In 1939, a new radio network, Whalen Broadcasting Network or WBN, has its inaugural night. Penny Henderson (Mary Stuart Masterson) head secretary of WBN tries to keep the gears of WBN turning while reining in the network's host of eccentrics from cash strapped writers who are irked at last minute re-writes, micromanaging sponsors, prima donna actors, and Penny's soon to be ex-husband Roger (Brian Benben) who works as a writer for WBN and tries to convince Penny not to divorce him due to a misunderstanding involving the "va-va-va-voom girl". As the night's programs of sitcoms, soaps, westerns, private eyes, and big band plays on, the station is routinely interrupted by ominous threats that promise and deliver on murders. Roger finds himself the prime suspect and must now try to clear his name during the hectic chaos of the behind the scenes of WBN.
George Lucas began developing Radioland Murders in the 70s around the same time he had worked on American Graffiti. Following the success of American Graffiti, Universal allowed pre-production to begin on Radioland Murders with a rough draft prepared by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. The script eventually ended up in development hell with Lucas busy with other projects throughout the 70s and 80s especially Star Wars and Indiana Jones. When Universal approached greenlighting Radioland Murders they had a condition for a re-write as the original script contained parodies of Old Time Radio shows modern day audiences wouldn't be aware of and a re-write was done by Moonlighting writers Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn to add elements that would appeal to the "MTV Generation" (How we all cringe that marketing people used that term). When the movie was released it received generally negative reviews, though some such as Roger Ebert praised the costuming, set design and art direction, and the movie bombed at the box office making a mere $1.3 million against its $15 million budget. Radioland Murders isn't a complete failure, nor is it the worst film of 1994 (Looking at YOU Michael Mills Stephen Hunter and Desson Howe), but Radioland Murders tries to hard to be a madcap farce with its pacing and you have all the action of a screwball farce without the established character.
The movie features a strong cast of actors such as Ned Beatty, Brion James, Stephen Tobolowsky, Larry Miller, Christopher Lloyd, and comedy legend Harvey Korman and this is a wonderful assortment of comic character actors that on paper should lead to some funny moments. In short bursts we do get decent gags here and there but much of the time the movie feels like it's trying to keep the movement going and focuses more on pratfalls and slapstick than building characters and playing up their friction with each other. Outside of Penny and Roger's strained relationship (which really isn't all that funny) most of the other actors are given at most one note to play and are only seldom allowed to play that note with or against the note of another player in the movie. There's a lengthy sequence where the WBN's house band plays a "Cocktails for Two" type song on a rotating stage while Larry Miller and Brian Benben end up under the stage and its such a busy sequence with all these different elements going on at once and a lot of flash cuts that we don't get to appreciate the scene or get much impact from the humor in it. There are funny sequences in the movie, but with a cast made up of this many comic talents it should have a better rhythm than "setup, setup, setup, joke" where the area between the jokes is just visual noise.
Radioland Murders has some solid ambition and is clearly a very passionate love letter by George Lucas to old time radio. From the costuming to the set designs there's real thought put into capturing that bygone era. But like many lesser Lucas Projects, the surface level details have been polished and repolished while leaving the substance somewhat lacking. The movie plays itself at a constantly zippy pace and tries to recapture classic Hollywood screwball comedies but doesn't give its characters the substance needed for us to be invested and just rushes them around slamming into doors and slipping in hallways while giving us a decent moment every so often. It's worth a viewing for its craft and production values, but as a comedy it falls short of those screwball classics it wants to emulate.
George Lucas began developing Radioland Murders in the 70s around the same time he had worked on American Graffiti. Following the success of American Graffiti, Universal allowed pre-production to begin on Radioland Murders with a rough draft prepared by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. The script eventually ended up in development hell with Lucas busy with other projects throughout the 70s and 80s especially Star Wars and Indiana Jones. When Universal approached greenlighting Radioland Murders they had a condition for a re-write as the original script contained parodies of Old Time Radio shows modern day audiences wouldn't be aware of and a re-write was done by Moonlighting writers Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn to add elements that would appeal to the "MTV Generation" (How we all cringe that marketing people used that term). When the movie was released it received generally negative reviews, though some such as Roger Ebert praised the costuming, set design and art direction, and the movie bombed at the box office making a mere $1.3 million against its $15 million budget. Radioland Murders isn't a complete failure, nor is it the worst film of 1994 (Looking at YOU Michael Mills Stephen Hunter and Desson Howe), but Radioland Murders tries to hard to be a madcap farce with its pacing and you have all the action of a screwball farce without the established character.
The movie features a strong cast of actors such as Ned Beatty, Brion James, Stephen Tobolowsky, Larry Miller, Christopher Lloyd, and comedy legend Harvey Korman and this is a wonderful assortment of comic character actors that on paper should lead to some funny moments. In short bursts we do get decent gags here and there but much of the time the movie feels like it's trying to keep the movement going and focuses more on pratfalls and slapstick than building characters and playing up their friction with each other. Outside of Penny and Roger's strained relationship (which really isn't all that funny) most of the other actors are given at most one note to play and are only seldom allowed to play that note with or against the note of another player in the movie. There's a lengthy sequence where the WBN's house band plays a "Cocktails for Two" type song on a rotating stage while Larry Miller and Brian Benben end up under the stage and its such a busy sequence with all these different elements going on at once and a lot of flash cuts that we don't get to appreciate the scene or get much impact from the humor in it. There are funny sequences in the movie, but with a cast made up of this many comic talents it should have a better rhythm than "setup, setup, setup, joke" where the area between the jokes is just visual noise.
Radioland Murders has some solid ambition and is clearly a very passionate love letter by George Lucas to old time radio. From the costuming to the set designs there's real thought put into capturing that bygone era. But like many lesser Lucas Projects, the surface level details have been polished and repolished while leaving the substance somewhat lacking. The movie plays itself at a constantly zippy pace and tries to recapture classic Hollywood screwball comedies but doesn't give its characters the substance needed for us to be invested and just rushes them around slamming into doors and slipping in hallways while giving us a decent moment every so often. It's worth a viewing for its craft and production values, but as a comedy it falls short of those screwball classics it wants to emulate.