My favorite Movie Studio was RKO. They made the best films, for example, King Kong,

Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Out Of The Past,

Cat People, The Leopard Man, The Seventh Victim, Flying Down To Rio, They Lived By Night,

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Pride Of The Yankees, Hitlers Children, I Walked With A Zombie, Murder My Sweet, The Spiral Staircase, Curse Of The Cat People, Notorious, Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Mighty Joe Young, Kon Tiki, The Thing From Another World,

Bringing Up Baby, The list goes on and on.  So many great films! What a great place to work, from what I’ve read the money people behind the Studio were in New York and busy with other interests so the Studio was left alone for stretches of time, not much interference. Of course that changed when Welles left to shoot It’s All True before Ambersons was finished. Big BooBoo on his part, plus his champion George Schaefer died suddenly and Welles was chopped off at the knees by new management.

.                                                                                                               Welles directing Ambersons

George J. Schaefer

At One point Howard Hughes owned RKO and put everyone through insane changes. Nicholas Ray said Hughes delayed the release of his first film, They Live By Night for over a year.

          Howard Hughes

Nicholas Ray

I read an interview with Robert Wise, he was a film editor at RKO. He said they would get very busy once a year preparing for a distributors conference , they had to show theater owners what was coming up so the editors would work round the clock getting ready for the Big Show.

Robert Wise

Several of RKO’s editors went on to great directing careers, like the afore mentioned Robert Wise, also Mark Robson, John Sturgis , and Edward Dmytryk. Those were the days! Wise caught a lot of flack for the recutting (Some might say butchery) of Ambersons. Welles never forgave him. There is a hunt on right now for a print that was sent to Rio for Welles to work on. It has never been found. The last version of Welles complete film.  I hope they find it.  Wise and Robson had been editors on some of Val Lewton’s films.

 Val Lewton

Lewton was the man that gave them their directing breaks, Wise got to take over Curse Of The Cat People and Robson directed The Seventh Victim and The Ghost Ship.

Mark Robson

Both got great starts to their careers but later when they had all left RKO, Wise Robson and Lewton started a fledgling production company. Lewton was in poor health at the time and it seemed as though his mentees were paying him back, inviting him to be part of their company. Unfortunately the Magnanimous gesture was short lived, Wise and Robson canned Lewton and did it by Telegram. They didn’t have the courage to tell him to his face. An action Wise regretted till his dying day. This proved to be the Last Straw for old Val Lewton, his fragile health worsened and he died soon after, maybe as a result of this treacherous act.

from The Ghost Ship