Danger on the Air

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.

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.

A clever radio engineer (Donald Woods as Benjamin Butts) and his beautiful co-worker and a prime suspect (Nan Grey as Steenie MacCorkle) search for the killer of a broadcasting executive and unscrupulous millionaire (Berton Churchill as Caesar Kluck), who had an eye for the ladies, stepped on far too many toes, was very difficult, and garnered a legion of possible suspects. He keels over dead- Benjamin claims he was murdered - gassed by cyanogen gas.

However, the head of the radio company wants to cover it up and claim that Kluck died of natural causes, like heart failure. He's helped in this deceit by a dodgy doctor (Edward Van Sloan).

But Benjamin, with the help of Steenie, insist on sleuthing ...

Danger on the Air is set entirely within a radio station where the murder occurs and ingenious one too and there's no police called at the scene of the crime and it's up to Donald Wood and Nan Grey to find out who killed the victim, who is -no surprise - a horrid man. Which means there's many suspects. It's fast-paced, breezy , funny and the two leads are quite charming.

When despicable and despised radio sponsor Berton Churchill dies while his show is broadcasting, Doctor Edward van Sloan says it's a heart attack. When studio technician and polymath Donald Woods tells a reporter it was actually poison, panic ensues. It's up to Woods and advertising agency gal Nan Grey to figure out what actually happened.

This is one of the 'Crime Club' mysteries that Universal made in the late 1930s. While I haven't read the novel it is based on, it certainly has a better title, given it was published as DEATH COMES FOR MR. CLUCK, with the author named as 'Xanthippe.' It's not a great mystery -- we don't get the motivation until after the unmasking of the murderer -- but it is slickly written and directed, with a good cast that includes Peter Lind Hayes, William Lundigan, George Meeker, Lee J.Cobb and Johnny Arthur.

Nan Grey and Donald Woods banter appealingly, and the unique personalities of an excellent range of suspects contribute strongly to this really fun mystery. Wit, characters, a clever murder—all tucked into a tidy hour.

Berton Churchill, as radio sponsor and cola magnate Caesar Kluck, spends the first fifteen minutes of the picture insulting virtually everyone in this large metropolitan radio studio; it is no surprise when he is found dead. But who is responsible? Motives, opportunities and suspects abound.

Churchill is wonderfully bad and blustery in his brief role. A young Lee J. Cobb is a lot of fun playing an aged maintenance man in a mustache and a thick immigrant's accent.

However, Grey and Woods are the two who really make this show, with their confident performances and quick exchanges of snappy back-and-forth dialog. "Did you really find her fingerprints on it?" she asks at one point. "No," he replies, "but I could see she was lying and I wanted to trip her up." "Boy, are you some tripper-upper!"

Seventy minutes and not a dull moment.