Tuska, Jon (1974). In 1956, distributor Joseph E. Levine financed the shooting of new footage with American actor Raymond Burr that was edited into the Japanese sci-fi horror film Godzilla. "The New Hollywood", in. [11] By the mid-1930s, the double feature was the dominant U.S. exhibition model, and the majors responded. Mainstream movies have the bigger budgets, but B-movies have the better behind-the-scenes stories. Hill also directed her best-known performances, in two AIP blaxploitation films: Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). [177] The films of director Ed Wood, such as Glen or Glenda (1953) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)—the latter frequently cited as one of the worst pictures ever made—exemplify the classic grade-Z movie. [80] Within a few decades, Hollywood was dominated by both movies and an exploitation philosophy very much like Levine's. Muller (1998), p. 176; Cousins (2004), p. 198. See, e.g., Schneider and Williams (2005), pp. He also takes a supporting acting role here. The transformation of the film industry due to court rulings that brought an end to many long-standing distribution practices as well as the challenge of television led to major changes in U.S. cinema at the exhibition level. One was a high-budget Paramount production, directed by the celebrated Roman Polanski. [116] Its distributor was small Cinemation Industries, then best known for releasing dubbed versions of the Italian Mondo Cane "shockumentaries" and the Swedish skin flick Fanny Hill, as well as for its one in-house production, The Man from O.R.G.Y. The history of film: Back in the late 1800s, entertainment on a Friday night was noticeably lower tech … After this, it got better and a little more accurate. As Marone observes, "the equipment budget (camera, support) required for shooting digital is approximately 1/10 that for film, significantly lowering the production budget for independent features. [160], At the same time as exhibition venues for B films vanished, the independent film movement was burgeoning; among the results were various crossovers between the low-budget genre movie and the "sophisticated" arthouse picture. [167] As big-budget Hollywood movies further usurped traditional low-rent genres, the ongoing viability of the familiar brand of B movie was in grave doubt. Many of the elements of theatre and dance are the basis of the modern movie-making industry such as scripts, lighting, sound, costumes, actors and directors. A History of American B Movies – Part 1. B-movies are a staple of American cinema. Schatz (1999), p. 232; Finler (2003), pp. [122] The gory horror film Deathdream (1974), directed by Bob Clark, is also an agonized protest of the war in Vietnam. In other genres, Universal kept its Ma and Pa Kettle series going through 1957, while Allied Artists stuck with the Bowery Boys until 1958. Some actors, such as Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine and Pam Grier, worked in B movies for most of their careers. Kill! What follows is a list of the 50 greatest B-movie actresses. On this IMDbrief we trace the origin of the B-Movie, how it evolved, and what it takes to earn the B-Movie badge of honor. And by that we mean a scholarly examination of them, of course. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more lavishly budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics. [45] Ten B noirs that year came from Poverty Row's big three—Republic, Monogram, and PRC/Eagle-Lion—and one came from tiny Screen Guild. After barely inching forward in the 1930s, the average U.S. feature production cost had essentially doubled over the 1940s, reaching $1 million by the turn of the decade—a 93% rise after adjusting for inflation. "[170] Fox launched a new subsidiary in 2006, Fox Atomic, to concentrate on teen-oriented genre films. "Guercio's 'Electra Glide in Blue' Arrives: Director Makes Debut With a Mystery,". The audience is listening. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided opportunities both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. 49–50; Hollows (2003); Staiger (2000), p. 112. "The Formation of the 'Major Independent': Miramax, New Line, and the New Hollywood", in. [182] Schumacher notes that after 1984 deregulation German public television passed its climax and became marginalized. "Where Have All the Howlers Gone?". Both imitated and referenced not only by many B-movie directors but also from commercial filmmakers (you may have heard about the director from his 1994 biopic “Ed Wood”), Ed Wood and his movies deserve a spot in the history of B-movie filmmaking, as well as on our list. Although there have always been economical means with which to shoot movies, including Super 8 and 16 mm film, as well as video cameras recording onto analog videotape, these media could not rival the image quality of 35 mm film. Prince (2002) gives, Cost per Bruce Campbell, cited in Warren (2001), p. 45. "[180] The term, popularized beginning in the 1980s with publications of Weldon's such as The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, The Psychotronic Video Guide, and Psychotronic Video magazine, has subsequently been adopted by other critics and fans. Eventually they arranged a financing and distribution deal with Columbia, as two more graduates of the Corman/AIP exploitation mill joined the project: Jack Nicholson and cinematographer László Kovács. 