movies_creation
American Movie Archives (美國電影檔案)
- Title
- Back of the Mike
- Year
- 1938
- Abstract
- Insider's view of the 1930s radio studio showing the production of dramatic sound effects.
- Notes
-
Produced: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation
Run Time: 9:15
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W - Keyword
- Media: Radio;Perception: Sound;Perception: Sound
- Theme
- Who needs TV?
- Review
-
Highly entertaining, if hellishly misleading, look at the "man behind the curtain" of network radio. Aficionados will stand up on their hind legs and bark for the images of a vintage '38 broadcast in progress, but the film purveys some dark and dubious lessons:
Never leave witnesses to a crime.
Only children are gullible enough to enjoy radio dramas.
Children wear neckties in their bedrooms.
The cheapest of afternoon serials could afford a team of 7 professional sound men.
Blondes are an illusion.
The great thing about the film is that it shows radio as a visual medium, sort of a personal TV before the dull literalness of actual TV. Inescapably, though, it succumbs to that literalness; after all, no image on film of "Uncle Joe and his niece Betty driving in his old jalopy through the barren New Mexico desert" could be as pristine as the image called up by radio. (FOOTSTEPS OFF) (DISTANT:) G'night, folks!
(Reviewer: mervyn leroy) - Location
- A/V room, 2/F