Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: RKO 281

This is topic RKO 281 in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 11-23-2009, 03:34 PM:

Claude - have you ever seen the movie "RKO 281"? If not I would bet it's right up your alley. It's about the battle between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over Citizen Kane. It's an excellent film. It stars Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell and John Malkovich.

Another good one is a TV film about Errol Flynn based on his autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" though it is not on DVD yet. It's not as factual as "RKO 281" but still it's fun to watch the depiction of old Hollywood.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-23-2009, 06:02 PM:

Joe,

I heard about the two movies but I have never seen them. I wonder if they are both available on DVD and can be rented at Blockbster? i'll check with them and see if I can rent them if available. Since I love CITIZEN KANE, I hope RK0 281 is available because i would like to see it.

I just checked with Blockbuster and they do have RKO 281 and I put it into my queue .MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS is not available, however

-Claude

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-27-2009, 11:40 AM:

RKO 281 is historically inaccurate, and should be taken as a work of fiction very loosely based on historical events.

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 11-30-2009, 07:18 PM:

Actually Mitch I thought it mirrored the facts in the "Battle Over Citizen Kane" documentary pretty closely. Of course the dialog was all invented by the writers but the details of the story seemed pretty much the same.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 12-02-2009, 01:12 PM:

Among the historical inaccuracies in RKO 281 is the fact that Orson Wells and Hearst never met, and Wells was never at San Simeon.

I have not seen "The Battle For Citizen Kane", so I can't comment on it's accuracy.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 12-02-2009, 02:56 PM:

As I have to constantly tell my audience:

1) Never get your history from movies

2) Based on a true story means "Fiction"

[Wink]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-15-2009, 06:23 PM:

I am very grateful to a friend who had provided me with a copy of MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS and I watched it last night. It starred Duncan Regher as Errol Flynn , Barbara Hershey as his wife Lili Damita and Hal Lindon as Jack Warner. It was a very lengthy made for television film running 142 minutes and was very interesting because it showed the way how movies were made during the time when Flynn was making them for Jack Warner and his studio. I am sure a good portion about Errol Flynn's scandalous film career as depicted in the film was fiction but the movie was very entertaining. I bought a DVD box set of Errol Flynn's movies about two years ago and one of the disc in the set is a filmed biography about the late actor who brought misfortune on himself during his very short eight year movie career and will watch it sometime this week and compare it with the docudrama I just saw.

-Claude

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 12-16-2009, 10:59 AM:

Claude - there are two very interesting books on Flynn for which you might look. One is his own version of his life story which is, of course, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways". It is considered to be very sanitized and even fictional in some aspects. After reading that you might want to get one called "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story". The author's last name, I believe, is Higham. This confirms some of Flynn's book and is wildly different in other areas. I found nice hard cover editions of both on eBay for under $10 each.

Posted by William Short (Member # 5170) on 12-16-2009, 01:28 PM:

I'd also recommend George Seldes' book, Witness to a Century: Encounters with the Noted, the Notorious, and the Three SOBs. Written as he approached his 100th birthday, Seldes writes about the people he met in his long career as a journalist, author, and editor.

One of the three SOBs was Errol Flynn.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-16-2009, 06:23 PM:

joe,

Thanks for the heads up about the books on Errol Flynn. I used to be a very avid reader at one time but I do very little reading now except when I have to review a few work based technical material.

-Claude