3–4. B-films existed because of the exhibition practices of the Golden Age. The major studios' top product was continuing to inflate in running time—in 1970, the ten biggest earners averaged 140.1 minutes. At the thousands of smaller, independent theaters, programs often changed two or three times a week. [92] Faster, Pussycat! [95] Blood Feast (1963), a movie about human dismemberment and culinary preparation made for approximately $24,000 by experienced nudie-maker Herschell Gordon Lewis, established a new, more immediately successful subgenre, the gore or splatter film. [25] One low-budget oater of the era, made totally outside the studio system, profited from an outrageous concept: a Western with an all-midget cast, The Terror of Tiny Town (1938) was such a success in its independent bookings that Columbia picked it up for distribution. 66–67. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s. In 1955, Corman had a producorial hand in five movies averaging 74.8 minutes. While numerous opinions exist as to how a b-movie should be defined, there is all but one technical definition. It was picked up for distribution by New Line, retitled The Evil Dead, and became a hit. Along with these eighteen unambiguous B noirs, an additional dozen or so noir programmers came out of Hollywood. Made by Tobe Hooper for less than $300,000, it became one of the most influential horror films of the 1970s. Described by Paul as "essentially an American-International teenybopper pic with a lot more spit and polish", it was 1973's third-biggest film and, likewise, by far the highest-earning teen-themed movie yet made. [99] That year, two horror films came out that heralded directions American cinema would take in the next decade, with major consequences for the B movie. Release Calendar DVD & Blu-ray Releases Top Rated Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Showtimes & Tickets In Theaters Coming Soon Coming Soon Movie News India Movie Spotlight. In master shots galore, B-movie legend director Edgar G. Ulmer pounds out this story of an escaped convict who gets roped into a scheme to commit robberies with the help of a scientist's invisibility machine. Most of the B-movie production houses founded during the exploitation era collapsed or were subsumed by larger companies as the field's financial situation changed in the early 1980s. Troma's best-known production is The Toxic Avenger (1985); its hideous hero, affectionately known as Toxie, was featured in several sequels and a TV cartoon series. ... [H]e can't get two people talking in order to make a simple expository point without its sounding like the drabbest Republic picture of 1938. "'House of Usher': Poe Story on Bill With 'Why Must I Die? With the smash success of exploitation veteran Wes Craven's original Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), whose nearly $2 million cost it had directly backed, the company began moving steadily into higher-budget genre productions. Most films referred to as Z movies are made on very small budgets by operations on the fringes of the commercial film industry. [78], Increasingly, American-made genre films were joined by foreign movies acquired at low cost and, where necessary, dubbed for the U.S. market. '", Braucort, Guy (1970). [121] Like Romero and Van Peebles, other filmmakers of the era made pictures that combined the gut-level entertainment of exploitation with biting social commentary. [124] An Easy Rider with conceptual rigor, the movie that most clearly presaged the way in which exploitation content and artistic treatment would be combined in modestly budgeted films of later years was United Artists' biker-themed Electra Glide in Blue (1973), directed by James William Guercio. Lev (2003), pp. By 1953, the old Monogram brand had disappeared, the company having adopted the identity of its higher-end subsidiary, Allied Artists. Schatz (1999), pp. [29] For many series, even a lesser major's standard B budget was far out of reach: Poverty Row's Consolidated Pictures featured Tarzan, the Police Dog in a series with the proud name of Melodramatic Dog Features. The Weiss outfit had the Range Rider series, the American Rough Rider series, and the Morton of the Mounted "northwest action thrillers". Corman (1998), p. 36. The studio was sold off and dissolved as a moviemaking concern by the end of 1980. By 1935, 85 percent of American motion-picture theatres were programming double features. [14] The traditional twin bill of B film preceding and balancing a subsequent-run A film had largely disappeared from American theaters. Rosemary's Baby had been a big hit, but it had little in common with the exploitation style. Best B Movies the 1940s by karljhickey14 | created - 27 Dec 2015 | updated - 08 Jan 2019 | Public No Noir , Westerns , or series (except minor series , and series with only two or three films ).Those are the categories or genres with the best B movies , and are generally better known . [77] Unpretentious pictures with simple, familiar plots and reliable shock effects were ideally suited for auto-based film viewing, with all its attendant distractions. At the same time, many local television stations began showing B genre films in late-night slots, popularizing the notion of the midnight movie. [26], Series of various genres, featuring recurrent, title-worthy characters or name actors in familiar roles, were particularly popular during the first decade of sound film. Heffernan (2004), p. 221; Cook (2002), pp. Overall, it gave my kids a pretty good overview of world history and gave us a lot to talk about with how historians twist the facts/leave facts out to create bias. Thompson, Howard (1960). The combination of intensive and