Carleton Carpenter

Spindly musical comedy performer Carleton Carpenter was a professional magician and Broadway actor when he was signed to an MGM contract in 1949. In his second film, Three Little Words, Carpenter was paired with Debbie Reynolds, who, in the role of boop-a-doop girl Helen Kane, sang "I Wanna be Loved by You." MGM liked the chemistry generated between Carpenter and Reynolds, obligingly casting them in larger roles in Two Weeks With Love (1950); it was in this film that the twosome performed the tongue-twisting ditty "Abba Dabba Honeymoon." Carpenter went on to give straight dramatic performances in such films as Sky Full of Moon (1952) and Take the High Ground (1953) before returning to the stage. While he would occasionally resurface in films and on television, Carleton Carpenter was better known in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a best-selling mystery novelist; one of his more popular books, Deadhead, was adapted into a short-lived Broadway musical.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide