PG | 1h 48min | Comedy , Crime , Drama | 21 October 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 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.
Director: Mel Smith
Writers: George Lucas (story), 4 more (screenplay)
Stars: Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ned Beatty, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller, Anita Morris, Corbin Bernsen.
Jennifer Hammond-Moranz ... choreographer
Brad Moranz ... choreographer
19 songs in the Soundtracks.
The dead people aren't all cast members of the radio show. Mostly they are management. At least 1 victim was unintentional. The dead include: the trumpeter, the toupeed director, the announcer, the primary advertiser, the station owner. It's not clear to me which clues were red herrings, nor whether the guilty's confession was complete. So the murder mystery was cloudy, and that was likely intentional. This seems a spoof of Agatha Christie (and other) murders, which can be obtuse. The spectre of television is a motivating factor here, and that represents a real disdain/fear of the film studios back then.
The murderer announces his crimes with obtuse couplets a few minutes before they occur. Don't mind that they're muffled and you have no subtitles; when they recap the first 2, they're not very illuminating.
In the underscore, there's a very strong influence of Bernard Herrmann's score from Vertigo ('58), but no mention of it in the Soundtracks or the endcredits. ("Influence" is a euphemism; it sounds quoted to me.)
The primary reason I like this is the radio show itself. It's a very thorough pastiche of radio shows portrayed in films of the 30s & 40s. Rosemary Clooney is there onscreen singing; George Burns does a bit of his act. The variety of acts is amusing, including a Cab Calloway impersonator (named as CC in the credits). The studio band has many guises, including a Spike Jones number and a Latin number; SJ's estate is thanked in the credits. Unfortunately, the murder mystery, the backstage farce of writing the script moment-by-moment, the station manager's wife's infidelities, the broken marriage of the Hendersons, the usher/errand boy who wants to perform, all distract heavily from the radio show.
I like seeing what old H'wood the big directors loved. Lucas clearly liked some film genres beyond adventure stories.
Rated 6.2 (3,023)
Universal & more, dir. Smith; 6
