Romance in the Air (1936) review - A goofy, cheap B-movie about radio scammers

If you have an hour to kill and love dusty 1930s B-movies about weird, old-timey scams, Romance in the Air is a fun little distraction. 📻

But if you want a tight, logical mystery that makes total sense, you will probably hate this and turn it off after ten minutes.

The whole plot is about these "Radio Technique" swindlers who trick regular folks into thinking they can become big radio stars. It is basically a fake talent school scam, which was apparently a big deal back in the thirties.

Our detective hero has to go undercover to bust the ring, which mostly involves him looking suspicious in tiny offices. The offices have about three pieces of furniture in them, and you can practically smell the wet paint on the fake walls.

Honestly, the cheapness is the best part. It has that same rushed, silly energy you get in Smilin' at Trouble, where everyone is just trying to get through their lines so they can go home.

There is this one scene where a guy is pitching his fake radio school, and his fake mustache keeps twitching like it is about to fall off. I spent five minutes just watching that mustache instead of listening to the dialogue.

Also, Phil Regan is in this, so of course he sings. You cannot have a movie about radio back then without someone breaking into song for absolutely no reason at all.

The "romance" part of the title feels like a total afterthought. They sort of shove a love story in at the end, but it is about as convincing as a three-dollar bill.

Still, if you like watching old character actors run around in oversized suits and talk really fast, you will have a good time. Just don't expect anything fancy.

Some things I noticed:

• The background extras in the office scene look like they were pulled off the street five minutes before filming.
• One guy gets punched and the sound effect happens about a second after he already fell down. 🥊
• The radio microphones look like they are made of tin cans and spray paint.