The Origins of B Movies | Film 101
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2023
- B Movies have been a fixture of Hollywood since the 1940s, but why did they come about and what does it mean to be a "B Movie?" This July, TCM is spotlighting original and deep-cut B Movies, and in this Film 101, we explore the origins of these lower budget features and their lasting impact.
B Movies will air on TCM Thursdays in July, programmed by author Jeremy Arnold.
Written by Raquel Stecher & Tom Reimann
Narrated by Tom Reimann
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Love ‘B’ movies - UA-cam is loaded with them. Cheap, sleazy and fun. They’re not always schlocky or bad - just modest, starring good actors who either never got the big break or went on to become household names in television later.
"A" movies were the high end feature. The first on the bill. Therefore "B" movie was the low budget second film on the bill.
This a great compliment to Roger Cormans book: "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood...And Never Lost A Dime.
It's basically an abbreviated history of the "New Hollywood", complete with interviews.
I loved the outer space movies where in the spacecraft were three uniformed guys, a lovely woman attached to one of them and an old guy or a dimwitted mechanic that always wore a baseball cap as if a pipe wrench was the only tool he needed to fix the ship. He always had a nickname like Happy or Chipper.
I must have seen a dozen films with that cast & the "comic relief" sidekick!
I thought B was short for budget. Learn something new everyday.
It is interesting to note how many b movies that went on to become beloved classic films.
Night of the Living Dead!
Universal had some of the best B-movies; in addition to the horror films of the 1940s, the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were B-movies.
The movie experience could be as much as: swing band concert, trailers, newsreel, cartoon, short, B movie then A movie, all in the same show.
If you love a B movie then it's an A movie to you. 😊
No, I can love a B movie and love an A movie even more.
B-Movies are often fun. And I've considered some to be superior to similar feature films.
I always assumed the 'B' was derived from the record industry with B-side of record singles. A side was the hit, B side were the weaker songs on an album, or at least a song which they expected would take a few plays before becoming popular. Replays didn't happen in movies in that era, but many B-films were part of character series, such as name detective character movies. So, there were some B-films which required time to build an audience.
I don't know if record singles with flipsides came out during that movie era or later, but I still like my pet theory.
I agree about "A" and "B" movie ratings. "A" was the first on the bill while "B" was the second feature.
In the 30s and 40s, when B-movies were popular, records were 78s and an album was like a photo album but had sleeves that held five or six 78s. There wasn't really a "hit side" and the other side as far as I know but I like your idea.
The B-movie on a double-bill can be thought of as the flip-side or b-side of a record single. You buy it for the hit on the a-side then get something different on the b-side, maybe something a little different or a castoff, a track that would not be on an artist's album.
Thank you for the lesson. It is funny, now that I am older I enjoy many B movies better than many of the features I have seen over the years.
Low Budget in B movies
There is Outside the Wall a Noir with a young Richard Basehart 1949 made at Universal. It is a great watch.
Well done. Thanks for this bit of cinematic history.
TCM Underground. Thats all I got.
Excellent mini-history of the B-Movie. (I assumed it was called B as it was the lesser half of the double features.)
That IS why they were called that - this video is full of misinformation.
Love "B" movies. In particular, many film noir movies. That's why I love TCM's "Noir Alley!"
For the record, the "B" in B-movie refers to "budget" as in the low budgets accorded these productions. It did not refer to "bread-and--butter," "block-booking," "bonus" or "bad."
my understanding as well
Same here
ditto
I especially appreciate the expiremental and innovative aspects of B movies.
A great B Noir is Fingers at the Window 1942 from Metro. This film was the last film Lew Ayers made at Metro due to his firing.
If anyone knows Mr Ayers was fired for declaring to become a medic rather to fight during the war.
These videos are better without hosts!
They would be better with a decent and respectful host - this guy is not that.
So surprised Lucille Ball, known as the Queen of the Bs wasn’t even mentioned.
I enjoyed this video a lot! But one thing - “It Came from Outer Space” (1953), shown at 1:32, 1:39, and 10:31, was not a B-movie. It was a much-publicized main feature, the first film to combine 3D, widescreen, and stereophonic sound. It even had a gala premiere attended by many major movie stars, also featuring the first 3D musical short film, which starred Nat King Cole. In its second week of release, it became the number one grossing film in the U.S., and it remained number one for another week after that.
The presenter is confusing B movies with the independantly-FINANCED movies produced after SCOTUS broke the studio system.
