Shop for Radio Days
Collectible Posters

Radio Days - 1987

Film Synopsis

Woody Allen narrates a nostaligic look back at growing up in a close-knit Jewish family in Brooklyn during the fourties. This film is his perspective of his own childhood, majestically projected into a five star movie. The stories in the film are all framed by the radio music and radio shows of the time. The easy-going pace, nostalgic humor and wity storytelling combine to make this one of his most enduring movies.

The film's soundtrack, a collection of radio music from Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra and Irving Berlin has consistently remained in print since the film's original release.

Main Cast

• Don Pardo .... 'Guess That Tune' Host
• Martin Rosenblatt .... Mr. Needleman
• Helen Miller .... Mrs. Needleman
• Julie Kavner .... Mother
• Julie Kurnitz .... Irene
• David Warrilow .... Roger
• Wallace Shawn .... Masked Avenger
• Michael Murray .... Avenger Crook
• William Flanagan .... Avenger Announcer
• Seth Green .... Joe
• Michael Tucker .... Father
• Josh Mostel .... Abe

Movie Remarks

A sweet and clever combination of anecdotes and autobiography, Radio Days draws heavily on Woody Allen's childhood. Fittingly, the unfolding episodes are woven together by music--lovely hits of the 1940s like "In the Mood" and "That Old Feeling."

Some episodes are built around radio itself (like the burglars who answer the phone in a house they're burgling and win a radio contest), and others center on the life of a young Jewish boy (Seth Green, clearly playing a version of Allen himself as a child). Though light in tone, Radio Days is an ambitious re-creation not simply of an era, but of radio itself. Nowadays radio is little more than a way to sell pop tunes, but it used to transmit dreams; watching this movie, you get a taste of how inspiring this simpler medium could be.

--Bret Fetzer on Amazon.com

Radio Days Movie Trivia & Awards