RKO Story

Beautifully put together history of RKO. Photo-packed as a book about films should be with a synopsis of every film and details galore. A quote from the text tells the RKO story: "The supreme irony of RKO's existence is that the studio earned a position of lasting importance in cinema history largely BECAUSE of it's extraordinarily unstable history. Since it was the weakling of the Hollywood's majors, RKO welcomed a diverse group of individualistic creators and provided them, at least until the Hughes era, with an extraordinary degree of freedom to express their artistic idiosycracies." Any film buff NEEDS to have this book in their library.

Richard Jewell's book is simply the most thorough and most authoritative study of the RKO movie production studio ever written. It covers every film chronologically and seems never to fail to offer insight into the thinking of its creators, and the performances of its stars. The films are supplemented with good photos...but it's the research required to produce such a volume that is really impressive. Jewell displays his love of film....and all that is required to produce high quality work....throughout his well written narrative. This is a comprehensive reference book really, that provides "a big picture" perspective of the work of one small, but mighty studio, during the Golden Age of Hollywood..

The author was given access to RKO records that had been unseen for decades. This book combines the beautiful photos of any number of Hollywood studio coffee table books with the insights of a great storyteller and cinema historian. Highly recommended for the film fan - wherever you can find it.