RADIO DAYS is Woody Allen's charming, nostalgic, very funny love letter to growing up in 1940s Brooklyn during the golden age of radio. The setting is the close-knit working-class neighborhood of Rockaway, New York, where a warm, crazy, sprawling Jewish family lives, sharing their happiness as well as their disappointments. The youngest member of the family, Joe (Seth Green, of television's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), dreams of the glamour and excitement of Manhattan conjured up by the radio programs he and his family listen raptly to each night. Presented in a tapestry of interlocking vignettes, RADIO DAYS weaves tales of everyday family life with glimpses of the glittering--and not so glittering--world of established and aspiring radio celebrities. Allen makes the radio the film's central figure, taking its place as communicator to the world, existing almost as another member of the family. Allen and director of photography Carlo DiPalma capture the look and feel of the time marvelously, and the music is a joy to listen to. The result is a comic, bittersweet, kaleidoscopic look at a long-gone New York that is one of writer-director Woody Allen's most fully realized--and most enjoyable--films.
Woody Allen's ode to the golden age of radio as seen through the eyes of a working-class Rockaway neighborhood is an utter delight. This star-studded period piece features a terrific soundtrack of the great songs of the day. The casting is terrific, filled with wonderful turns by many familiar faces. New York as seen from a child's perspective has never looked so good.
Theatrical release: January 30, 1987.
Filmed on location in Rockaway and at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York; shooting began on October 27, 1986.
Estimated budget: $16 million. The film grossed almost $15 million in theaters.
The name of the radio game show at the beginning is GUESS THAT TUNE.
Julie Kavner's (Mother) favorite radio show was BREAKFAST WITH IRENE AND ROGER.
The narrator's favorite show was THE MASKED AVENGER.
Jackson Beck, the narrator of TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN, makes a voice cameo as the newsman covering the story of the girl who fell in the well.
Diane Keaton performs Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" in the film, her first appearance in a Woody Allen film since 1979's MANHATTAN.
The film takes place between 1938 and 1944, yet virtually no one in the cast ages, especially Joe (Seth Green).
A grown-up Seth Green played a teen werewolf on the television series BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
Fletcher Farrow Previn, one of Mia's children, played Andrew.
Tito Puente makes a cameo appearance as a Xavier Cugat-like band leader.
The film features songs composed or performed by Cole Porter, Tommy Dorsey, Kurt Weill, Artie Shaw, the Mills Brothers, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Carmen Miranda, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Kaye, Xavier Cugat, Guy Lombardo, Billy Strayhorn, and Duke Ellington.
According to Marion Meade in THE UNRULY LIFE OF WOODY ALLEN, Woody grew up in Brooklyn with his parents, his aunt Ceil, and his uncle Abe all in the same small apartment, a very similar situation to that of Joe's family in RADIO DAYS.
RADIO DAYS was shown at the United States Film Festival, Park City, Utah, January 23, 1987.
Excerpt: "You don't like it, take the gas pipe."-- (Josh Mostel) to Ceil
"You speak the truth, my faithful Indian companion."-- (Seth Green) to (Kenneth Mars)
"Beware, evildoers, wherever you are!"--The Masked Avenger (Wallace Shawn)
"That's too good for him--he deserves an enema."--Ceil (Renee Lippin) about Abe (Josh Mostel)
"You know, this is a funny coincidence. I don't meet anybody from the old neighborhood in years. I finally do and I gotta kill her."--(Danny Aiello) to Sally (Mia Farrow)
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Dolby Digital Mono - Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Trailers - 1. Theatrical Trailer
Additional Products:
Collectible Booklet
Cinematographer
Carlo Di Palma: Italian Director Of Photography/In USA
Production Designer
Santo Loquasto: Woody Allen's pd
Costume Designer
Jeffrey Kurland: Costumer
Review 1:
"...As free in form as it is generous of spirit....The members of the huge cast are uniformly splendid..."
Source: New York Times
p.C1 01/30/1987
Review 2:
Included in the New York Times "10 Best Films of 1987"
Source: New York Times
p.II,23 12/27/1987
Review 3:
"...Come away to Woody Allen's heartfelt, evocative RADIO DAYS, a movie that draws you close to it like listeners around that glowing radio dial..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C1 01/30/1987
Review 4:
"Lavish and colorful, with only a whiff of philosophical despair, it's Allen's AMARCORD..."
Source: Premiere
p.108 07/01/2006
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