“There’ll never be anything quite like radio!”
When my parents decided in the early ’90s that we would be a road trip family, my father went out and bought a collection of cassette tapes that were compilations from the radio’s golden age, remastered and restored. It was the first time I had experienced Lucille Ball outside of I Love Lucy in My Favorite Husband, my introduction to George Burns and Gracie Allen, and the discovery of Suspense, the popular radio show that introduced me to, among other things, Sorry, Wrong Number. It was a safe bet I would take to this format of storytelling, as my love of period-set films had already shown my old soul sensibilities some years earlier.
After all, Clue was my favorite movie as a child, and one I was beginning to commit to memory. It’s no surprise then that when Radioland Murders premiered in the fall of 1994, it felt like it was made only for me. Judging by the audience and critical response of the day, it was. I can clearly remember how, by the movie’s second week, it only had two showtimes. A little more than 30 years on, Kino Lorber’s recent Blu-ray release of the movie shows that perhaps there’s always been an audience for one of the craziest comedy/mysteries ever to emerge.
Written and produced by George Lucas, Radioland Murders takes place over the course of a single evening as a Chicago radio station, WBN, is about to go on the air for the first time despite the many dramas happening behind the scenes in everyone’s attempt to be ready by airtime. In the midst of the chaos is the station’s main secretary, Penny (Mary Stuart Masterson), who is on the brink of divorcing her husband, head writer Roger (Brian Benben), over an alleged affair. However, their squabbles must be pushed aside when various members of the station’s crew start turning up dead.
Radioland Murders can be seen as a case study in screwball comedy and how the genre altered its shape throughout the decades. When Lucas first conceived of the story, it was the 1970s, a time when this kind of throwback thrived thanks to the success of films such as What’s Up, Doc and Blazing Saddles. In fact, Lucas has stated that the characters played by Benben and Masterson are actually the parents of Richard Dreyfuss’ character in the director’s own American Graffiti. Admittedly, this might’ve worked better in the experimental ’70s than the slightly cynical mid-’90s, where parody had taken the place of screwball and people were more embracing of Leslie Nielsen than Mel Brooks. Yet through the countless drafts and various stops and starts, the screwball spirit remains in the end result.
So much about this movie was not appreciated when it was first released. For starters, Radioland Murders is an incredibly beautiful movie to look at, with a production design that is just stellar. It is the epitome of lavish old-school moviemaking, complete with bright colors and Art Deco sets. It’s the perfect backdrop for all the comedy to take place, especially the rapid-fire wordplay and endless one-liners at hand. “You’d think his parents beat him when he laughed,” one character says about the station’s humorless Sponsor (Brian Jones). Such lines pair well in relation to many of the over-the-top comedy set pieces.
There’s the mixed-up script scene involving two actresses where one is performing in a soap opera while the other has been handed the pages of a jungle adventure, which is a pitch-perfect comedy moment. Other hilarious sequences include a victim being killed with laughing gas. When Roger gets there too late and starts laughing as he begins breathing in the poisonous gas, he proves quite the sight for the cops when they show up to find him hovering over a corpse. Not all jokes work. Some, such as Michael Lerner’s gruff Detective shouting to Roger: “I got two words for you, kid, get a lawyer!” could have used another pass. But this is farce mixed with slapstick and pratfalls galore; all of which was made with the utmost precision and love.
The movie’s energy is just infectious, at times feeling like a living, breathing cartoon. Everything is just so incredibly heightened in a way that doesn’t feel overblown, but rather endearing and charming. This is a movie that takes the comedy/mystery genre blend to the hilt and then even further. Case in point, the musical number in which the orchestra must play on a revolving stage that goes haywire when another victim gets caught in it underneath. The sequence, during which Billy Barty performs “That Old Black Magic” (the first time I’d ever heard that song), is a masterclass in physical comedy. Eventually, the movie does get to be more cartoonish as the climax nears, if that’s even possible. Yet touches like Roger uncovering the killer’s identity by writing it into a script that’s read over the radio for the whole audience and staff to hear keep the film feeling fresh.
Radioland Murders benefits greatly from having two well-respected character actors as the two main characters over traditional movie stars. In an alternate universe, stars like Julia Roberts and Alec Baldwin would’ve landed the roles and might’ve brought the whole affair crashing to the ground, as this is a piece that requires a unique instinct and sensibility when it comes to comedy. Masterson and Benben make for a pair of incredibly embraceable leads. Her pluckiness and his affability make them the perfect guides through this wacky story. It helps that Masterson and Benben have enough moments and sparks together as actors that you buy them as a couple, making you invested in them, even in the midst of all the zaniness.
Joining them is a who’s who in terms of stars and character actors. There’s Larry Miller as the German Station Manager, Jeffrey Tambor as the inept Director, Ned Beatty as the station’s Owner (who also happens to be an Army General), Stephen Tobolowsky as a Sound Engineer, Christopher Lloyd as a Sound Effects Artist, Michael McKean as the Band Leader (we love a Clue reunion), Harvey Korman as a drunken Writer, and both Barty and Burns as part of the act. Yet it’s Lerner as the Detective brought in to solve the murders who may be having the most fun out of anyone else in the cast. You just know you’re in for an extra level of fun whenever his character shows up.
According to a special feature interview with Benben recorded for this release, Lucas was very hands-on as producer while remaining respectful of director Mel Smith and his vision for the movie. It’s understandable how Lucas would be such a presence, given his attachment to the project for decades. There’s also something very true to Lucas’ life in seeing Roger ranting about having to do rewrites, a constant theme within the movie that echoes the various reworkings of the script Lucas had to do over its many years in development.
In my honest opinion, there were a number of missed nominations that Radioland Murders should have gotten. The movie’s costumes, production design, and cinematography were ripe for Oscar love, while the two spirited lead performers, and even the film itself, should have been shoe-ins at the Golden Globes.
Even if 1994 audiences clearly didn’t think so, Radioland Murders strikes just the right kind of delightfully nonsensical tone it was going for. This movie is an homage, not a commentary, and a real love letter to the glory days of radio above all else. It totally immerses itself in the time period (it’s the first time I ever heard coffee referred to as java) through its tribute to the medium and the many different possibilities it possessed. As Roger himself put it towards the movie’s end: “Radio will never die. That would be like killing the imagination.”
Radioland Murders is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber.
