RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born by Richard B. Jewell

Author:Richard B. Jewell [Jewell, Richard B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Business & Economics, Film & Video, Performing Arts, History & Criticism, Corporate & Business History
ISBN: 9780520271784
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2012-04-01T07:06:19+00:00

The more recent pictures that seem to be doing the best business throughout the country are BOYS TOWN, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU and FOUR DAUGHTERS. It is noteworthy that all of them are down-to-earth simple stories. It seems that the public, in seeking refuge from the complex problems of life today, confused as they are by the unrest and disturbances prevalent throughout the world, find escape for at least a couple of hours in a make-believe world, in which the way of life is simple and which they understand. This type of picture is apparently serving that purpose.47

Spitz did not demand more pictures like A Man to Remember or Mother Carey's Chickens, but the implication was clear. Leo Spitz's recommendations in 1938 had run the gamut from melodramatic action films through exploitation pictures to down-to-earth, sentimental entertainments.

Spitz's principal bequest to RKO was the continuing series. Although other studios had been profiting from inexpensive pictures that presented the same actors playing the same roles in picture after picture, RKO had dawdled in this area. The studio did make the Hildegarde Withers mysteries—first starring Edna Mae Oliver and then Helen Broderick—but these had expired in the mid-1930s. While RKO had neglected the category, Paramount had sponsored the adventures of Bulldog Drummond; Twentieth Century-Fox, Charlie Chan; Warner Bros., Perry Mason; Columbia, Nero Wolfe; and MGM topped everyone with the “Thin Man” and Andy Hardy family pictures.

It was a sensible, if not exactly original, move for Spitz to insist RKO initiate some series pictures in 1938. Two resulted: the Saint and Annabel. The Saint series, based on novels written by Leslie Charteris, featured a suave private detective who solves homicides with the same self-possession and style that he displays while selecting the correct wine. Louis Hayward played the role in the original, The Saint in New York, which proved a definite triumph ($180,000 profit on a production cost of only $128,000), thus ensuring the continuation of the series. Hayward, however, would not play the role again; George Sanders replaced him in the remaining RKO pictures.

Lucille Ball was chosen to portray Annabel, a Hollywood actress whose press agent (Jack Oakie) decides she must live her parts before she plays them. Thus, in the first effort, The Affairs of Annabel, Annabel spends a month in prison before tackling a prison picture. The Affairs of Annabel was also a minor success, meaning there would be, at the very least, a second installment. RKO had been tardy in climbing on the series bandwagon, but it would make up for that during the next few years.

Pandro Berman was allowed to continue as production head in the Schaefer administration, even though his first year on the job had been less than scintillating. Still, most of the true clunkers had been prepared under Sam Briskin. They included Hitting a New High (loss: $431,000); Joy of Living (loss: $314,000); Radio City Revels (loss: $300,000). And Bringing Up Baby (loss: $365,000).

Howard Hawks's production of Bringing Up Baby is one of those touchstone films that RKO is remembered for.

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