Verdict
Summary
A breakneck pace that literally never lets up for a single second makes Radioland Murders an almost relentless and exhausting movie rather than an amusing one, but the film is incredibly well produced (by George Lucas) with a snap-crackle-pop script by Gloria Katz, William Huyck, Jeff Reno, and Ron Osborn, which smashed two separate scripts together into a colliding force of farce and suspense. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s just a chore to endure, and I’ve always felt that this movie had a lot of potential if only it had allowed a little breathing room and a shorter length to make it less tiring.
Plot:
A phantom murderer is killing people at the premier event of a brand new radio station.
Review:
WBN is the brand new radio station in town, and their premier event is planned out over the course of the evening with one live performance after another, complete with suspense programs, sitcom-style comedies, commercials, vaudeville-style comedians and even an amateur talent competition. The station secretary is Penny (Mary Stuart Masterson) who is basically the stage manager making sure everything goes without a hitch on this seminal and important night, but the whole event is one big circus with dancers, befuddled actors, and all sorts of sponsors showing up, along with a live audience, and nothing goes as planned. The resident scriptwriter is Roger (Brian Benben), who happens to be married to Penny, but their relationship is on the rocks because Penny is sure Roger is having an affair with one of the actors (a sexy bombshell who is married to the station manager), but that’s the least of their worries because during the event, a phantom voice (sure sounds like Mark Hamill to me) makes cryptic threats live on the air, and sure enough people involved in the production begin dying! From a director to an announcer, and then the station owner, and more, people are murdered in outlandish ways, and a flustered detective (played by Michael Lerner) and a squad of idiot cops run around the station trying to make sense of it all. The top suspect: Roger, who happens to be just unlucky enough to fall into the killer’s traps more than once, and so he has to escape the cops’ clutches and prove that he’s innocent … and figure out who the killer is by using his wits and his skills at writing clever scripts!
A breakneck pace that literally never lets up for a single second makes Radioland Murders an almost relentless and exhausting movie rather than an amusing one, but the film is incredibly well produced (by George Lucas) with a snap-crackle-pop script by Gloria Katz, William Huyck, Jeff Reno, and Ron Osborn, which smashed two separate scripts together into a colliding force of farce and suspense. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s just a chore to endure, and I’ve always felt that this movie had a lot of potential if only it had allowed a little breathing room and a shorter length to make it less tiring. It’s got impressive special effects and very committed performances from a very game cast that includes everyone from Christopher Lloyd to George Burns and Billy Barty, but my favorite cast member is Bobcat Goldthwait who’s hilarious in it. I’ve seen this movie three times over the years, and I remember it coming and going very quickly in theaters towards the end of 1994 and bombing hard (it made just over a million bucks against a 15 million budget). It’s worth watching, though, if only to take a gander at a good cast in a very handsome production. It was directed by Mel Smith. Fun trivia: It’s technically a prequel to American Graffiti, as Benben and Masterson play the parents of Richard Dreyfuss’ character in that film.
Kino Lorber has just released a Blu-ray edition of Radioland Murders, and the transfer looks really solid from a new HD master (from a 2K scan of the 35mm interpositive), and there’s an audio commentary by several film journalists, plus a new zoom video interview with Benben, the trailer, and a slipcover.
