Richard Fleischer: the Years at RKO

Abstract

This interview with Richard Fleischer was conducted by Gonzalo M. Pavés in Brentwood, California, on September 19, 1992, and was originally published in 1995. In it Richard Fleischer talks about his early years at the Yale University School of Drama and the beginning of his career as a writer and director of newsreels at RKO Pathé News in New York. Later, the interview focuses on his films noir in relation to B-production, directed during his early years in Hollywood, mostly for RKO, such as Follow Me Quietly (1949), Trapped (1949), The Clay Pigeon (1949), Armored Car Robbery (1950) and The Narrow Margin (1952). Among other issues, the filmmaker deals with such relevant aspects of the classical Hollywood cinema as the structure of the studio system, the role of the producers, the narrow margins of creative freedom of the filmmakers, Fleischer’s participation in the writing of the scripts of his films and the influence of his previous studies in the field of psychology on his productions.