Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Radio Days Blu-ray Movie Review

Return with us now. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 28, 2014

Many Baby Boomers probably have distinct memories of being curled up in front of the family television watching their favorite show, only to have either a parent or grandparent walk in and say something like, “Back in my day, we had to use our imaginations when we listened to the radio.” There was an undeniably active component to radio listening in the heyday of the medium, when serials and other fiction programs spooled out stories with nothing but sound to guide the audience. But despite that salient difference, in other ways, listening to radio was very much in line with other media, both past and present, as is depicted hilariously in a small moment in Woody Allen’s Radio Days where a Rabbi (the wonderful Kenneth Mars) laments all the “dangers” that radio presents to the youth of America, in a rant that sounds suspiciously contemporary, other than the medium being pilloried. Those who are old enough to remember analog radios may recall the kind of surreal joy of fiddling with the dial, exploring the entire continuum of frequencies available over the air, and often being able to seamlessly segue from station to station. There’s something quite similar going on in Allen’s film, for it zings between stories—some of them more like vignettes, actually—like some kid fiddling madly with a radio dial, landing on a variety of partial anecdotes that remarkably add up to one of Allen’s most fully realized entertainments. Allen himself narrates the film, as an adult looking back on his own childhood set initially in the late 1930s in Rockaway Beach. Joe (Seth Green) is a somewhat mischievous young boy who escapes from the rigors of everyday Depression life by listening to such fodder as The Masked Avenger, a superhero of sorts whose voice may sound commanding over the airwaves, but whose actual real life physical presence (as embodied by one Wallace Shawn) is somewhat less intimidating. Here and throughout the film, Allen gently pokes and prods the dialectic between illusion and reality. Joe’s family, a motley crew forced to live together due to the hard times of the era, are, like Joe himself, trying to look away from the problems of their own lives by gazing at their radios and, yes, imagining the grand and glorious people who are emanating from the speaker. Except, it turns out that those people are often just as tawdry and mundane as the listening public.

Perhaps because Allen is drawing upon his own obviously very fond memories of this particular aspect of his childhood, Radio Days is one of the most snark- and tic-free of any of the auteur’s offerings. While the narrative arc is somewhat fragmented due to the very structure of the film, Radio Days is suffused with both a heartfelt nostalgia as well as a surprisingly clear eyed (and often very funny) adult perspective on things that happened long, long ago. One of the little miracles of this film is just how fully realized almost all of the characters all, despite the kaleidoscopic way the film unfolds, where little snippets of story segue into something else.

The ostensible focus of Radio Days is the large and unruly extended family of little Joe. Father (Michael Tucker) is a hard working shlub who resolutely refuses to tell Joe what he does for a living, while Mother (Julie Kavner) is a put upon woman who doesn’t want Joe listening to so much radio since his life isn’t “ruined” yet like hers is. Mother’s sister Bea (Dianne Wiest) spends most of the film desperately searching for a husband, and Joe’s grandparents are also on hand, though more in the background than some of the rest of the family. There’s also Uncle Abe (Josh Mostel) and Aunt Ceil (Reneé Lippin), making for a very full house.

One large “station” of comedy here is indeed built around the various adventures of the family. One date Aunt Bea goes on intersects badly with Orson Welles’ famous War of the Worlds broadcast, while Uncle Abe forsakes the Jewish prohibition on eating on Yom Kippur when he interacts with some Communist neighbors who convince him his religious beliefs are an opiate. But over and over, Allen actually shows the family listening to the radio, and it’s in this second “station” that Radio Days finds a lot of its appealing content.

A large coterie of radio performers traipse through the film, but the main focus is on Sally White (Mia Farrow), a hapless cigarette girl (look it up if you don’t know what that is) at a nightclub who has been engaging in a hopeless affair with a high-falutin’ radio star named Roger (David Warrilow). Sally’s star soon rises, though, and her personal story provides what is probably the closest thing to a traditional “character arc” in the film. But there are a number of fun vignettes showing various shows being done, and even the inimitable Kitty Carlisle, herself a radio star from that era, shows up in one amusing but touching cameo late in the film.

Perhaps surprisingly, Radio Days for all its escapist tendencies, is a film about coming to terms with reality. Allen’s narration provides a naturally distanced view of these long ago events, but the film itself repeatedly shows the “men (and women) behind the curtain”, detailing the warts of these would be Wizards of Oz. Joe’s family’s peccadilloes are worn on the characters’ sleeves, so to speak, but it’s notable that Radio Days doesn’t really shirk from showing that the supposedly glamorous lives of the elite stars of radio were hardly as scintillating as “regular people” assumed. The fact that Allen manages to do all of this in a preternaturally sweet manner is a testament to his writing finesse. Radio Days ends up being a rather entrancing combination of rose colored glasses nostalgia and clear headed reminiscing. It’s like listening to two radio stations simultaneously, and rather miraculously, there’s not even one hint of static.

Radio Days Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Radio Days is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a nice looking transfer, though it's rather soft looking quite a bit of the time, especially in midrange and wide shots, where detail is somewhat middling. Colors are nicely suffused, though Carlo di Palma's kind of autumnal looking lensing tends to offer a palette that is awash in rusts and browns rather than extremely bright primaries. Close-ups reveal very good fine detail. Grain structure is intact, though it's quite heavy at times, especially in some of the outdoor scenes (most notably those at the beach, where the sky is almost overrun with grain at times). Contrast and black levels are both strong and consistent. Elements are in very good condition, with only very minimal, almost negligible, age related issues occasionally cropping up.

Radio Days Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Radio Days offers one of the most ubiquitous sets of source cues in any Woody Allen film, and they come through very well in the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track offered on this Blu-ray. Most of the cues have been sourced from archival recordings, and so the occasional pop and crack are apparent, though these are obviously inherent elements. Dialogue is always cleanly presented and well prioritized.

Radio Days Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 1:28)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Isolated Music and Effects Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Radio Days Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Radio Days is at once simple and complex, as befits its subject. The film wends its way through countless vignettes like one of the squalls that blow in off the Atlantic to hit Rockaway Beach. The film is made up of a number of sweet and often hilarious little moments, bolstered by a large and very colorful cast. Buoyed by an evocative production design and filled with both real and ersatz broadcast material, Radio Days does in fact take us back to those "thrilling days of yesteryear". Technical merits are strong on this release, and despite the lack of copious supplements, Radio Days comes Highly recommended.