and would eventually place the TV show in the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings. The series format attracted big name guest stars who would appear in major roles as travelers in the large wagon train or in the settlements they passed by or visited. It initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death in 1960 by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by Scott Miller and Robert Fuller.'
My Three Sons is an American sitcom. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until the end of its run on April 13, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of widower and aeronautical engineer Steven Douglas as he raises his three sons.
