Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Radioland Murders Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 14, 2019

It might be hard to think of a more eclectic, varied cast than the one in Radioland Murders: Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ned Beatty, Harvey Korman, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Candy Clark, Bobcat Goldthwait, George Burns, Rosemary Clooney, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Lerner, Stephen Tobolowsky, Anita Morris and Jack Sheldon are just some of the people marauding in and out of this manic would be comedy. Unfortunately, all of that talent is largely for naught in a frenetic enterprise that tries to recreate the over the top sensibility of screwball comedy, a genre which thrived on controlled chaos. Radioland Murders only gets half of that equation down pat — the chaos part, and unfortunately it forgets the “comedy” part of screwball comedy quite a bit of the time as well. It’s energetic, to say the least, and there are a few gags that are decent, but considering the subject matter — a 1939 Chicago radio station going national, and experiencing a series of murders during its first big broadcast — and its cast (as outlined above), Radioland Murders may strike some as providing a lot of (no pun intended) dead air.

One of the things that might keep Radioland Murders from ever really registering is the sheer size of its cast, no matter how notable many of those cast members are. Some of the best remembered screwball comedies, efforts like Bringing Up Baby and/or His Girl Friday, featured either one or two focal characters, with a gaggle of “supporting lunatics” (so to speak) surrounding them. Radioland Murders makes a somewhat feeble attempt to concentrate on Roger Henderson (Brian Benben), a writer for serials that air on radio station WBN, and his estranged wife Penny (Mary Stuart Masterson), who has all sorts of job assignments around the station (especially after others start dropping like flies), but the quartet of scenarists (something which may indicate significant tinkering along the way) don’t seem to trust that relationship to provide a suitable anchor for the film, and so things keep darting off into a flurry of subplots and cameos, including George Burns in his last film appearance.

Radioland Murders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Radioland Murders is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Perhaps surprisingly given the bare bones nature of this release, Universal has granted this a BD-50, though the file size is only actually marginally above the 25GB limit of a BD-25. One way or the other, this is a very nicely detailed and well suffused looking transfer, one that offers great levels of fine detail on the many period costumes and sets, and which preserves the film's kind of candy colored palette very effectively. There are recurrent minor signs of damage, including things like small white flecks. The fine grain field is apparent, but occasionally had a slightly digital look to it.

Radioland Murders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Radioland Murders features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that benefits from the general "noisiness" of the sound design, along with a glut of specialty musical numbers that are kind of shoehorned into the proceedings. There's a certain Hawksian element to the layering of dialogue (frequently things "on the air" are going on in the background) and the track has a nicely spacious sound that keeps everything clear for the most part.

Radioland Murders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Not only are there no supplements on this disc, there's not even a Main Menu. And whoever authored this disc may end up being a victim themselves if any frustrated videophile gets a hold of them, since rather oddly the disc has been authored to allow chapter skipping through the FBI warnings (something that is typically not "allowed"), but which then has been authored to stop playback if an attempt is made to chapter skip past the PG rating screen (fast forwarding is workable and will get you to the feature).

Radioland Murders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Radioland Murders is simply too relentlessly frenzied for any gags (some of which aren't exactly gold standard efforts to begin with) to really land. The film has a really bright, colorful production design and a ton of fun music, but the comedy is often dunderheaded at best. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.