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.