gimmick-laden publicity with movies featuring vulgar subject matter and often outrageous imagery dated back decades—the term had originally defined truly fringe productions, made at the lowest depths of Poverty Row or entirely outside the Hollywood system. [4], With the widespread arrival of sound film in American theaters in 1929, many independent exhibitors began dropping the then-dominant presentation model, which involved live acts and a broad variety of shorts before a single featured film. [66], The Amazing Colossal Man was released by a new company whose name was much bigger than its budgets. See Finler (2003), pp. Typically, it was low budget and usually in one of either the gangster, exploitation, western, sci-fi, horror, or suspense genres. David Handelman ("The Brothers from Another Planet,", Finler (2003), p. 42. [59] That year, RKO released Split Second, which concludes in a nuclear test range, and is perhaps the first "atomic noir". [151], One of the most successful 1980s B studios was a survivor from the heyday of the exploitation era, Troma Pictures, founded in 1974. In July 1960, the latest Joseph E. Levine sword-and-sandals import, Hercules Unchained, opened at neighborhood theaters in New York. "[48], Down in Poverty Row, low budgets led to less palliative fare. In its post-Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient; on the other, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continues to be used in its broader sense to this day. Many of the elements of theatre and dance are the basis of the modern movie-making industry such as scripts, lighting, sound, costumes, actors and directors. H3ctor, your solution probably does not erase the history, but at least we do not have to look at the recent list anymore. With the loosening of industry censorship constraints, the 1960s saw a major expansion in the commercial viability of a variety of B movie subgenres that became known collectively as exploitation films. [88] In the era of the traditional double feature, no one would have characterized these graphic exploitation films as "B movies". [64], But these were genres whose fantastic nature could also be used as cover for mordant cultural observations often difficult to make in mainstream movies. "The American Western Cinema: 1903–Present", in Nachbar, Van Peebles, Melvin (2003). 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. See, e.g., Stevenson (2003), pp. [47] The Courageous Dr. Christian (1940) was a standard entry: "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. The term retained its earlier suggestion that such movies relied on formulaic plots, "stock" character types, and simplistic action or unsophisticated comedy. The days of six quickies for a nickel were gone, but a continuity of spirit was evident. "[131] The movie under consideration was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. "Exploitation as Adaptation", in. [22], The Western was by far the predominant B genre in both the 1930s and, to a lesser degree, the 1940s. A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not an arthouse film. Genre pictures made at very low cost remained the backbone of Poverty Row, with even Republic's and Monogram's budgets rarely climbing over $200,000. [9], In the standard Golden Age model, the industry's top product, the A films, premiered at a small number of select first-run houses in major cities. Several New World pictures followed, including The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972), both directed by Jack Hill. [57] In short, low-budget pictures made for her production company, The Filmakers, Lupino explored virtually taboo subjects such as rape in 1950's Outrage and 1953's self-explanatory The Bigamist. What follows is a list of the 50 greatest B-movie actresses. The "C" in the term then does double duty, referring not only to quality that is lower than "B" but also to the initial c of cable. See Reynaud also for Loden's fundraising efforts. HISTORY OF B MOVIE FILMS-Your Sub Title Here. "Appeals to viewer emotions and the active participation of the consumer enhance the ability of 'B-TV' to exploit the market", concludes Schumacher. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher-budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie. "[10] Then it was off to the subsequent-run market where the double feature prevailed. Taves (1995), p. 317. McCarthy, Todd, and Charles Flynn, eds. The machine is still in the experimental stage and the effects are a tad unpredictable. See also Shapiro (2002), pp. Hollows, Joanne (2003). [94] The Meyer and Corman lines were drawing closer. Crafted for constant titillation but containing no nudity, it was aimed at the same "passion pit" drive-in circuit that screened AIP teen movies with wink-wink titles like Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1966), starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. "[148], Larry Cohen continued to twist genre conventions in pictures such as Q (a.k.a. It's also encouraging filmmakers to shoot digitally—a cheaper process that results in a grittier, teen-friendly look. Their disaster plots and dialogue were B-grade at best; from an industry perspective, however, these were pictures firmly rooted in a tradition of star-stuffed extravaganzas. "The Kung Fu Craze: Hong Kong Cinema's First American Reception", in, Greenspun, Roger (1973). [14] A number of small Hollywood companies had folded around the turn of the decade, including the ambitious Grand National, but a new firm, Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), emerged