RADIOLAND MURDERS
		      A review by Professor Neon
			  October 18, 1994

Starring: Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ned Beatty, Scott Michael
	  Campbell, Michael Lerner, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor,
	  Stephen Tobolowsky, Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller
	   
Cameos by: George Burns, Billy Barty, Harvey Korman

Directed by: Mel Smith

Produced by: Rick McCallum, Fred Roos

Screenplay by: Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, Jeff Reno, Ron Osborn

Executive Producer: George Lucas

Story by: Geroge Lucas

Universal (1994)

MPAA Rated: PG

Professor Neon's rating (0-10, 5=average, 10=best): 5

Total running time: 112 minutes

Opens: October 21, 1994
       
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It seems clear that a film with George Lucas as executive producer and story
author was destined to attract a great deal of attention regardless of its
subject matter.  In the case of "Radioland Murders", the knowledge that
Industrial Light and Magic was behind the film's special effects (hardly a
surprise for a Lucas film) still has served to heighten anticipation that
this might be a very special movie.

The opening scene brings forth a special sense of somewhat warped deja vu.
We begin by looking at a vast star field, and drop slowly down.  Suddenly
from the bottom of the screen, thrusting upward into view is...the top of a
radio tower, which expands and looms larger into the field as we slowly move
down toward its base.  The overall effect is to directly satirize the
opening shot from Lucas' own first "Star Wars" movie, where the giant ship
enters the view and seems to keep growing and growing.  This antenna shot is
both amusing and memorable.  Unfortunately, it's just about the only
memorable scene from a largely forgettable film.

"Radioland Murders" is supposedly a "romantic mystery comedy."  Actually, it
amounts to just a simple slapstick comedy, and a rather poor one at that.
Set in 1939, the story involves a new radio network (WBN) on its debut night
beset with all manner of problems, most of which revolve around a continuing
sequence of "mysterious" murders.  But finding anything in this film beyond
the slapstick elements is a difficult task indeed.

Most of the characters are simply silly; to call them two-dimensional would
take a leap of faith.  And while there's nothing wrong with slapstick, this
film isn't even a satisfying comedy.  The bits never consistently rise above
a lukewarm humor, with only rare and very brief sojourns into funnier or
even mildly clever material.  What's worse, we've all seen most of these
routines before, far more amusingly staged; this film doesn't even do the old
bits justice as recreations.  Unless you're really into swinging doors
hitting people in faces, ledges crumbling, and guys hanging outside windows
by fire hoses, you're liable to be sorely disappointed by the level of
comedy in this film.

The cameos by George Burns, Billy Barty, Harvey Korman, and others were all
quite brief--longer ones would have been welcome.  Even some actors with
non-cameo roles were underutilized--talented Christopher Lloyd, who plays
the network's sound effects man, has very little dialogue and was left to
perform a variety of minor sight gags during the creation of his sound
effects.  On the other hand, the film could have done without even the
relatively brief appearances by Bobcat Goldthwaite, who played the "wild
writer" with his usual obnoxious mannerisms.

There just isn't a lot to say about the acting performances in this picture
since there's really nothing there but an endless chain of low-grade
slapstick attempts, most of which never amount to much.  There was some
value to the very short recreations of various famous performers, such as
characters who obviously were meant to represent Spike Jones, Frank Sinatra,
and others.  It's just too bad that these few interesting sequences were
so short.

I mentioned Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) earlier.  Where were the special
effects in this film, you might wonder?  Actually, they fell into two
categories.  There are a number of scenes that heavily relied on effects,
primarily involving actions on and around the radio tower, complete with
computer generated biplane attack.

However, production materials indicate that most of ILM's work involved
"filling in" parts of comparatively ordinary scenes and sets that didn't
actually exist.  It seems that in many cases filming was done on only
partial sets, with areas of walls, ceilings, and other elements either
partly or completely missing.  ILM came in later and "filled in" the gaps on
the computers.  They did it well, too; none of these "set completion" effects
stands out in such a way as to be noticeable.

This use of effects technology to simplify physical set construction is
interesting, but one can't help but wonder how much it might hasten the day
that actors do most of their work before blue screens with no significant
sets at all, even for what we'd otherwise consider to be non-effects films.
Whether this sort of trend is a positive or negative development depends on
your point of view; I find it disturbing, particularly if taken to
extremes.  Could we really expect actors to give equally convincing
performances on nearly empty sets as they would with physical props around
them?  Luckily, this isn't a very serious possibility for the majority of
films--yet.

In any case, "Radioland Murders" is a real disappointment, especially coming
from the vast talents of George Lucas.  While it's technically well executed,
from most other standpoints it falls far short.  But of course, this isn't
the last we'll be seeing from Lucas, and with any luck his next effort will
return to high standards of entertainment, with "Radioland Murders"--and 
"Howard the Duck"--as mere blips in his career.  We'll all be waiting.

[ Professor Neon ]
 neon@vortex.com

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Professor Neon's rating for "Radioland Murders"
(0-10, 5=average, 10=best): 5

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