I found this article today on the history of RKO and the films noir it made. It is a very interesting piece by Bill Mesce worth taking a look at. It talks about RKO’s two stars, Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum and some of the great directors that carried the studio in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It also talks about how RKO used the noir style in some of its other genre productions like westerns and horror movies. Well worth your time to read.

Here is the link to the full article:

http://www.soundonsight.org/kingdom-of-darkness-rko-and-film-noir/