as third in the Poverty Row hierarchy behind Republic and Monogram. The film's imagery was another matter: "On its scandalizing surface, David Cronenberg's Crash suggests exploitation at its most disturbingly sick", wrote critic Janet Maslin. H3ctor, your solution probably does not erase the history, but at least we do not have to look at the recent list anymore. Thank you for your suggestion! [90] At the same time, the concept of fringe exploitation was merging with a related, similarly venerable tradition: "nudie" films featuring nudist-camp footage or striptease artists like Bettie Page had simply been the softcore pornography of previous decades. Horror was the strongest low-budget genre of the time, particularly in the slasher mode as with The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown. It earned $19.1 million in rentals. Gillespie chronicles had leading stars and budgets that would have been A-level at most of the lesser studios. Denisoff and Romanowski (1991), pp. [178], Psychotronic movie is a term coined by film critic Michael J. Weldon—referred to by a fellow critic as "the historian of marginal movies"—to denote the sort of low-budget genre pictures that are generally disdained or ignored entirely by the critical establishment. Block booking became standard practice: to get access to a studio's attractive A pictures, many theaters were obliged to rent the company's entire output for a season. For the film's cost: West (1974), p. 9; Rockoff (2002), p. 42. [70] In terms of content, the majors were already there, with films about juvenile delinquency such as Warner Bros.' Untamed Youth (1957) and MGM's High School Confidential (1958), both starring Mamie Van Doren. Showing a program consisting of two full-length feature films began as a way to entice viewers into movie theatres during the Great Depression, when audience levels began to drop. Canby, Vincent (1984). [13] Aside from at the theater itself, B films might not be advertised at all. To meet the constant demand for new B product, the low end of Poverty Row turned out a stream of micro-budget movies rarely much more than sixty minutes long; these were known as "quickies" for their tight production schedules—as short as four days.[11]. Epstein (2005), p. 6. '"[28], Series films are often unquestioningly consigned to the B movie category, but even here there is ambiguity: at MGM, for example, popular series like the Andy Hardy and the Dr. Kildare–Dr. [176], The term Z movie (or grade-Z movie) is used by some to characterize low-budget pictures with quality standards well below those of most B and even C movies. Thank god for Roger Corman, the prolific B-movie producer/director who gave first chances to so many young filmmakers. 186, 184; Braucort (1970), p. 75. In 1959, Levine's Embassy Pictures bought the worldwide rights to Hercules, a cheaply made Italian movie starring American-born bodybuilder Steve Reeves. [105] Much of Easy Rider's significance owes to the fact that it was produced for a respectable, if still modest, budget and released by a major studio. History of film, history of cinema from the 19th century to the present. Corman directed over fifty feature films through 1990. 117–21. For the film's cost and worldwide gross: Harper (2004), pp. [7], Poverty Row studios, from modest outfits like Mascot Pictures, Tiffany Pictures, and Sono Art-World Wide Pictures down to shoestring operations, made exclusively B movies, serials, and other shorts, and also distributed totally independent productions and imported films. The rules don't apply there, so you might as well check your hang-ups at the door. By Louis Bayard. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genrethe Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature (akin to B-sides for recorded music). [145] In the late 1970s, AIP had turned to producing relatively expensive films like the very successful Amityville Horror and the disastrous Meteor in 1979. Independent B-flicks are life-and-death struggles at the edge of a cliff that overlooks a 100-foot drop to the cold, hard ground. 16–17. The distribution strategy was a major success, despite what was widely perceived as the movie's poor quality. The second feature, which actually screened before the main event, cost the exhibitor less per minute than the equivalent running time in shorts. The 1959 creature feature The Tingler featured Castle's most famous gimmick, Percepto: at the film's climax, buzzers attached to select theater seats unexpectedly rattled a few audience members, prompting either appropriate screams or even more appropriate laughter. Balio (1995), p. 29. As with serials, however, many series were intended to attract young people—a theater that twin-billed part-time might run a "balanced" or entirely youth-oriented double feature as a matinee and then a single film for a more mature audience at night. The economic model was deliberately low-rent, at least by major studio standards. Warner Bros.' The Exorcist demonstrated that a heavily promoted horror film could be an absolute blockbuster: it was the biggest movie of the year and by far the highest-earning horror movie yet made. Of Atomic's nine announced films, not one has a big name". [93] Roger Corman's The Trip (1967) for American International, written by veteran AIP/Corman actor Jack Nicholson, never shows a fully bared, unpainted breast, but flirts with nudity throughout. [163] Financed, like King of New York, by a consortium of production companies, it was picked up for U.S. distribution by Fine Line Features. 