The B-Movie

An estimated 75% of Hollywood’s films from the 1930s—perhaps 4000 of them—could be considered “B” pictures.  How can we explain such a phenomenon?

 

I. Economics

     A. Consider the fate of Selznick International Pictures after GWTW—a victim of its own success

 

     B. Then consider the benefits of managing overhead by keeping everything—studios, sets, locations, talent, technology—working all the time,

and the economic motive for B-production is clear

             1. Overhead management

             2. Reliable income source due to flat fee rental policy, which means a low but predictable profit margin

             3. Helps supply the demand driven by the double bill

                 (a) thus related to the Depression-era economics that drove that feature in the first place

                 (b) this demand did change after WWII, with the demise of the double bill and thus the B-picture

                 (c) thus, a history: Depressionà double billsàrise of minor production companies, to supply need for Bsàstudios form B-units,

putting minor companies out of business

 

II. Definitions

     A. “A” versus “B”: “A” pictures had stars, budgets of $350,000 or more, 7-reel length (80+ minutes), longer shooting schedules, and filled the top half of a double bill;

“B” pictures used lesser talent and had lower budgets, shorter schedules and running times (5-6 reels, 55-70m)

 

     B. A taxonomy of “Bs”

1. Programmers: largely produced by majors; A/B type films that could fill either half of a double bill; 65-80m running time; $100-200,000 budgets; sometimes

     functioned as star tryouts

          2. Major Studio B pictures: 2-5 week production schedules; budgets from $30-300,000; access to technical talent and studio facilities of the majors; e.g.

    20th C.-Fox spent $6 million on 24 films per year, often in series (Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto)

          3. Stable “Poverty Row” studios: Republic, Monogram, Grand National, Tiffany; budgets up to $100,000; serials, westerns, singing cowboys; imitations of majors’

    products (e.g. cycles of adventures; Mr. Wong series)

          4. Transitory production companies: underfunded studios making “quickies” or “cheapies” in rented studio space with minimal outdoor shots; 4-18 day production

     schedules; lots of Westerns; a narrower target audience, reached through (largely rural) independent exhibitors operating under the “states’ rights” distribution

     network (i.e., flat fees for rights to exhibit in a geographical area—like the junior varsity version of block-booking)

          5. Ethnic cinema, esp. African-American film—note that for this category the determining factors were not entirely economic; that is, rather than being made for

     double-bill exhibition, the economics of segregation and race determined audience and profit potential

 

     C. Telling the difference: compare the shot selection and editing in the concluding scenes of Murder Over New York and Mr. Wong, Detective [clips]

 

III. Some remarks on B films:

 

“B” film director Nick Grinde, quoted in Balio, Grand Design 332:

 

"B" standing for Bread and Butter, or Buttons, or Bottom Budget. And standing for nearly anything else anyone wants to throw at it. ...A "B" picture isn't a big picture that just didn't grow up; it's exactly what it started out to be. It's the twenty-two-dollar suit of the clothing business, it's the hamburger of the butchers' shops, it's a seat in the bleachers. And there's a big market for all of them. ...When you are all through, you have a suit or a picture which goes right out into the market with its big brothers and gives pretty good service at that. The trick is to judge them in their class and not by" A" standards.

 

 

 

Balio, Grand Design 332:

 

B's could be of any generic form, with probably as much diversity as was found among the A's. Nearly every genre was capably utilized in the B, whether animal, aviation, children's, college, comedy, detective, crime, domestic, gangster, horror, jungle, love story, medical, melodrama, musical, mystery, newspaper, Northwest, political, rural, satire, social problem, sports, war, Western, woman’s, or youth films. Outside of the considerable number of Westerns, male-oriented action films did not dominate B output. B's were expected to offer not only action but also comedy, with a homey, folksy tone, and an important love interest, considered useful in advancing its position on a double bill.