One of the joys of Woody Allen's movies is the sound track. If he loves anything more than film-making it is music. 'Radio Days' is a high tribute to the golden age of popular music, filled with great songs and dance tunes from the 30s and 40s. This music accompanies a very funny and nostalgic story of a family during WWII living in Far Rockaway, Long Island. <br /><br />'Radio Day's is from what I think of as Woody Allen's middle period, following on his more raw-feeling early work and preceding his current period of what seem to me less- inspired writing, with casts who often seem too conscious that they are doing a 'Woody' film.<br /><br />During this great middle period, with films like 'Radio Days', 'Alice' and 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', he was graced with a fairly regular team of core actors who inhabit their roles so completely as to banish their own identities. Not an easy thing to do when an actress like Mia Farrow, so famous for so many years, can disappear so fully into the far-fetched characters Woody creates.<br /><br />As she did in 'Hannah and Her Sisters', 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', and 'Alice', Farrow displays her formidable gifts with dazzling effortlessness. She, along with Dianne Wiest and a sensational supporting cast, carry the viewer along on a fast-moving sentimental journey. Along with the laughs are a few tears, something that is not always evident in Allen's films. He blends these moments seamlessly into the over-all fabric of the film and the viewer never feels emotionally manipulated, the emotions well up naturally, adding depth to what might otherwise have been more akin to the 'Big Broadcast' movies of the 30s.<br /><br />Woody Allen stretches his leading ladies, especially, to the limits, and they are great. I think it is time for some enterprising producers to bring Ms Farrow and Ms Wiess back to the big screen. Their absence from the big screen is a crime. And given all the multi-million dollar, money-losing flops Hollywood continues to barf out, with a bunch of scrawny-assed, personality-less young celebs simulating sex, the return of some of the greats of 20 years ago might be just what the industry needs to get people back into the theaters.<br /><br />'Radio Days' is classic Woody at his most inspired.