Radio Stars on Parade

Radio Stars on Parade amounts to a misleading title. It should be Radio Star on Parade since Ralph Edwards is the only weekly star getting extended time. Of course, there's also the terrific Frances Langford who gets to croon a few tunes that almost makes the 60-minutes worthwhile. Then there's Brown & Carney, a sub-3 Stooges knock-about act that quickly gets tiresome. They carry the plot as ersatz talent agents trying to get Langford into show biz and evade Sheldon Leonard's gangsters at the same time. I don't know if RKO was trying to groom them to compete with Universal's Abbot & Costello, but if so, the effort didn't succeed and for good reason. Maybe if someone had a better sense of comedic timing, their skits wouldn't have over-extended. Anyway, if you're in the right mood the movie might appeal. I guess I was expecting better from the promising title.

(In passing—the rotund Alan Carney was actually quite a good actor. He appears as a gangster in that obscure noir gem The Pretender (1947) and comes up with one of the most chillingly disturbing performances I've seen! You'd never guess it from seeing his buffoonish role in this film.)