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RKO Pictures
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Foundation date 23 october 1928
RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures (also known as RKO Productions, Radio Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, RKO Teleradio Pictures, &, for a short time, RKO Pathé) is an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) vaudeville theater circuit and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum.
RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewton's low-budget horror unit and RKO's many ventures into the field now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics and historians. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history: King Kong and Citizen Kane.
Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948. After years of decline under his control, the studio was acquired by the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was effectively dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the corporate heir, revived it as a production subsidiary, RKO Pictures Inc. In 1989, this business with its few remaining assets, the trademarks and remake rights to many classic RKO films, was sold to new owners, who now operate the small independent company RKO Pictures LLC.
Best films
(1942)
(1950)
(1938)
(1940)
(1953)
(1940)Filmography of RKO Pictures (1392 films)
Production
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The Half-Breed (1952)
, 1h21Origin USA
Genres Western
Actors Robert Young, Janis Carter, Jack Buetel, Barton MacLane, Reed Hadley, Porter Hall
This script must be run from the command line
The Pace That Thrills (1952)
, 1h3Origin USA
Genres Action
Actors Bill Williams, Carla Balenda, Robert Armstrong, Frank McHugh, Michael St. Angel, Cleo Moore
Los Angeles newspaper reporter Eve Drake is assigned to cover a motorcycle race. There she sees Dusty Weston win a race using questionable tactics. She is asked to present the winner's trophy afterward, but when Dusty plants a kiss on her, she slaps his face.
Double Dynamite (1951)
, 1h20Directed by Irving Cummings
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Adventure, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra, Don McGuire, Howard Freeman, William Edmunds
Johnny Dalton, un caissier de banque pour avoir voulu aider un bookmaker à se sortir d'une situation inextricable se trouve à son tour dans une facheuse situation. Seul son meilleur ami Emile pourra le sortir de cette impasse.
On Dangerous Ground (1951)
, 1h22Directed by Ida Lupino, Nicholas Ray
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Actors Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond, Ed Begley, Charles Kemper, Anthony Ross
Robert Ryan plays Jim Wilson, a tough police detective embittered by years of dealing with low-life urban scum. After severely beating several suspects, Jim is assigned to a case far from the city to find the killer of a young girl. Joining the manhunt, in snow-covered terrain, Wilson finds himself paired with the victim's father, Walter Brent (Ward Bond), who plans to shoot the killer himself. When the two men come upon a cabin occupied by Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who is also the killer's sister, Wilson's life is changed forever. Mary, a generous and loving person who has cared for her mentally ill brother Danny (Sumner Williams) since the death of their parents, convinces Wilson to protect Danny from Brent. Wilson also promises to get help for Danny if he surrenders to him. Inspired by Mary's courage and recognizing Brent's rage as the mirror image of his own, Wilson gains the insight to free himself from his own blindness.
Cry Danger (1951)
, 1h19Directed by Robert Parrish, Dick Powell
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Actors Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman, William Conrad, Regis Toomey, Jean Porter
Rocky Mulloy was sentenced to life in prison for a robbery and murder that he didn't commit. He's released five years later when a witness named Delong appears and provides an alibi. Rocky then sets out to find who framed him, hoping that by uncovering the actual criminals, he'll be able to free his friend Danny Morgan, also accused of the same crime.
Two Tickets to Broadway (1951)
, 1h46Directed by James V. Kern, Fred Fleck
Origin USA
Genres Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria DeHaven, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller, Barbara Lawrence
Frustrated singers Hannah Holbrook, Joyce Campbell and S. F. "Foxy" Rogers return dejectedly to New York on a bus, their out-of-town engagement in Vermont, arranged by small-time promoter Lew Conway, having been a huge flop.
The Whip Hand (1951)
, 1h22Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Crime
Themes Political films
Actors Elliott Reid, Carla Balenda, Edgar Barrier, Raymond Burr, Lurene Tuttle, Otto Waldis
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044209/
His Kind of Woman (1951)
, 2hDirected by John Farrow, Richard Fleischer
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Action, Noir, Crime, Romance
Actors Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Charles McGraw, Raymond Burr
Down on his luck, professional gambler Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) accepts a mysterious job that will take him out of the country for a year but pays $50,000. He accepts a $5,000 down payment and tickets that will take him to an isolated Mexican resort, Morro's Lodge, where he will receive further instructions. Milner is attracted to the only other passenger on his chartered flight to the resort, Lenore Brent (Jane Russell).
My Forbidden Past (1951)
, 1h21Directed by Robert Stevenson
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Robert Mitchum, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas, Lucile Watson, Janis Carter, Gordon Oliver
In 1890s New Orleans, wrongly believing Barbara Beaurevelle (Gardner) had stood him up on the eve of their elopement, Dr. Mark Lucas (Mitchum) has returned from South Africa accompanied by Corinne (Janis Carter), a woman he married on the rebound. Determined to win him back, Barbara bribes her cousin (Melvyn Douglas) to break up the marriage, a cold-blooded scheme that ends in death and the doctor suspected of murder.
The Racket (1951)
, 1h28Directed by John Cromwell, Tay Garnett, Nicholas Ray, Mel Ferrer
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Noir, Crime
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, William Talman, Ray Collins, William Conrad
The plot is very close to the original play and 1928 movie. Racketeer and mobster Nick Scanlon (Ryan) has managed to buy several of the local government and law-enforcement officials of a large midwestern American city. However, he can't seem to touch the incorruptible police captain Tom McQuigg (Mitchum), who refuses all attempts at bribery. The city’s prosecuting attorney, Welch (Collins), and a police detective, Turk (Conrad), are crooked and make McQuigg's job as an honest officer nearly impossible.
Sealed Cargo (1951)
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Films about animals, Seafaring films, Transport films, Submarine films, Political films
Actors Dana Andrews, Claude Rains, Philip Dorn, Carla Balenda, Onslow Stevens, Skip Homeier
In 1943, at the height of the World War II Battle of the Atlantic, Captain Pat Bannon, skipper of the fishing trawler Daniel Webster, unloads his catch in his home port of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He reluctantly agrees to transport Margaret McLean to Trabo, a small community in Newfoundland. Shorthanded, he hires Danish sailor Konrad, and the Daniel Webster sails for the Grand Banks fishing grounds. Once at sea, another Dane, Holger, reports that the radio has been sabotaged. As Bannon knows all of the crew well except for Konrad and fellow Dane Holger, he suspects one of them or even Margaret of being a German agent.
On the Loose (1951)
, 1h18Directed by Charles Davies Lederer, James Anderson
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Joan Evans, Melvyn Douglas, Lynn Bari, Ida Lupino, Hugh O'Brian, Robert Arthur
Just a teenager, Jill Bradley has become suicidal over recent events. Almost everything in her life has gone wrong since her birthday, which her parents all but ignored, going out for the evening and leaving her by herself with a cake.
Footlight Varieties (1951)
, 1h1Directed by Benjamin Stoloff, D. W. Griffith, Hal Yates
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical
Actors Leon Errol, Mamie Van Doren, Liberace, Red Buttons, Dorothy Granger, Bess Flowers
Armored Car Robbery (1950)
, 1h7Directed by Richard Fleischer
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure, Noir, Crime
Themes Heist films, Gangster films, Escroquerie
Actors Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie, Don McGuire
Mastermind Dave Purvis (William Talman) is a professional criminal who devises a scheme to rob an armored car on its last pickup of the day. He recruits Benny McBride, who brings Mapes & Foster to complete the gang of thieves.