The RKO Brown & Carney Comedy Collection

The World War II years saw vaudeville comics Wally Brown and Alan Carney paired as RKO's answer to Abbott and Costello in these well-remembered "B" farces. New recruits Jerry Miles (Brown) and Mike Strager (Carney) get invited to dinner at a ladies' boarding house─only to get trapped there by a scarlet fever quarantine─in "The Adventures of a Rookie" (1943). Miles and Strager finally get to the Pacific Theatre─and have to spring their top sarge (Erford Gage) from a Japanese POW camp─in the follow-up "Rookies in Burma" (1943). In Gold Rush California, B&C are promised a payday from lonely '49ers if they can bring back a wagon full of women, in "Girl Rush" (1944). Frances Langford, Robert Mitchum co-star. Lastly, radio sleuths B&C get challenged by a genuine criminal mastermind─who plays for keeps─in "Genius at Work" (1946). Anne Jeffreys, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi co-star. 4 1/4 hrs. total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.