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Topic: RKO 281

Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 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.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 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

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 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.

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 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.

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 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.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 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]

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 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

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 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.

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William Short
Film Handler

Posts: 5
From: Southborough, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2009

posted 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.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 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

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