RADIO DAYS
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
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This Woody Allen film is like no other -- a nostalgic collection of vignettes about the now-ancient days of radio, when the imagination provided the visuals and physically unattractive people could succeed in the entertainment world on the basis of a strong voice alone. For instance, the voice of the Masked Avenger superhero in RADIO DAYS is the short, bald, "Inconceivable!" guy from THE PRINCESS BRIDE. And maybe Woody's trying to make a point about his fondness for radio by staying out of the camera's view for the entire movie, serving only as narrator.
The main character is Woody Jr., a kid named Joe (played by Seth Green) whose grades are slipping because he's always listening to the radio. When his mom points this out, he replies that she's constantly listening to the radio too, she says it's different because she's already ruined her life and he's got the rest of his ahead of him. That means plenty of time to do mischevious little kid things like using collection money for Israel to buy a Masked Avenger decoder ring.
Woody throws in a lot of stories about the radio stars themselves, mostly about the coat check girl (Mia Farrow) and her slow rise to stardom, from singing laxative jingles ("X marks the spot") to being interrupted during her radio debut by the bombing of Pearl Harbor ("Who's she?"). Farrow's role this time around is as more of a dumb blond than her usual sensitive, emotional type.
Other favorite Allen actors appear in Radio Days, like Danny Aiello and Jeff Daniels (PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO), Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Roberts (Annie Hall's Sex Comedy) and Diane Keaton (Manhattan Bananas). It's large scale vaudeville type entertainment, including reenactments of different radio shows and musical numbers. Eight years later, a movie called THE RADIOLAND MURDERS would try to do a very similar thing and instead fall flat on its face. If THE LAST ACTION HERO has proven anything, it's that you don't rip off Woody Allen.
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