Danger on the Air (1938)

I really don't get the hype.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Murder and comedy do mix; We learned that through Philo Vance, Nick and Nora, and various other amateur detectives who sneaked their way into screwball comedy in the 1930's. So in this neat little Universal second feature, there's quite a bit of it around. The opening sequence shows the hateful radio show sponsor Caesar Kluck (a delightfully imperious Breton Churchill) keep putting his foot in it, abusing the staff, sexually harassing pretty Nan Grey and insulting the talent on the show he sponsors. So when he turns up deader than a decapitated chicken, nobody is surprised, but the death at first appears to be from natural causes, not aided along by man. Grey, along with sound engineer Donald Woods, takes charge of exposing the truth which reveals a lot of suspects and some surprising clues. Of course, he gets no help from equally imperious radio station owner Jed Prouty who ironically was nowhere to be seen in the early scenes while Churchill was around. Prouty is very funny in a scene where he tries to keep the press at bay, insisting that there's no poison in the station's air conditioning system while being surrounded by fans, humidifiers and anything else that would remove anything toxic.Moving along briskly with the frenetic surroundings of the radio station creating a lot of normal daily havoc in addition to the two murders which occur, this is a nice little surprise to find amongst the many mediocre low budge murder mysteries of the 1930's and 40's. Woods, a normally dull actor with little pizazz, adds some oomph to his sound engineer, getting in some good cracks at the expense of both Churchill and Prouty. Skeets Gallagher adds his usual plethora of subtle acidic comedy, while many other familiar faces (including a young Lee J. Cobb) pop up as well. There's even a Bing Crosby imitator thrown in for good measure. So while radio means very little to people today without cars, it once was the cheap way of receiving entertainment, and in this case, the Big Broadcast is a great way to spend an hour. You won't feel at all cheated.

This Crime Club entry is an almost perfect B mystery with its solid cast, interesting setting, plenty of murder suspects and intriguing (but not really plausible) murder method. The setting is a large metropolitan radio station. Caesar Kluck is an obnoxious soda manufacturer who sponsors the show Kluck's Popola Hour. He's also a corrupt man who uses gangsters to ruin competing soda manufacturers. Understandably, no one at the station can stand him including the sound engineer Benjamin Franklin Butts ( played by the ever affable Donald Woods) and "Skeets" MacCorkle (Nan Grey), one of the advertising sales staff (Nan Grey). Not surprisingly, Kluck is murdered and the station manager insists it was a heart attack and has either a phony or incompetent doctor to back him up. Butts is convinced that he was murdered by a poison gas and tells reporters this. The result of this is that most of the staff refuse to enter the building. This leads to the highlight of the movie when the wannabe performer Harry Lake takes on roles in several shows in order to keep the station on the air. Peter Lind Hayes as Lake steals the show. His various impersonations, including that of Bing Crosby, are wonderful. The movies old time radio setting is fascinating. This is a highly entertaining and slick murder mystery worth watching more than once.

This is a likable little murder mystery - and I mean that literally: even counting a trigger-happy gangster and a loudmouthed boss, the murder victim is still by far the most unlikable person in the film (and, needless to say, gets an early exit)! There are so many characters in this dense mystery that you may need to watch it twice to get it all straight in your head, but even that won't take up too much of your time, as the film is barely over an hour long and moves quickly enough. And there are at least three fairly unique elements in it: 1) The killing method (which I don't want to spoil here), 2) The fact that, when our amateur detective assembles all the suspects in one room at the end he does NOT know who the murderer is, he only knows how he did it, and how to expose him, and 3) Nan Grey deals with the unwanted advances of a much older man in a way that you very rarely see in such an early film: by a strong punch to his gut! (though the actual contact happens off-screen). **1/2 out of 4.

Universal put out a number of nifty mystery films in the 1930s and 1940s and this is one of the better ones. When a lecherous sponsor of a radio program gets bumped off there are no end to the suspects. Was it the lovely head of the ad agency? The young receptionist who had accepted the older mans expensive gifts? The inquisitive sound technician who is about ready to quit his job? The elevator operator with stars in his eyes? Or maybe the janitor who is worried about his daughters virtue? A great cast lead by beautiful Nan Grey who gives a surprisingly lively performance.