Wonderful character development!

Overrated

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made a ton of B-mystery movies. Some (such as most of the Charlie Chan flicks) were very good--many were, at best average. Among all these movies were also a series of so-called 'Crime Club Films' and "Danger on the Air" is the 4th of 11 in the series. While I haven't seen the others in the series, I'd place "Danger on the Air" in the category of below average--mostly because the premise is 100% illogical.The film is set at a radio station. One of the sponsors, Mr. Cluck (Berton Churchill), is a real jerk. Because of this, you know he'll be the one to be killed--and he soon was. Normally, when a murder is committed you'd contact the police or possibly the District Attorney's office. However, inexplicably, one of the network's radio engineers (Donald Woods) decides to investigate--and no one bothers to contact the police. Even odder, the newspapers hear about it and publish information about the death--yet still no cops appear!! Odder yet, someone tries to shoot a lady (Nan Grey)--yet it is never reported either!! Even more illogical is the very, very, very fanciful and silly means by which the murders were committed--so fanciful that it defied all logic.While the interplay between Woods and Nan Grey is nice, there really isn't a lot to recommend this Universal film. Logical errors abound and the film just made me annoyed that the writing was so sloppy.

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.

One of the Universal Crime Club films.The story of what happens at a radio station when a hated sponsor is killed by mysterious means.Its a good if rambling film that seems to be taking its time in getting where it's going. It's not bad but even running a brief 70 minutes you kind of wish that they'd pick up their pace a bit.That said the use of a gas a a murder weapon and some intriguing characters-there is one guy who can imitate everyone and when people are afraid to enter the building he does all the voices himself- make this memorable.It may not be something to search out but it is something you'll want to watch when you do run across it. (then again oldies.com has it for a couple of bucks so it's worth it)

DANGER ON THE AIR (1938) is a delight for fans of B movie mysteries. The setting is a radio station and the pace is quick and full of fun characters. The leads, Nan Grey and Donald Woods, are a well-matched set of amateur sleuths. Their objective is to solve the murder of a lecherous, tight-fisted sponsor. They certainly have enough suspects among the staff and rivals in the media industry. It is great fun seeing a young Lee J. Cobb portray the elderly janitor. An entertaining bonus is a baby-faced Peter Lind Hayes doing bang on impersonations of famous radio stars of the time. Get that popcorn ready and turn the lights down low.