Danger on the Air

1938 "A Murder Mystery Chiller-Diller!"
6.3| 1h10m| NR| en
Details

Trouble begins when a hated cad of a sponsor is found murdered during the climax of a live radio show. A radio engineer then tries to solve the murder.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
bkoganbing With a cast full of familiar faces who have experience in playing sinister and villainous roles it will be hard to pick who did the murder here. In fact during the course Danger On The Air another homicide is committed.Berton Churchill is our victim and the setting is a radio studio. Churchill is once again an unctuous bloviating personality who thinks the world revolves around him and his product. He was killed during a broadcast of his program in a most unique manner which I won't reveal except to say a variation on the method was used in one of the Boris Karloff Mr. Wong movies.The only member of the radio staff who actually stands up to Churchill is sound engineer Donald Woods and its Woods together Nan Grey who solve the mystery. Churchill was not the kind of guy anyone was going to mourn, but the other death is that of the station janitor Lee J. Cobb in an early role for him and it was simply a byproduct of the Churchill homicide.Special attention should be paid to Peter Lind Hayes who plays a young usher at the station who treats us all to a series of imitations of various radio personalities of the day including Bing Crosby, Ben Bernie, and Rudy Vallee and many more. The only hint I'll give you is the eventual killer is not one you would think capable. A good B picture cast gave Universal a good programmer.
kevin olzak Universal's Crime Club series lasted 7 films from 1937 to 1939, of which "Danger on the Air" was number 4, the last to co-star Donald Woods and Nan Grey, previously seen in the second, "The Black Doll" (also 1938). Lecherous sponsor Caesar Kluck (Berton Churchill) dies during a live radio broadcast, with hard working engineer Benjamin Franklin Butts (Woods) deducing murder from poison gas, and Kluck's physician, Leonard Sylvester (Edward Van Sloan), insisting it was a heart attack. The ventilating system has clearly been tampered with, and a persistent gangster (Joseph Downing) was also hanging around, plus the station janitor (Lee J. Cobb), who was angered by Kluck's advances toward his young daughter (Louise Stanley). The adorable and capable Nan Grey gets top billing over Donald Woods this time, but he again solves the case. Also on hand are William Lundigan, George Meeker, Tom Kennedy, and a young Peter Lind Hayes, future songwriter and TV personality, doing a variety of impressions like Bing Crosby (he also name drops Rudy Vallee). All of the Crime Clubs are quite entertaining, and the final three were included in the popular SHOCK! package of classic Universal horror films issued to television in the late 50's ("The Last Warning," "Mystery of the White Room," and "The Witness Vanishes"). Only "The Black Doll" and "Mystery of the White Room" were shown on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, so it was many years before I discovered the other five in the brief series, lesser known than the Inner Sanctums but in some ways superior. The next Crime Club would be "The Last Warning."
Michael Barnum 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.
Vigilante-407 This little gem is one of the most well-scripted programmers that I have ever had the pleasure to watch. The acting is great too, and you also manage to work in one of those rare mysteries that makes it hard but fun to guess who the killer is. It's all set at a radio station, where a crotchety old sponsor ends up getting murdered. Donald Woods plays a very intelligent and clever radio engineer and Nan Woods is the ad agency worker who helps him solve the mystery. I know the storyline sounds all old-hat, but I was pleasantly surprised at how refreshing this movie was...a very enjoyable hour!