Radio Days opens with one hell of a set piece, but it's all downhill from there: burglars in 1940s New York answer a ringing telephone and wind up playing "Guess That Tune" over the airwaves. After the punchline, the present-day narrator says he's got a million anecdotes like that; unfortunately, he means it.
Radio Days is a romantic continuum of homesick vignettes revolving around a cinematic version of young Allen (Joe, played by Seth Green) and his family and their attachment to radio programs. A parallel storyline in which a cigarette girl (Mia Farrow) aspires to bigger and better things attempts to be the connective tissue, but every time they cut to her it violates the remembering conceit of the film--the best defense for Farrow's character is the memorable poster image (above left) that resulted from her being there. You also have to stop and wonder--or maybe you shouldn't--why Julie Kavner and Dianne Wiest, both onscreen lovers of Allen at one time or another, are playing his mother and aunt, respectively, here.
Radio Days is among Woody's most masturbatory films, and that's sure saying something. MGM's 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen DVD release looks handsome, though a 'screen door' artifact--a layer of frozen, patchy grain--mars the occasional shot. The 2.0 mono audio found on
Radio Days is the most dynamic-sounding of the third "Woody Allen Collection"'s discs. Extras: the theatrical trailer and a foldout containing facts and quotes.
-Bill Chambers
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