RKO 281

Watch Movie

RKO 281

"What went on the screen was nothing compared to what went on behind the scenes."

2000

1h 24m

6.4(96 votes)

Drama

History

TV Movie

Overview

In 1939, boy-wonder Orson Welles leaves New York, where he has succeeded in radio and theater, and, hired by RKO Pictures, moves to Hollywood with the purpose of making his first film.

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

Videos & Trailers

1 video

Cast & Crew

35 members

Acting

Liev Schreiber

Orson Welles

Acting

James Cromwell

William Randolph Hearst

Acting

Melanie Griffith

Marion Davies

Acting

John Malkovich

Herman Mankiewicz

Acting

Liam Cunningham

Gregg Toland

Acting

David Suchet

Louis B. Mayer

Acting

Fiona Shaw

Hedda Hopper

Acting

Anastasia Hille

Carole Lombard

Acting

Brenda Blethyn

Louella Parsons

Acting

Roy Scheider

George Schaefer

Acting

Roger Allam

Walt Disney

Acting

Simeon Andrews

John Houseman

No Image

Acting

William Armstrong

Mr. Lewis

Acting

Jay Benedict

Darryl Zanuck

Acting

Ron Berglas

David O. Selznick

Acting

Paul Birchard

Top Brass #2

Acting

Neil Conrich

Mr. Thomson

Acting

Michael Cronin

Joseph Willicombe

Crew

Sarah Franzl

Dorothy Comingore

No Image

Acting

Briony Glassco

Script Girl

Acting

Louis Hammond

Flunkie #2

No Image

Writing

Aaron Keeling

Young Orson Welles

Acting

Joseph Long

Harry Cohn

Acting

Gareth Marks

Top Brass #1

No Image

Acting

Olivier Pierre

Sam Goldwyn

Acting

Roger Rose

News Reader

Acting

Rolf Saxon

Flunkie #1

Acting

Adrian Schiller

Paul Stewart

Acting

Kerry Shale

Bernard Herrmann

Acting

Cyril Shaps

Jeweller

Acting

Tusse Silberg

Welles' Mother

Writing

Toby Whithouse

Sound Technician

Acting

Tim Woodward

Jack Warner

Acting

Angus Wright

Joseph Cotten

Acting

Bobby Valentino

Clark Gable

Similar Movies

6.7

2024

Bob Marley: One Love

Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley overcomes adversity to become the most famous reggae musician in the world.

Movie

6.6

1996

Basquiat

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

Movie

6.9

1997

Wag the Dog

During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.

Movie

7.9

2004

Downfall

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

Movie

7.1

1977

Soldier of Orange

The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.

Movie

8.0

2002

Catch Me If You Can

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.

Movie

7.0

2023

Hamka & Siti Raham Vol. 2

This biopic explores Muslim scholar Buya Hamka's life and hardships alongside his loving wife, Siti Raham, after Indonesia gained independence.

Movie

7.2

2019

Susi Susanti: Love All

Susi Susanti rises to become Indonesia’s beloved athlete. In time of turmoil, she showed her country & the world that heroism is measured by one’s sacrifice.

Movie

7.1

1994

Natural Born Killers

Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

Movie

6.9

2005

King Kong

In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

Movie

6.9

1979

The Tin Drum

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

Movie

7.4

1979

The Marriage of Maria Braun

Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone.

Movie

7.6

1987

The Last Emperor

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Movie

8.5

1990

GoodFellas

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

Movie

4.9

2014

The Grim Sleeper

Journalist Christine Pelisek helps law enforcement investigate the alleged serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper.

Movie

2006

Shades of Black: The Conrad Black Story

A story of ambition, love, betrayal and greed.

Movie

7.1

1963

Contempt

A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang to direct an adaptation of "The Odyssey," but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.

Movie

8.7

1994

The Shawshank Redemption

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

Movie

7.5

1991

Barton Fink

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

Movie

7.3

2005

Everything Is Illuminated

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Movie

Recommended Movies

6.6

1985

Demons

A group of people are trapped in a West Berlin movie theater infested with ravenous demons who proceed to kill and possess the humans one-by-one, thereby multiplying their numbers.

Movie

7.5

1984

The Killing Fields

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

Movie

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

7.6

2020

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

The story of the triumphs and hurdles of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, otherwise known as the Bee Gees. The iconic trio, who found early fame in the 1960s, went on to write over 1,000 songs and have 20 No. 1 hits throughout their career, transcending more than five decades of changing tastes and styles.

Movie

7.0

1928

L'Argent

Adapted from the novel L'Argent by Émile Zola, the film portrays the world of banking and the stock market in Paris in the 1920s.

Movie

6.4

2015

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy - posing a rooming predicament for two fresh arrivals - Sonny pursues his expansionist dream of opening a second hotel.

Movie

6.9

2014

Two Days, One Night

Sandra is a young woman who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues they must give up their bonuses in order for her to keep her job — not an easy task in this economy.

Movie

6.7

2024

Back to Black

The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.

Movie

6.9

2006

The Fountain

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

Movie

7.0

2015

The Walk

The story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's attempt to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

Movie

6.4

2010

Robin Hood

When soldier Robin happens upon the dying Robert of Loxley, he promises to return the man's sword to his family in Nottingham. There, he assumes Robert's identity; romances his widow, Marion; and draws the ire of the town's sheriff and King John's henchman, Godfrey.

Movie

8.0

1941

Citizen Kane

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

Movie

7.0

2010

Love & Other Drugs

Maggie is an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone – or anything – tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie, whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serves him well with the ladies and the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.

Movie

7.8

2021

Dune

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Movie

8.2

2018

Green Book

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

Movie

8.2

1980

The Shining

Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.

Movie

8.6

1993

Schindler's List

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Movie

8.3

2003

Oldboy

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

Movie

8.1

1998

The Truman Show

Every second of every day, from the moment he was born, for the last thirty years, Truman Burbank has been the unwitting star of the longest running, most popular documentary-soap opera in history. The picture-perfect town of Seahaven that he calls home is actually a gigantic soundstage. Truman's friends and family - everyone he meets, in fact - are actors. He lives every moment under the unblinking gaze of thousands of hidden TV cameras.

Movie

8.5

2014

Interstellar

The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Movie

8.5

1990

GoodFellas

Movie