RADIOLAND MURDERS
A film review by Raymond Johnston
Copyright 1994 Raymond Johnston
Director: Mel Smith Starring: Mary Stuart Masterson, Brian Benben, Ned Beatty, Scott Michael Campbell, Michael Lerner, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, Bobcat Goldthwait Story by George Lucas, Executive Producer- George Lucas
Another long awaited comeback from George Lucas is another dismal disappointment. This attempt to recapture the spirit of thirties B-film mystery thrillers quickly crumbles into a series of unfunny jokes and unwelcome cameos. It is only for a few minutes near the very end that any sense of plot is developed, and those few minutes are not enough to erase the tedium of the hour and a half that preceded them.
The film is set in 1939 on the opening day of a new radio network. The old big studios used to like the Big Broadcast plot because it gave them an excuse to parade their comic and musical talent. Much of the material the talent used was their own, so the cost of developing a script was greatly reduced. A flimsy plot could be structured around the jokes and songs, and a B-film was halfway home. A few art deco sets, and a crowd pleaser was guaranteed.
This film certainly assembles a lot of talent, but then quickly fails to give them anything to do. Harvey Korman is passed out under a desk for most of the film. Christopher Lloyd and Robert Klein don't even have any lines. Bobcat Goldthwait, much to the detriment of the film does. One hopes in vain that he will be the first victim in a string of humorous station murders. He is not. His endless drone serves to underscore the complete lack of humor in the comedy. The basic level of comedy in the film is having somebody run down the hall with last minute script changes, only to be hit in the nose with a door and drop the pages, get tripped and drop the pages again. This pale ghost of slapstick occurs repeatedly.
The two leads, Masterson and Benben play a bickering husband and wife who both work at the station. Their lack of chemistry and comic timing makes one long for Abbott and Costello in WHO DONE IT?, the film this is clearly trying to be. While there are stand-up comics everywhere in the film, from the elevator operator to the torch singer's husband; Masterson and Benben are not a comic team. That is what the film sorely needs.
Even a great comic team, though would have had to struggle to wring the laughs out of this script. In the opening scene, station owner Ned Beatty throws the radio show's script back at the writers and says that it isn't funny. Advice that the makers of this film could have taken to heart as well
If the backstage scenes fail, the onstage scenes work a little better. Spinal Tap's Michael McKean portrays a Spike Jones band leader and manages to do for big band music what he has done before for rock and roll. George Burns and Rosemary Cluney, veterans of the original radio show films, make brief appearances. A few talented actors do soap opera, science fiction, and thriller stories for the live audience. Just when these stories get good, the films leaves them and returns to the less amusing back stage antics. Even the Andrews Sisters impersonators are a relief from the ingratiating Bobcat Goldthwait.
Set and costume design are the film's main plusses. Just like the recent SHADOW, this film recreates the look of the thirties very successfully. As with THE SHADOW, one is left puzzled why the film makers bothered to try to recreate obscure thirties cultural relics without making the films at least as interesting as the originals.It seems in both cases, and DICK TRACY as well, the main concern was the visual , and not the narrative element.
Woody Allen's new film, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is a much funnier attempt at a backstage comedy set in the art deco period. Allen's RADIO DAYS also recaptures the era with more feeling and wit. Three classical era Hollywood films that are much better are THE BIG CLOCK with Ray Milland and Charles Laughton, INTERNATIONAL HOUSE with Burns and Allen, and WHO DONE IT? with Abbott and Costello.
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