Radioland Murders (1994)

In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with... See full summary »

Director:

Mel Smith

Writers:

George Lucas (story), Willard Huyck (screenplay),

Stars:

Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ned Beatty

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brian Benben	...	Roger Henderson
Mary Stuart Masterson	...	Penny Henderson
Ned Beatty	...	General Walt Whalen
George Burns	...	Milt Lackey
Scott Michael Campbell	...	Billy
Brion James	...	Bernie King
Michael Lerner	...	Lieutenant Cross
Michael McKean	...	Rick Rochester
Jeffrey Tambor	...	Walt Whalen, Jr.
Stephen Tobolowsky	...	Max Applewhite
Christopher Lloyd	...	Zoltan
Larry Miller	...	Herman Katzenback
Anita Morris	...	Claudette Katsenback
Corbin Bernsen	...	Dexter Morris
Rosemary Clooney	...	Anna

Storyline

In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN.

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Plot Keywords:

radio | radio network | sponsor | writer | director | 

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Taglines:

At station WBN, the hits just keep on coming.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Musical | Mystery | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild language, some farcical violence and brief nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 October 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Asesinatos en la radio

Filming Locations:

Carolco Studios - 1223 North 23rd Street, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$1,299,060 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Lucasfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Lucas has stated that the two main characters, Roger and Penny Henderson, are actually the parents of Richard Dreyfuss's character from Lucas' American Graffiti; making this film a bit of a semi-prequel.

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Goofs

At the end of the film the camera pans up to the top of the building, showing the damaged WBN logo. However, the holes where the letters came out of the wall are missing.

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Quotes

Penny Henderson: I told Dexter not to smoke. If you ask me, they oughta put warning labels on those packages.

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Connections

Spoofs Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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Soundtracks

"Don't Let Your Love Go Wrong"
Written by George Whiting, Nat Schwartz, J.C. Johnson
Courtesy of Record Publishers, Inc., Songwriters Guild

User Reviews

Didn't deserve to flop

You can see what critics in 1994 were complaining about. You can get a headache from this movie. Gags are too snappy (too packaged), editing is too rapid (if someone trips over the shot is only just long enough to cover the actual tripping over - we don't see the crucial bit at the start where they don't trip over, or the bit at the end after they trip over), and there's not a single moment of still contemplation which would allow all the feverish activity to be as funny as it deserves to be. And while it's nice to see a film that doesn't milk its gags for more than they're worth, at least that would be a fault on the right side. Some of the comic ideas are just begging to be WALLOWED in. For example (I'm going to end up recommending this film, so if you don't want its best sight gag ruined, for God's sake skip the next paragraph)...

One of the radio serials is about an aristocratic English explorer and his native jungle sidekick. We hear the former saying things like `What ho, I mean to say, steady on, old chap', while the latter is going, `Ooga booga - me mongo mongo man' - then we see that the African is being played by a dopey-looking white man, and the Englishman is being played by a black (in a tuxedo). It's a glorious moment. We realise what if their roles had been reversed they would BOTH have been demeaned ... as it is, they merely look like a couple of prize wallies. Unfortunately, that's IT. If we'd seen more of this radio play - and got to watch the bemused/assured/disgusted/bored expressions on the faces of the two voice actors - it would have continued to be funny; it would have got even funnier. But we cut to some other zany thing or other and the moment is lost.

(To be fair, some throwaway gags - like the one involving the policemen and television - are true throwaway gags: snappiness suits them.)

But it works, on the whole. There are plenty of good jokes, many of which have been weakened by the style of presentation, but by no means destroyed. The radio performances are amazingly polished and varied - you'd swear that Lucas sent talent scouts back in time to 1939. Sure, the film wants to be more than a highly entertaining comedy variety show (it's also trying for murder mystery, love story, nostalgic reverie, and social commentary), so it fails on its own terms, but it IS a highly entertaining comedy variety show, which is good enough.