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schlock-luster-video · 1 year

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On March 27, 1990, Citizen Kane debuted on East German television.

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clarulitas · 3 months

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Ginger Rogers for The Gay Divorcee (1934)

#beautiful angel #ginger rogers #the gay divorcee #1930s #1934 #fashion #old hollywood #rko #1930s movies #film #classic hollywood #my edits

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newyorkthegoldenage · 14 days

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Citizen Kane had its world premiere on May 1, 1941, at the RKO Palace.

Photo: Granger/Fine Art America

#vintage New York #1940s #Citizen Kane #Orson Welles #film premiere #movie premiere #RKO Palace #May 1 #1 May #classic films #old Hollywood

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thehauntedrocket · 4 months

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Vintage Poster - The Mysterians

RKO (1959)

#Posters #Film #The Mysterians #Mysterians #Science Fiction #RKO #RKO Radio Pictures #Vintage #Art #1959 #1950s #50s

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citizenscreen · 4 days

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Max Steiner conducting the score for KING KONG (1933)

#max steiner #king kong #old hollywood #film music #rko pictures

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keeperofdarkness22 · 2 years

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The Thing from Another World (1951)

#the thing #horror #movie #horrormovies #film #movies #dead #kill #monsters #rko pictures #rko radio pictures

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can-they-do-a-rko · 11 days

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How successful would Amanda Young…

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driveintheaterofthemind · 6 months

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Vintage Poster - The Las Vegas Story (Australian)

RKO (1952)

#Posters #Film #The Las Vegas Story #Las Vegas Story #Jane Russell #Victor Mature #Vincent Price #Hoagie Carmichael #Vintage #Art #Las Vegas #RKO Pictures #RKO #RKO Radio Pictures #Howard Hughes #1952 #1950s #50s

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kekwcomics · 1 year

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Cat People premiere. Rialto Theatre, Manhattan, 1942

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thedepartmentofdiscoveries · 4 months

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Theater display for “Cat People” (1942).

This was the movie that invented the “jump scare,” created not by the director, but by editor Mark Robson.

Continuing movement in one direction, a through line in a direction between cuts, and then had something come in parallel to the continuing movement. This resulted in a jarring sense shock and fear. The jump scare was extremely rare prior to the 1980s.

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Originally posted by Kim Dallesandro's page on FB.

#cat people (1942)#supernatural horror #1940s films #jumpscare #jacques tourneur #simone simon #mark robson #kent smith #tom conway #jane randolph #jack holt #rko radio pictures #black and white #monochrome #Youtube

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lifes-commotion · 9 months

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Rhonda Fleming

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schlock-luster-video · 1 year

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On March 8, 1956, Isle of the Dead premiered on television in Hartford, Connecticut.

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fibula-rasa · 2 years

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Cosplay the Classics: Lucille Ball in the 1940s

The first time I ever saw Lucille Ball not playing Lucy Ricardo was when TCM aired Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) when I was a kid. She floored me in this movie. This woman that had branded herself on my brain via sitcom reruns as an expert comedian and legendary face puller was also this knockout glamour girl?! And it’s not that Lucy is gorgeous, I already knew that, it’s that the film treats her as such. She’s lit like a goddess and that raging technicolor photography was a match made in heaven with her red hair and bright blue eyes. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot more of her film work pre-I Love Lucy, including one of my all-time favorite movies, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940).

Ball might best be known now for her masterful work in television, as a performer and a producer, but boy her journey to get there was nothing to sniff at. Ball gradually carved out her niche in pictures by the end of 1930s, when she had already been in show business for the better part of a decade. Not fully satisfied with her work in film, Ball did double duty and heavily delved into radio. Between her radio work and her growing roles in pictures, she became the newest “Queen of the Bs.” (“B” referring to B pictures, lower budget films that were typically the second feature in the double features.)

Lucy’s styling progression from the 1930s through the early 1940s

The type Ball most excelled at playing was brassy and headstrong with a penchant for banter that usually relied at least a bit on her comedic timing. The physical comedy we now know Ball excelled at is only present in fits and starts across her filmography of the 30s and 40s. Regardless, she is fantastic at delivering repartee, even when it’s not very well written.

