Director: Mel Smith
Writers: Willard Huyck,
Gloria Katz, Jeff Reno, Ron Osborn, George Lucas
Starring: Mary Stuart
Masterson, Brian Benben, Scott Michael Campbell, Michael Lerner, Stephen
Tobolowsky, Ned Beatty, Brion James, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor,
Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller, Anita Morris, Corbin Bernsen, Harvey Korman,
Robert Klein, Bobcat Goldthwait, Peter MacNicol, Anne de Salvo, Jennifer
Dundas, Bo Hopkins, Candy Clark, Dylan Baker, Robert Walden, George Burns,
Rosemary Clooney, Billy Barty, Tracy Byrd, Joseph Lawrence
Today marks the release of
George Lucas’s labor of love “Red Tails”. It’s a movie he worked for years to
get funded. Lucas doesn’t produce a whole lot beyond “Star Wars” and “Indiana
Jones” related titles. When he does, they’re on a subject or about a time
period that means a lot to him. 1994’s “Radioland Murders” was such a project
for Lucas.
The movie was a disastrous
flop, making less than $2 million dollars in the U.S. box office from a $15
million dollar budget. It also garnered mostly negative reviews from the critics
at the time. While it’s not a great movie by any standards, it’s successful in
what it’s trying to accomplish.
It’s homage to the slapstick
comedies that Lucas grew up on and a tribute to the technological advancements
of entertainment. Taking place in radio’s twilight as the primary source of
entertainment for Americans and just before the dawn of television, “Radioland
Murders” is one of those murder mysteries with a large cast a suspects, a great
deal of misunderstandings, and a whole bunch of kinetic energy.
At the time of its release,
many were critical of its fast pace. I don’t believe it would be possible for
this fairly thin material to work without such a frenetic pace. It doesn’t take
the time to allow the audience to get to know the characters, and so it uses
character archetypes instead. If you knew too much about the characters, it
would be too easy to figure out the mystery.
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