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Richard B. Jewell

Autor(a) de The RKO Story

4 Works 158 Membros 4 Críticas

About the Author

Richard B. Jewell is Professor of Critical Studies at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. He is the author of The Golden Age of Hollywood and The RKO Story, among others.

Obras por Richard B. Jewell

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The RKO book is the third entry in these lush, hefty, coffee table film books. It followed The MGM Story, and The WB Story — both of which I’m lucky to have as well. The studio itself seemed always in transition, constantly in flux as to which type of film it wanted to make, and how it wanted to make those films. Yet from that chaos came genius — at least until the Howard Hughes years. Once the McCarthy-driven, ruthless and unstable tycoon took over, RKO was never the same.

If you’ve enjoyed any of the Astaire/Rogers films, those were RKO. King Kong is RKO. If you love Hitchcock’s Suspicion or Notorious, those were made at RKO. All those wonderful Val Lewton produced horror thrillers such as Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie? Yep, RKO. Love Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in My Favorite Wife? How about Pride of the Yankees or The Spiral Staircase? Or perhaps your cup of tea is Citizen Kane or The Best Years of Our Lives? How about those great “B” series like The Mexican Spitfire with Lupe Velez, and The Falcon, starring George Sanders and then Tom Conway? Do you love great film noir, and crime films like They Won’t Believe Me, or They Live By Night? How about Raymond Chandler’s Murder, My Sweet? Did you love Robert Mitchum in The Big Steal, Out of the Past, and Macao? Do you cry each time you see Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama? What about Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle, or Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire in one of the most beautiful films about love ever made, The Enchanted Cottage? Yep, all of them were made at the volatile and tumultuous RKO.

Richard B. Jewell, with assistance from Vernon Harbin, who worked for the studio in one capacity or another from 1931 - 1976, put this one together. Every RKO film ever released in the USA is here, accompanied by at least a small still from the film, but often a medium size to large photo. The photos have been printed on slick, glossy stock, which makes the book weigh a ton. Information is also given about each film, which are listed a few to each large page. Though the films RKO London released are not here, they are listed in text at the back of the book, with a small caption of information regarding each release in Britain.

The business history is delved into extensively before the wonderful filmography, and it’s fascinating. After reading it, you’ll wonder how any films ever got made at RKO. Jewell actually began his research as far back as his years at USC, and it probably helped that Pandro S. Berman, a giant figure at RKO for many years, agreed to have conversations with Jewell. Despite the flux and instability of the studio, it was a powerhouse of talent at various moments during its history, and the many films you’ll run across here attest to that fact. You’ll no doubt run across a favorite film or two, or three or four, as you look through this one. Just the other day, I was speaking with someone here on Goodreads about a magnificent film called Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. It was director Leo McCarey’s first filming of a tender romance that most people only know from the second filming: An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Love Affair is a better film, even McCarey stated so, and it was made in 1939 by RKO.

At the back of the book is a listing of all awards and nominations of the films made at RKO. There are two separate indexes: one by film title, the other by studio personnel. It also has printed signatures from some stars and studio personnel on the inside boards, which is nice. These studio film books are nearly a must own for any classic film fan. Sometimes the RKO one gets short-thrift because the studio doesn’t have the same status as MGM, WB or Paramount. But I’m glad I have it, and if you’re a film fan, you will be too if you can track one down and get a good deal. You might want to pick up the others first, but RKO shouldn’t be overlooked either. Fun stuff for film buffs.
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Assinalado
Matt_Ransom | Oct 6, 2023 |
Richard B. Jewell’s Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures, focuses on the production studio during the last years of World War II through its dissolution. He draws extensively upon the studio archives to paint a picture of the drama and conflict that plagued RKO for most of its history. This book serves as a follow-up to Jewell’s earlier volume, RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born.
Jewell writes, “Most people in the United States, and in many other countries as well, were spending a significant portion of their days reading about the war [WWII] in the newspapers, listening to the latest updates on the radio, and talking about it with their friends. Given that the hostilities did not go well for the Allies throughout much of 1942, one might have expected spectators to prefer films that avoided the subject, as they generally had during the equally disheartening Depression. But just the opposite was true. Theater patrons sought out movies that reflected the precise moment they were living through, no matter how unrealistic and fanciful those movies happened to be” (pg. 11). After the war, however, RKO and others struggled. Jewell writes, “Box office attendance had started to decline, thanks to the onset of the baby boom era. Young couples celebrated the end of the war by marrying, moving to the suburbs, and starting families. With budgets stretched as they carved out their own small piece of the American dream, these young Americans cut back on moviegoing. If they did decide to catch a picture, they most likely watched it at a neighborhood theater or a drive-in – venues that were more convenient and featured lower admission prices than the picture palaces in urban downtown areas” (pg. 60).
Of the Red Scare, Jewell writes, “Since Howard Hughes vehemently opposed communism and intended to use his power to stifle the spread of the doctrine, it came as no surprise that one of his initial RKO pictures would deal with the subject. And he was not alone – Warner Bros., Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount, and other companies were also making anticommunist features at this historical moment. Hughes, however, allegedly had an additional agenda; he had decided to use the project [the film I Married a Communist] as a litmus test of his employees’ political sympathies” (pg. 95). Of Howard Hughes and the company’s downfall, Jewell writes, “There is one aspect of RKO’s history that everyone – company employees, journalists, Hollywood historians, film scholars, Hughes biographers – seems to agree about: Howard Hughes was primarily responsible for the ruination of the company. As should be clear by this stage, his erratic, incomprehensible approach to management brought RKO tumbling down to the brink of extinction” (pg. 180). Jewell concludes, “With the exception of the war years, RKO had never been a stable company, particularly at the executive level, but a surprising number of loyal employees did spend most of their lives working for the organization” (pg. 210).
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Assinalado
DarthDeverell | Jan 6, 2018 |
A narrative history of the early years of RKO Studios.
 
Assinalado
zenosbooks | 1 outra crítica | Sep 9, 2012 |
A narrative history of the early years of RKO Studios.
 
Assinalado
zenosbooks | 1 outra crítica | Sep 9, 2012 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
4
Membros
158
Popularidade
#133,026
Avaliação
4.1
Críticas
4
ISBN
12

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