Looking back from this side of decades of I Love Lucy continuously playing on our TVs (at least in the US), I get the feeling that lots of people might be unaware that Ball got her start in entertainment for her looks. (And that her acting and comedy skills came from diligent work!) She started as a fashion model and was a spokesmodel for Max Factor Cosmetics starting in the 1930s. Ball got her break as a Goldwyn Girl because she had the right look and good timing.

Reviewing her filmography to research this cosplay, the time around 1940 stood out as a turning point for her career (and, in turn, her look). Generally speaking in studio-era Hollywood, you knew you had made it when you became the type to cast rather than fitting the type of some other, more established star. And, when you became your own type, that was usually accompanied by a styling shift that emphasized your own features over adjusting your features to emulate another star. To illustrate, here are photos of Lucille Ball, Joan Bennett and Ginger Rogers taken when they were all working at RKO in the 1930s, alongside photos of them in the early 1940s, when they were all on their own paths. Ginger was a rising star for the studio in the 1930s, so hers became a dominant look. (An added note for Lucy’s career at the time, is that she was mentored by Rogers’ mother Lela at RKO.)

Ball, Bennett, and Rogers above in the 1930s and below in the 1940s

This cosplay was roughly based on Ball’s signature styling in the mid-1940s, specifically around the time she made the film Lured (1947). (A movie which I feel could have easily spawned a series.) By this point she was settled into the hair and make-up we typically associate with Lucille Ball. Her eyebrows are a relatively thick, rounded arch and generally the roundness of her eyes is accentuated, instead of trying to elongate them. Her coppery curls are arranged around the center of her forehead with hair swept up at the temples. Her lipstick is applied in a manner that leans into the fullness of her lips while also emphasizing her slightly dubious expression. While I’ll admit a lot of these styling shifts correspond with beauty trend shifts from the 1930s into the 1940s, the execution of the trends are tailored to her unlike the '30s trends, as illustrated above.

By the time Du Barry was released in 1943, Ball’s red hair was already a selling point (though it was dyed much brighter for the sake of the technicolor). Her typical hair and makeup by the time Lured came out in 1947 only changed marginally from then through the 1950s. That is to say, even updating her look with trends like shorter, tighter cuts for women’s hair and stronger contrasting lines for make-up of the 1950s, Ball found the shapes that suited her and she stuck with them. It’s a beauty paradigm that makes her a joy to emulate, even on the closet-cosplay level I operate on!

The references I used to put this cosplay together can be seen below:

I also got a little bored at the prospect of editing these images, so I tried to replicate the photographic look of full-color portraits from 1940s fan magazines. Most notably, this photo of Janet Blair from the September 1943 issue of Modern Screen Magazine:

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AND, if you want to read more about Lured, I wrote about it a few years back for Noirvember!

OR, if you want to read more about Joan Bennett, I cosplayed her a while back!

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emeraldexplorer2 · 3 months

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Rochelle Hudson, Her first contract in Hollywood was in 1930 with RKO - who lied and padded her age by 2 years to promote that she was 16, when in fact she was only 14! After appearing in numerous Pre-Codes, her career continued until 1967.

#vintage #beauty #actress #hollywood #rochelle hudson #1930's #rko pictures #pre code hollywood #pre code film #pre code movies

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mudwerks · 1 year

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Underwater! (RKO, 1955)

Starring Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland, Richard Egan, Lori Nelson, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia, Eugene Iglesias, and Ric Roman. Directed by John Sturges.

#Underwater!#film #vintage #poster #art #1955 #RKO #Jane Russell #Gilbert Roland #John Sturges

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francisjohnmovies · 4 months

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Directed by George Cukor

One of our new favorites

Delightful dance between social classes in Britain.

Gilbert Roland and Violet Kemble Cooper get into an argument why or why not to marry, each has their own point of view.

Our Betters (1933)

A must watch by RKO Studios.

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