Radioland Murders

Radioland Murders is a 1994 American comedy thriller film directed by Mel Smith and executive produced by George Lucas from a story by Lucas. Radioland Murders is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the 1930s. The film tells the story of writer Roger Henderson trying to settle relationship issues with his wife Penny while dealing with a whodunit murder mystery in a radio station. It is a prequel to the film American Graffiti (1973).

The film stars an ensemble cast, including Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Scott Michael Campbell, Michael Lerner and Ned Beatty. Radioland Murders also features numerous small roles and cameo appearances, including Michael McKean, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, George Burns (in his final film appearance), Billy Barty and Rosemary Clooney.

George Lucas began development for the film in the 1970s, originally attached as director for Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's script, from a story by Lucas. Universal Pictures commenced pre-production and both Steve Martin and Cindy Williams had already been approached for the two leads before Radioland Murders languished in development hell for over 20 years. In 1993, Lucas told Universal that advances in computer-generated imagery from Industrial Light & Magic (owned by Lucasfilm), particularly in digital mattes, would help bring Radioland Murders in for a relatively low budget of about $10 million, which eventually rose to $15 million. Mel Smith was hired to direct and filming lasted from October to December 1993. Radioland Murders was released on October 21, 1994, to negative reviews from critics and bombed at the box office, only grossing $1.3 million in the United States.

In 1939, a new radio network based at station WBN in Chicago, Illinois, begins its inaugural night. The station's owner, General Walt Whalen, depends on his employees to impress main sponsor Bernie King. This includes writer Roger Henderson, assistant director Penny Henderson (Roger's wife, seeking divorce), page boy Billy Budget, engineer Max Applewhite, conductor Rick Rochester, announcer Dexter Morris, director Walt Whalen Jr. and stage manager Herman Katzenback. After King commissions rewrites on the radio scripts, the WBN writers get angry, complaining that they have not been paid in weeks.

When trumpet player Ruffles Reedy falls dead from rat poisoning, a series of events ensue. Director Walt Jr. is hanged (the mysterious killer makes it look like a suicide), and his father, the General, has the Chicago Police Department (CPD) get involved to solve the murder mysteries as the nightly radio performance continues. Katzenback is killed after attempting to fix the main stage when the machinery malfunctions. Penny is appointed stage manager and director due to Walt Jr. and Katzenback's deaths. Roger tries to solve the killings, which greatly annoys the police, led by Lieutenant Cross.

Because Roger unfortunately appears at every crime scene just as the murders take place, he is ruled as the prime suspect. Roger and Billy then theorize that Dexter is the next to die. Dexter ignores their warning and is fatally electrocuted. By going through private documents in WBN's file room, Roger finds that the victims all previously worked together at a radio station in Peoria, Illinois, which he then correlates into a secretive FCC scandal. King (laughing gas) and General Whalen (falls down an elevator shaft) are the next to die after Roger's warning, making the police even more suspicious.

After escaping custody, Roger uses Billy to communicate and send scripts to Penny. When rewriting one of the programs, Gork: Son of Fire, Roger attempts to write the script with self-referential events, proving to everyone that the mysterious killer is Max. Max explains that his killings were a revenge scheme that dealt with stockholders and patents, explicitly detailing his invention of television, which other scientists have copied. Max takes Roger and Penny atop the radio tower at gunpoint, but is eventually killed when a biplane shows up and guns him down. Impressed by the nightly performance, the sponsors decide to fund WBN. Roger and Penny reconcile their complex relationship and choose not to divorce.

The genesis of Radioland Murders came from executive producer/co-writer George Lucas's obsession with old-time radio. Lucas conceived the storyline of the film during the writing phase of American Graffiti, viewing it as a homage to the various Abbott and Costello films, primarily Who Done It (1942), in which Abbott and Costello star as Chick Larkin and Mervin Q. Milgrim, two soda jerks solving a murder in a radio station. Radioland Murders also shares some inspiration from The Big Clock (1948). When Universal Pictures accepted American Graffiti in 1972, Lucas also allowed the studio first-look deals for both Radioland Murders and an untitled science fiction film (which eventually became the basis for Star Wars).