70–71. ", Wyatt, Justin (1998). Some years ago, I took my young son to a touring production of … Building on the achievement of B genre predecessors like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in its subtextual exploration of social and political issues, it doubled as a highly effective thriller and an incisive allegory for both the Vietnam War and domestic racial conflicts. That definition is that a b-movie was the second movie in a double feature. In 1935, Monogram, Mascot, and several smaller studios merged to establish Republic Pictures. "Un-People," in her, Komiya, Megumi, and Barry Litman, "The Economics of the Prerecorded Videocassette Industry," in. In William Paul's description, it is also "the film that really established gross-out as a mode of expression for mainstream cinema. Reynaud, Bérénice (2006). Copyright © 2018. www.www.bmoviesproduction.com. [166] It was a slow year for Corman: he produced just one movie, which had no American theatrical release, true of most of the pictures he had been involved in over the preceding decade. It was clearly an A film by the standards of both director and studio, with the longest shooting schedule and biggest budget Corman had ever enjoyed. According to a 2006 report by industry analyst Alfonso Marone, "The average budget for a Hollywood movie is currently around $60 m, rising to $100 m when the cost of marketing for domestic launch (USA only) is factored into the equation. A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial movie, but not an arthouse film. I very quickly expanded the meaning of the word to include any kind of exploitation or B-movie. Its source is pure pulp, one of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels, but Robert Aldrich's direction is self-consciously aestheticized. A New York Times reviewer found that the initial installment qualified as "vintage Corman ... spiked with everything from bared female breasts to a mind-blowing quote from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice". [114] But the movie that truly ignited the blaxploitation phenomenon was completely independent: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) is also perhaps the most outrageous example of the form: wildly experimental, borderline pornographic, and essentially a manifesto for an African American revolution. The Best American History Movies by Peter Spain 8 Comments Movies and TV. [41] From a latter-day perspective, the most famous of the major studios' Golden Age B units is Val Lewton's horror unit at RKO. [158], Surviving B movie operations adapted in different ways. See also Schatz (1999), pp. Ida Lupino, a leading actress, established herself as Hollywood's sole female director of the era. [82] Hercules opened at a remarkable 600 theaters, and the strategy was a smashing success: the film earned $4.7 million in domestic rentals. "An Orgy of Bent Fenders and Bent Love,". [79] The British Hammer Film Productions made the successful The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), major influences on future horror film style. Frasier (1997), pp. [69] As the film's title suggests, the studio relied on both fantastic genre subjects and new, teen-oriented angles. [14], The first prominent victim of the changing market was Eagle-Lion, which released its last films in 1951. [103] Soon, Corman was creating nudity-filled sexploitation pictures such as Private Duty Nurses (1971) and Women in Cages (1971). [37], The leading Poverty Row firms began to broaden their scope; in 1947, Monogram established a subsidiary, Allied Artists, to develop and distribute relatively expensive films, mostly from independent producers. The $115,000 production,[120] for which Loden spent six years raising money, was praised by Vincent Canby for "the absolute accuracy of its effects, the decency of its point of view and ... purity of technique". Its $8.5 million in earnings against a production cost of $800,000 made it the most profitable movie of 1960. "Notes on Film Noir", in Silver and Ursini, Scott, A. O. Ariel (Kristin Mellian) is raped by mafiosos after they murder her husband and two children. 116–18. The little studio had its own house auteur: with his own crew and relatively free rein, director Edgar G. Ulmer was known as "the Capra of PRC". In this transformed commercial context, work like Russ Meyer's gained a new legitimacy. During the silent era, films music is provided by each individual theater, either by phonograph or as performed live by flesh-and-blood musicians. Almost always shorter than the top-billed feature films,[1] many had running times of 70 minutes or less. "Cinekirbyesque: Examining Jack's Deal with Empire Pictures,", Nason, Richard (1959). They are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson first became established, and they have provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. In 1927–28, at the end of the silent era, the production cost of an average feature from a major Hollywood studio ranged from $190,000 at Fox to $275,000 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. "Weak 'Hercules'; Italian-Made Spectacle Opens at 135 Theatres,", O'Connor, John J. 1933-03-02 "King Kong" film directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Fay Wray premieres at Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in NYC Learn More Poster for the 1933 film "King Kong", the first in a series of movies about the giant gorilla See Taves (1995), p. 323; McCarthy and Flynn (1975), p. 20. 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