"Television shows happened in the TV set, but radio shows happened in my head." says Roger Ebert while criticizing Radio Days. Despite being sequential, TV and radio are totally apart. Unlike television, radio appeals to your imagination more than your eyes and it gives you a chance for completing the missing parts or constructing the setting in your head.
Allen's 'Radio Days' tells us the story of the golden age of the radio through funny vignettes tied by hit songs of 40s. Each one of the songs reminds our hero/narrator one of his memories. Woody Allen narrates the radio-centered life of an ordinary Jewish family in Rockaway. At the beginning he admits that he romanticizes the old boyhood memories. He adorns his memories by exaggerating humorous elements. Now and then he ridicules urban legends of the time. The most amusing example of these is the scene in which a part from the book of 'The War of the Worlds' is given as news. upon hearing the 'news' on the radio Aunt Bea (Dianne Wrest) is left alone in a broken car by her terrified date.
Sally White's misadventures are also amusing parts of the movie. The picture above is from the scene in which the breaking bulletin of Pearl Harbor is given at the time Sally White is recording a play. And the punch line is the response of Sally to this news:
- And what do we do now? Come back on Monday? Who is Pearl Harbor???
I don't even mention the burglars who win the jackpot by answering the phone in the house that they break in and confuse the hosts next day.
I say it is very entertaining film to watch and I leave you with this beautiful song by Carmen Miranda in 'Radio Days':
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