Irene Dunne and Richard Dix in Cimarron (1931)

Corinne Calvet and John Carroll in Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959)

A list of movies with connections to family members.  In front and behind the camera. *Family members noted below.

Angelique Berry and Floriane Andersen in Emergency: LA (2021)

Michelle Williams in Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Peter Lorre, Ethel Griffies, and John McGuire in Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

RKO Pictures (also known as RKO Productions, Radio Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, and RKO Teleradio Pictures) is an American film production and distribution company. The original company produced films from 1929 through 1957, with releases extending until its dissolution in 1959. On October 23, 1928, RCA announced that it had acquired control of the Film Booking Offices of America studio and Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and was merging them under a holding company, Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. Its new production arm was incorporated as RKO Productions Inc. on January 25, 1929. While RKO Distributing Corp. was originally organized as a distinct business entity, by July 1930 the studio was transitioning into the new, unified RKO Radio Pictures Inc. In December, RKO announced that it would be acquiring Pathé Exchange, including its studio and backlot in Culver City, film laboratories in New Jersey, distribution exchanges in the United States and Great Britain, and the Pathé News operation. In 1931–32, RKO Pathé operated as a semiautonomous division of RKO Pictures.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood's Golden Age, RKO was one of the Big Five studios. Its lineup of acting talent during this period included Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Robert Mitchum. Among the studio's most notable films are Cimarron (winner of the 1931 Academy Award for Best Picture), King Kong (1933), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946—the studio's only other Academy Award for Best Picture), and what some people consider the greatest film of all time, 1941's Citizen Kane.

The studio declined after Howard Hughes acquired ownership in 1948, and it was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. After several years of attempting to save the company, in January 1957, General Tire reached an agreement with Universal Pictures, where Universal would distribute the remaining RKO product, but the agreement effectively ended all film production at RKO. In 1959 General Tire put all of its non-core operations in a holding company, RKO General, which in 1978 reconstituted RKO Pictures Inc. as a production subsidiary, although the new company did not release its first film until 1981. General Tire sold RKO Pictures in 1989, at which point it began operating under new management as a small independent film company, RKO Pictures LLC.

All release dates are from the AFI Database, except as follows: those designated with an (*) are from imdb.com, and those designated with a (**) are from Theiapolis.com; other sources are noted with footnotes. The date listed is the earliest date, whether that be the premiere or the general release date. The order is according to release dates in the United States.

Note: All films released by the original incarnation of RKO are now owned by Warner Bros. through Turner Entertainment Co. (in North America, the United Kingdom and France at the least) unless otherwise noted.

Year titles: 1929 (13) 1930 (29) 1931 (50) 1932 (46) 1933 (49) 1934 (45) 1935 (42) 1936 (39) 1937 (56) 1938 (42) 1939 (49) 1940 (55) 1941 (44) 1942 (38) 1943 (43) 1944 (36) 1945 (34) 1946 (38) 1947 (35) 1948 (32) 1949 (34) 1950 (30) 1951 (39) 1952 (30) 1953 (24) 1954 (14) 1955 (14) 1956 (20) 1957 (11) 1958 (6) 1959 (5) 1960 (1)

<AND MORE INFORMATION> First National Pictures: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls566680323/ Warner Bros. (1950s): https://www.imdb.com/list/ls590386098/ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1940s): https://www.imdb.com/list/ls590631557/ Warner Bros. (1940s): https://www.imdb.com/list/ls540813009/

"I normally only get this excited when they sing the title of a movie in the movie" sic avoiding musicals

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Edward J. Nugent, and Loretta Young in Loose Ankles (1930)

Can there even be a thing like 'nearly good B-pictures'? At first I wasn't so sure either. But after years of watching B-movies, more often than not I stumbled across a B-picture which I wouldn't exactly consider to be a good (or even brillant) one. On the other hand it didn't reach the absolute bottoms of z-grade moviedom that connoisseurs of this kind of pictures are used to either. It was simply a movie which, in terms of B-pictures, was competently done, had all those ingredients we love so much in this kind of movies, yes, possibly it was even done bad for all the right reasons. But nevertheless, it didn't click with me, didn't offer that special something which makes B-pictures so enjoyable. What you can expect on this list are B-pictures which are not bad per se, they are more like near misses which can still offer plenty for the B-movie fan. Especially if you are a fan of a certain subgenre, actor or whatever. So have fun browsing through the nearly, but not quite, good B-pictures of the 1940s.

If you're up to it, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

PS: The movies are sorted by year and not necessarily by my preference. This list is by no means complete as I will add new worthwhile films as I stumble across them.

Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)

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