List of RKO Pictures films
Its lineup of acting talent during this period included Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Robert Mitchum.
Among the studio's most notable films are Cimarron (winner of the 1931 Academy Award for Best Picture), King Kong (1933), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946—the studio's only other Academy Award for Best Picture), and what some people consider the greatest film of all time, 1941's Citizen Kane.
RKO's first year of production resulted in the release of 13 films, highlighted by Syncopation, The Vagabond Lover, and Rio Rita.
Several highlights of the year were The Lost Patrol (the first RKO film directed by John Ford), Of Human Bondage, Anne of Green Gables, and The Little Minister.
Highlights of the year included Alice Adams, and Becky Sharp (the first full-length feature film made entirely in Technicolor).
Although the studio did well overall, two of the few outstanding pictures to come out during the year were Follow the Fleet and Swing Time, which were both Astaire and Rogers vehicles.
Another bright spot for the studio was Stage Door, which was only a small financial success, yet received very good critical notices, including four Oscar nominations.
Highlights were Gunga Din, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Love Affair, Allegheny Uprising, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (RKO's last Astaire/Rogers film), Five Came Back, In Name Only, Bachelor Mother, Nurse Edith Cavell, and The Flying Deuces.
[447] This decade saw a continuation of the revolving door policy regarding management and creative talent at the studio, although RKO made it out of receivership in 1940.
The studio lost the services of director George Stevens this year, and despite emerging from receivership, RKO would post an almost $1 million loss in 1940.
Highlights of the year included Abe Lincoln in Illinois, My Favorite Wife, Irene, and Kitty Foyle (which won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Ginger Rogers).
While the company saw a modest profit for the year, RKO lost the exclusive services of Ginger Rogers, the last great star of the studio, and Garson Kanin departed.
Even the one bright spot, the signing of an agreement with the Samuel Goldwyn studios to distribute their films, was a double-edged sword, since the financial arrangements left little room for profits to be garnered by RKO.
Highlights of the year, other than Citizen Kane, included Mr. and Mrs. Smith (a comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock), the continuation of RKO's successful Saint franchise, The Devil and Miss Jones, The Little Foxes, Ball of Fire, Suspicion and Walt Disney's productions of The Reluctant Dragon and Dumbo; these last two were made, and one was released, in the midst of an animator strike at the Disney studio.
A bit of trivia occurred this year when Bing Crosby's younger brother Bob made his film debut in Let's Make Music.
First, they entered into an agreement to release the films by the independent production house, International Pictures; second, two major stars would make their film debuts — Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck; and third, several notable writers would make their initial foray into directing: Clifford Odets, Howard Estabrook, and Herbert Biberman.
Unfortunately for RKO, studio head Charles Koerner, the man responsible for this success, died of leukemia early in the year.
Two of the infamous "Hollywood Ten" were the only director and producer among that group (Edward Dmytryk and Adrian Scott, respectively), and were also two of RKO's top talent.
Some of more notable films released during 1947 included Trail Street, The Farmer's Daughter, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Crossfire (the last picture of Scott and Dmytryk before their blacklist), Out of the Past, and the Samuel Goldwyn efforts The Bishop's Wife, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
[804] 1948 marked the beginning of the slow end of the studio when Howard Hughes purchased enough stock to gain control of RKO.
Despite the light release schedule, the studio did have a few highlights, which included Fort Apache, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Rachel and the Stranger, A Song Is Born, and Every Girl Should Be Married.
These included a failed sale of the studio to several racketeers, the loss of RKO's chain of movie theaters (due to government regulation), and a multitude of lawsuits.
In addition, not a single picture would generate profits greater than $100,000, the first time this happened in the history of RKO, and this resulted in the first net loss for the studio ($5.8M) in over a decade.
Hope was raised when Hughes hired what many considered the top producer-writer team in Hollywood, Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna, who were contracted to produce 60 films over the next five years.
The biggest financial and critical disappointment RKO had during the year was a film from Walt Disney that would ironically be hailed as an animated classic: Alice in Wonderland.
However, the group he sold it to was involved in scandal, and was forced to back out of the deal prior to year's end, leaving the studio virtually without an owner.
[1015] Although Howard Hughes purchased all the outstanding shares of stock of the company, becoming the first individual to own a major studio since the era of silent films, the downward trajectory of RKO continued.
Teleradio was the entertainment arm of the General Tire and Rubber Company, and had purchased the studio to gain access to its film library, which it intended to air on its small network of television stations.
While the studio came up with its own version of the wide screen format, called Superscope, they would only release 14 films during the year, the only one of which was notable was the musical, Oklahoma!, which RKO distributed.
from 1985 to 1987 the studio produced several more films on their own, some with more acclaim such as Plenty (1985), Half Moon Street (1986) and Hamburger Hill (1987), but production ended when RKO General underwent a massive reorganization following an attempted hostile takeover,[1108] and the production company was eventually sold to Wesray Capital Corporation in late 1987.
