Radio Days (1987)

Regisseur:

Woody Allen

Drehbuchautor:

Woody Allen (written by)

Premierendatum:

30. Januar 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Komödie

Plot:

A nostalgic look at radio's golden age focusing on one ordinary family and the various performers in the medium.

Plot Keywords:

Adolescent Romance | Enema | Hunting | Coming Of Age | Teenage Boy

Filmpreise:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

Well, waddaya know, Woody does have a heart after all . . .

Besetzung

Mike Starr	...	Burglar
Paul Herman	...	Burglar
Don Pardo	...	'Guess That Tune' Host
Martin Rosenblatt	...	Mr. Needleman
Helen Miller	...	Mrs. Needleman
Danielle Ferland	...	Child Star
Julie Kavner	...	Mother
Julie Kurnitz	...	Irene
David Warrilow	...	Roger
Wallace Shawn	...	Masked Avenger
Mick Murray	...	Avenger Crook (as Michael Murray)
William Flanagan	...	Avenger Announcer
Seth Green	...	Joe
Michael Tucker	...	Father
Josh Mostel	...	Abe

Alternativ:

Radio Days (Österreich) (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) [de]

Länge:

88 Min

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

1.37 : 1

Tonverfahren:

Mono

Altersfreigabe:

Canada:PA (Ontario) | Iceland:L | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Singapore:PG | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG

Drehorte:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Firma:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Dies und das:

The story of Kirby Kyle, the ill fated baseball player, is a parody of former Chicago White Sox Pitcher Monty Stratton, whose promising career was derailed after he lost part of his leg due to a hunting accident. Stratton attempted a comeback, and then retired. His life was made into a movie The Monty Stratton Story.

Pannen:

Faktische Fehler: The burglars turn on a radio and instantly hear sound, when the vacuum tubes should have taken longer to warm up.

Dialogzitate:

[Last lines]
Narrator: I never forgot that New Year's Eve when Aunt Bea awakened me to watch 1944 come in. I've never forgotten any of those people or any of the voices we would hear on the radio. Though the truth is, with the passing of each New Year's Eve, those voices do seem to grow dimmer and dimmer.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in "Saturday Night Live: Paul Shaffer/Bruce Hornsby & The Range (#12.10)" (1987)

Soundtrack:

Body and Soul

Well, waddaya know, Woody does have a heart after all . . .

In preface, let me say that I was born at the tail-end of the "golden age of radio," but just in time to experience a touch of its magic and the hold it had on households night after night in that pre-TV era. Add to that a favorite aunt who had worked in radio for years on the West Coast and who regaled her nephew with story upon story, which in turn led to the years I later spent in radio (luckily, prior to the "formula radio" days). It all adds up to my absolutely having to go see "Radio Days" when it first came out, despite the fact that I'd never been the world's foremost Woody Allen fan. Too much of his work, for me, lacked that indefinable but oh so recognizable element of "heart."

Well, I was wrong about Woody. This film shows it.

Autobiographical -- or perhaps semi-autobiographical -- in nature, "Radio Days" evokes the time when people returned "to those thrilling days of yesteryear," and for whom, quite probably, it was equally thrilling to contemplate the magic of a box in their living room that could cause them to "watch" the stories unfold in their minds. "Remotes," or on-the-spot broadcasts transported them to the scene of unfolding tragedies or triumphs in a way that newspapers never could (and which TV, for all its advantages, rarely matches).

And yet the film, for all its authenticity in recreating studio practices (watch, for example, how the actors drop completed script pages onto the floorrather than turning them and risking a tell-tale rustle of paper), isn't really so much about radio itself as it is about the people who listened, as personified by one raucous, cantankerous and loving Brooklyn family. Beautifully evoked, particularly by Julie Kavner (Mother), Michael Tucker (Father), and the incomparable Dianne Wiest (as the perenially lovelorn Aunt Bea), it is their reactions to what they hear on the radio -- whether listening breathlessly to the war news (at a time when the end result was anything but certain) or Bea's abandonment in the middle of nowhere by a panicked suitor as Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast takes hold -- that bring to life the era and the power of that medium.

Standouts? The whole cast is perfect, but for me, in addition to those previously mentioned, I have to cit Mia Farrow's portrayal of the dim-bulbed Sally White, who transforms herself with the aid of speech lessons into a radio personality. (For that matter, catch Danny Aiello as a less-than-brilliant hitman, particularly his scenes with Dina DeAngeles as his mom.)

Criticisms? One: At the end of a poignant scene in which young Joe has finally discovered what his dad does for a living, Allen insists on falling into some standby "schtick" in his voiceover. (I guess he couldn't resist; thankfully, it doesn't ruin the moment.)

Ultimately, of course, it is the era itself that this film celebrates. Faithfully, and lovingly, it is recreated with a skill that points up its absurdities at the same time it makes one hopefully nostalgic. And, if you're not very careful, you wind up falling hopelessly in love with this funny, obscure Brooklyn family.

And to the end of my days, I'll always wonder whether poor Aunt Bea ever did find her "Mr. Right" . . .