The Early History of B-movies

Picture this: You are little, in the comfort of your family home. It’s a casual Saturday evening and you are watching a movie with your dad. One of those which your mother despises- it is too violent and of dubious aesthetic quality for her liking. Now imagine you are a high school student, recklessly having fun in the city center with your friends. You pass by a video club, immediately spotting the sketchy, flamboyant movie poster decorating the glass door. You have a good laugh and are so tempted to rent this movie- it seems so bad it’s almost…good?

You are probably even older now. Do you not like often grabbing a beer and putting on a movie? One of those you do not have to mull over. I bet you do, who doesn’t honestly?

We all seem to have those common experiences with substandard, low quality and low budget movies that we just love or love to hate. We have regularly heard them referred to as “b-movies”, or even “c-movies”, “z-movies” and many more. Whatever you may call them, the sentiment of b-movies is deeply engraved into pop culture, thus avoiding the infinite references is impossible. Therefore, how are they truly defined and what is their history?

“A b-movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture, but one that is not an arthouse film” (B movie, 2022. Wikipedia). The prefix letters, including b-, c- or z-, refer to a film rating of the National Legion of Decency, an organization devoted to distinguish objectionable and repugnant film content for Catholic audiences*.

“B-movie” was concocted as a term in the early 1930s, specifically, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the time period between the 1910s and 1960s during which classical Hollywood filmmaking flourished. The term b-movie was utilized to ascertain film studio productions intended for distribution as a less promulgated half of a double feature. The aforementioned were not only significantly less budgeted than the headliner film and had a 70-80 minute or even less duration, but were also often ignored by critics. The publication of double features vanished around the end of the 1950s, when the emergence of commercial television shifted an abundance of the same content to the new media.

1930s-1950s

When the Great Depression began in the U.S. in the 1930s, movie theaters were led to close down due to decreased admissions- the audience decreased by one third between 1929 and 1933. The remaining ones attempted enticing the audience by experimenting with burlesque shows as evening entertainment segments and granting rewards, such as various material or edible prizes and ticket offers, for instance two-for-one tickets. The most prosperous approach however was that of double features, i.e. screening two movies for the price of one. This practice became omnipresent globally whenever income languished.

Double features were the course of action “The Big Five” Hollywood studios took to satisfy insatiable demand, including a high budgeted “A-movie” and a “B-movie” which was often called a “budget film”, “quickie”, and more. Τhe first held prestige by employing popular stars and excellent production value. The latter was essentially an entertaining yet low-price, quickly made and low-quality feature that usually applied to certain genres, encompassing among others “Western”, “Film Noir”, “Horror”.

B-movies were so successful that they spun off into series. Additionally, many major Hollywood studios established individual departments, specializing in the production of this type of film. In the pinnacle of the Golden Age of Hollywood, major studios released one B-movie a week on average. They were cheaper to rent by movie theatres as well, thus more profitable, directing them to frequently screen two feature- or “B”- movies, instead of the conventional double feature.

B-movies ensured steady revenue, providing a backbone for profit even if A-movies failed. Numerous promising professionals gained opportunities and training through being employed on b-movie production, many oscillating between “A” and “B” films or exclusively working in the latter category. Although time and funding were fairly restricting, b-movies have contributed to improving the careers of both upcoming and declining professionals over time.

The ascension of b-movies instigated the emergence of “Poverty Row” studios. “Poverty Row” production companies minimized indoor shots, therefore trivializing studio space rent cost while simultaneously using plenty of stock footage. “Poverty Row” refers to a geographical Hollywood area, thus such studios used to pre-sell their productions to independent exhibitors of poor urban or rural areas.

1950s-1990s

After the 1950s the majority of theater chains owned by major studios had been sold and most Poverty Row production companies had been absorbed by larger enterprises or eradicated.

In the post-Golden Age, b-movies have acquired an ambiguous denotation. On one hand, representing mainly low-priced exploitation films: films that endeavour monetary success through the exploitation of ongoing trends, niche genres or lurid subjects, with honourable mentions being slashers, sexploitation, blaxploitation, spaghetti westerns, giallo films, splatter films and many more. On the other hand, several b-movies display proficient aesthetic skill and remarkable shrewdness. Nonetheless, the term b-movie has been used since then to describe low quality, low budget films. During the 1960s more terms arose, such as “z” or “c” movies to depict movies of this kind, movies that are unequivocally non-A films. With the rise of VHS tapes, b-movies underwent a period of flourishing and extreme popularity in the following decades and their prevalence did not subside significantly until the 2000s.

In the modern era, the term b-movie is still used in an extensive sense, which principally pertains to genres such as westerns, science-fiction, horror and exploitation films. Occasionally, the term refers to more expensive and mainstream productions whose style is affiliated with traditional b-movie genres.

Admittedly, b-movies have played a role of utmost importance not only to the configuration of filmmaking but the pop culture as well. They have shaped fads, shed light on aspects of different cultures and idiosyncrasies that society would not have explored otherwise. They have even shaped who we are individually, the way we view ourselves, our lives and the way we consume various media. I have a lot to learn and delve into this topic, and you definitely do too. Wanna watch a movie?

*For the purpose of this article, the term “b-movies” is used to mainly describe the low budget quality of films, not their rating. There is also no distinct difference between a capitalised initial in the terms and a lowercase one. In the particular article, the capitalised one refers to the more traditional sense of the term and thus the rating of the movie whereas the latter tends to the modern meaning of the terms.

References

B movie. (2022, February 24). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_movie#:~:text=A B movie or B,-sides for recorded music).

B-Movie (n.d.). TV Tropes. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BMovie

French, P. (2003, April 27). Low-budget dross and brilliance. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/apr/27/features.review2#:~:text=The term ‘B-movie,expensive ‘A-movies‘.

Robichaux, K. (n.d.). “B” Movies – A Brief History. The Picture Show Man. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://pictureshowman.com/b-movies-a-brief-history/

B movie (disambiguation). (2021, December 2). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_movie_(disambiguation)

Exploitation film. (2022, February 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation_film#Splatter_films

National Legion of Decency. (2022, January 20). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Legion_of_Decency

Heckmann, C. (2021, December 19). When Was the Golden Age of Hollywood – And Why Did It End?. studiobinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/when-was-the-golden-age-of-hollywood/

Related Posts

Osmosis - TEDx AUTH
Read More
The Cleaningans - TEDx AUTH
Read More
lets-talk-about-comedy
Read More