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RKO Pictures

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

Bambi
Bambi
(1942) Cinderella
Cinderella
(1950) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1938) Pinocchio
Pinocchio
(1940) Seven Samurai
Seven Samurai
(1954) Peter Pan
Peter Pan
(1953)
See more : Wikipedia

Filmography of RKO Pictures (1392 films)

Display filmography as list

Distribution

The Royal Bed
The Royal Bed (1931)

Directed by Lowell Sherman, Bryan Foy
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Mary Astor, Lowell Sherman, Anthony Bushell, Nance O'Neil, Hugh Trevor, Robert Warwick

Princess Anne (Mary Astor) plans to run away with Freddie Granton (Anthony Bushell), the commoner secretary of her father, King Eric VIII (Lowell Sherman), once her domineering mother, Queen Martha (Nance O'Neil), has left for a vacation in America. Anne is therefore aghast when the Marquis of Birten (Alan Roscoe) brings news that he has negotiated her political marriage to Prince William of Grec (Hugh Trevor), a man she has never even met. Dismissing Anne's vehement protests, the Queen is delighted, a feeling not shared by Anne's loving but ineffectual father.
Sally in Our Alley
Sally in Our Alley (1931)
, 1h10
Directed by Maurice Elvey
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Gracie Fields, Ian Hunter, Florence Desmond, Fred Groves, Gibb McLaughlin, Ivor Barnard

A British soldier (Ian Hunter) goes off to fight in World War I, with his girlfriend (Gracie Fields) waiting and worried at home. He is soon wounded in battle and crippled. He comes to the conclusion that she would be better off believing that he has been killed so she can get on with her life. She gets the news and is devastated. Several years later she is still grieving for him, but he has now been cured and goes looking for her.
Way Back Home
Way Back Home (1931)
, 1h21
Directed by William A. Seiter
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Phillips Lord, Frank Albertson, Bette Davis, Stanley Fields, Frankie Darro, Dorothy Peterson

A decade earlier, Jonesport, Maine preacher Seth Parker and his wife offered shelter to runaway Robbie Turner, who as an infant was abandoned by his sadistic, alcoholic father Rufe. Mary Lucy Duffy, who has been banished from her home by her father for fraternizing with farm hand David Clark, is living with the Parkers as well, and her romance with David attracts the attention of the local gossips. Years earlier, David's mother Rose had run off with a stranger, and when she and her illegitimate infant son returned to Jonesport, they were shunned by the townspeople.
Young Donovan's Kid
Young Donovan's Kid (1931)
, 1h17
Directed by Fred Niblo, James Anderson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Crime
Actors Richard Dix, Marion Shilling, Jackie Cooper, Frank Sheridan, Boris Karloff, Dick Rush

Jim Donovan (Richard Dix) is a two-bit mob leader in New York during the 1920s. When another mobster, Ben Murray (Richard Alexander) is killed in a gunfight between rival gangs, Donovan takes it upon himself to raise his son, Midge Murray (Jackie Cooper). When Donovan seeks the advice of the parish priest on how to raise an adolescent boy, the priest, Father Dan (Frank Sheridan), enlists the services of his niece, Kitty Costello (Marion Shilling). When she directs Donovan to get honest work, he agrees, and she gets him a job at the ironworks where she is also employed. He is slowly transformed by the effect that both Midge and Kitty have on him. He also falls in love with Kitty.
Men of Chance
Men of Chance (1931)
, 1h7
Directed by George Archainbaud
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, John Halliday, Ralph Ince, Kitty Kelly, James Donlan

This script must be run from the command line
The Sin Ship
The Sin Ship (1931)
, 1h5
Directed by Louis Wolheim, James Anderson
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Mary Astor, Ian Keith, Louis Wolheim, Hugh Herbert, Russ Powell, Alan Roscoe

Smiley Marsden (Ian Keith) is a bank-robber on the run from the police, with his moll, Frisco Kitty (Mary Astor). Cornered, they arrive at the San Francisco docks, where they convince the captain of a small cargo ship, Sam McVeigh (Louis Wolheim), to take them aboard on his run to Mexico, mostly because he is enchanted with Kitty. Marsden is posing as a minister. As the ship sets sail, every sailor aboard lusts after Kitty, none more so than the captain. One night, when inebriated, he corners Kitty in his cabin and begins to force himself on her. She stops him by basically telling him that he is better than that, which makes him do some deep soul-searching. During the rest of the voyage, Kitty manages to fend off the rest of the crew, with the help of the disarmed captain.
White Shoulders
White Shoulders (1931)
, 1h20
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about sexuality
Actors Mary Astor, Jack Holt, Ricardo Cortez, Sidney Toler, Kitty Kelly, Robert Keith

Norma Selbee is a chorus girl trying to make it in New York City. Her fortunes are not going well, and she is flat broke and on the verge of starvation when she meets Gordon Kent. Kent has spent the last several years in the back woods, utilizing his mining engineering acumen to accumulate a large fortune of approximately $20 million. He has come to the big city looking for a good time, hopefully among the "white shoulders" of the fair damsels of the Big Apple. Upon meeting Norma, he falls head over heels for her and proposes on their first evening together. Norma is reluctant to agree, for she is not a gold-digger, and she is not in love with Kent. But she has no prospects, and she feels that she may come to love him in time, so she agrees, and the two are immediately married.
Friends and Lovers
Friends and Lovers (1931)
, 1h8
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Adolphe Menjou, Lili Damita, Laurence Olivier, Erich von Stroheim, Hugh Herbert, Frederick Kerr

British Army captain Geoff Roberts (Adolphe Menjou) carries on an affair with Alva (Lili Damita), the wife of the cruel Victor Sangrito (Erich Von Stroheim). Sangrito, however, is well aware of the affair, as he uses his beautiful wife to lure men into romance with her, then blackmailing them to save their careers.
Transgression
Transgression (1931)
, 1h10
Directed by Herbert Brenon
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about sexuality
Actors Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh, Ricardo Cortez, Nance O'Neil, Doris Lloyd, John St. Polis

Required to travel to India for a year to oversee financial matters, English businessman Robert Maury (Paul Cavanagh) is in a quandary regarding his young wife. His older sister, Honora (Nance O'Neil), suggest that he leave her at their country estate, where she can keep an eye on her. But his wife, Elsie (Kay Francis), is fearful of the boredom which may set in if she were to remain on the isolated property. Maury gives in to his wife's fears, and decides to allow her to move to Paris for the duration of his time on the sub-continent.