Radioland Murders

There's no denying that George Lucas is a legend in the movie business. But even legends are bound to have a flop or two on their filmography. Today I thought I would take a look back at one of Lucas' that seems to have been forgotten all together, 1994's Radioland Murders.

It's 1939, and radio network WBN is launching it's big debut over the airwaves. It's already a chaotic night at the station and to make matters worse, employees are being murdered off one by one. The police chief, Michael Lerner, suspects the head writer, Brian Benben, who just happens to be at the scene everytime one of these murders occurs. Benben scrambles around trying to clear his name and also win back his soon to be ex wife, the producer, Mary Stuart Masterson.

Lucas actually began writing this script back in the 70's while working on American Graffiti. He envisioned it as sort of a prequel to Graffiti with the Benben and Masterson characters being the parents of Richard Dreyfuss' character fro Graffiti. After Graffiti was a hit, Universal Pictures bought the rights to the screenplay and wanted Lucas to direct. They even had Steve Martin and Cindy Williams signed on for the leads. Universal had issues with the budget and they weren't sure how to sell a radio nostalgia piece. So the script languished for nearly twenty years until Lucas could convince them that he could be bring the budget down thanks to CGI. It actually went over budget. He also hired Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn, two writers from the tv show Moonlighting, to give the script a more modern feel to appeal to the younger audiences. He also decided not to direct and handed the reigns over to Mel Smith, the directer of Bean and The Tall Guy. Lucas felt that a British comedy director would be better equipped to direct a slapstick farce.

There's a joke at the beginning of the movie about a kitchen sink, and I think the only real downfall of this movie is that Lucas tried to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into the script. This is a very busy movie with a ton of characters to keep track of. That being said, I think it's still a lot of fun. Benben, probably best known for starring on HBO's Dream On, proves that he is quite a gifted physical comedienne. And isn't it just fun to say Brian Benben? Masterson is also very good in a Katherine Hepburn style role. The rest of the cast is filled with a who's who of actors including Jeffrey Tambor, Michael McKean, Christopher Lloyd, Ned Beatty, Corbin Bernson, Harvey Korman, Bobcat Goldthwait, Rosemary Clooney, and in their final roles George Burns and Anita Morris...just to name a few. Even Bo Hopkins and Candy Clark, from American Graffiti, make an appearance.

Radioland Murders is a fun nod to the era of slapstick and is definitely worth a look.

It's available on dvd.