In one sample year, 1947, RKO under production chief Dore Schary shot fifteen A-level features at an average cost of $1 million and twenty Bs averaging $215,000. In addition to several noir programmers and full-flight A pictures, the studio put out two straight B noirs: "Desperate", directed by Anthony Mann, and "The Devil Thumbs a Ride", directed by Felix E. Feist. Ten straight B noirs that year came from Poverty Row's big three: Republic ("Blackmail" and "The Pretender"), Monogram ("Fall Guy", "The Guilty", "High Tide", and "Violence"), and PRC/Eagle-Lion ("Bury Me Dead", "Lighthouse", "Whispering City", and "Railroaded", another work of Mann). One came from tiny Screen Guild ("Shoot to Kill"). Three majors beside RKO also contributed: Columbia ("Blind Spot" and "Framed"), Paramount ("Fear in the Night"), and 20th Century-Fox ("Backlash" and "The Brasher Doubloon"). Adding programmers to that list of eighteen would bring it to around thirty. Still, most of the majors' low-budget production during the decade was of the sort now largely ignored. RKO's representative output included the Mexican Spitfire and Lum and Abner comedy series, thrillers featuring the Saint and the Falcon, westerns starring Tim Holt, and Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller. Jean Hersholt played Dr. Christian in six independently produced films released by RKO between 1939 and 1941. "The Courageous Dr. Christian" (1940) was a standard entry in the franchise: "In the course of an hour or so of screen time, the saintly physician managed to cure an epidemic of spinal meningitis, demonstrate benevolence towards the disenfranchised, set an example for wayward youth, and calm the passions of an amorous old maid."