I think he was connecting the two groups based on the underlining formal that both have. Low.budget and short running times being the two noticeable ones.
@@andywellsglobaldomination That may be part of the confusion in general, but “It Came from Outer Space” was made by Universal.
Thank you so much for the information because this is what I studied alone when I had no friends family like friends of course but we’ve always been that way I studied the studio system inside out and contracts and scripts because I’m also an actor and singer who #LOVESTCM and doesn’t ever need to see future generations of people like myself die out when I do, that would suck! Dude!
Universal and Columbia, like Warners, started out as 'poverty row' studios in the 1920's, but Universal gained 'A' status after Standard Capital took over in 1936, and Columbia forced it's way in after sweeping the Oscars with "It Happened One Night" in 1934. And in those foundling years, television often ran those killer B's, which the studios had sold to television distributors because they weren't allowed to in the Paramount decision. One, MCA, ended up buying most of the old Paramount catalog and, later, Universal Pictures. But that's another story.
Monogram, PRC, Republic.... those are my favorite studios. You can have your MGM, FOX ...
Same here. I am always happy to see one of these studio's productions...
Some B movies from yesterday are A movies today.
I read many years ago that the "B" in B movies was for budget. It can be compared to the B side of a hit single on a 45. What this generation doesn't realize is that when you attended the movies in the 30s and 40s you say a whole array of films including, first runs, second runs, shorts, travel, serials and gossip films. They ran all day so you got your money's worth for a dime. However, it also made stars out of lesser known actors. Everyone's favorite is Torchy Blaine mysteries and Maise.
Weird how the video debates the exact meaning of the "b" in b-movie when it's literally explained right beforehand that it's a letter grade.
"a" means "best," "b" means "less than best."
I think that you got "B" movies & 'low budget" first run movies mixed up! I'm 77 & in the 40's
& 1950's, a "B" movie was a relatively short film, ( little more than 1 hr.), which accompanied
the main or "A" movie! The "low budget" films of the 1960's & 70's, were the main feature, made
cheaply, sometimes being shown two at a time! Some of these "cheap' flicks became classics!
Request: There are so many films which have been forgotten over time. Please, review the horror film Mr. Frost with Jeff Goldblum, the sci-fi films Scanner Cop 1 and Split Second with Rutger Hauer, the John Candy comedies Only the Lonely and Summer Rental along with The Resurrected horror movie with Chris Sarandon. Thank you!!!!
What the “B” meaning like the B side of an album record. The A side was what they thought would be the big selling and the B side was the because something needed to be on the other side. You sell more records that way.
Over at Columbia, studio head Harry Cohn couldn't hide his affection for what he called those ''lousy little 'B' movies.'' For indeed, while Columbia did end up producing enough A films that it surpassed MGM as winners of Best Picture Oscars, Cohn's studio specialized in Bs, ranging from Blondie to Boston Blackie to the Crime Doctor to the Whistler. And while we're at it, howsa about the fortune the studio made on the Three Stooges shorts, talents MGM could have had, but rejected? The same was true with the Sherlock Holmes mysteries at Universal. When Fox dumped Holmes after two movies, Universal picked up the series, modernized it and made neat little 60-to-70 minute films that actually acted as the model for ''Murder, She Wrote,'' which Universal produced on TV 40 years later.
Um...it's PRODUCERS Releasing Corporation...not PRODUCTION.
8:15 Love the Inner Sanctum films. Long live Lon Chaney jr.
I always thought the 'B' stood for 'Budget'
I always thought it was for Double features in theaters
That's what they were for - you're correct.
I did not know this about what B Film came from or history of B film.
The Dr Kildare Series was a B Movie type at Metro.
TCM shut down their channel in the UK, but… *why?*
I love the thumbnail image. The knife is coming down and the man says to the woman: "Here, you get in front of me."
Woman: "Aren't you supposed to protect me?"
Man: "How can I protect you if I'm dead?"
Well done, but no mention of Val Lewton?
B-Movies FTW💪🏼
Could we have closed captioning on these please.
They're not always "Santa Claus and the Lesbians From Mars!"😁
I always thought the 'b' in 'b-movies' was for 'budget'
I diagree with the final assessment. What's going to happen is that as technology evolves each generation of kids will figure out how to make a profitable movie on very few bucks... for example, The Blair Witch Project. What makes this a B movie? Nothing. There's only one level of cinematic distribution. Cinemas only play movies. Direct to... is the analogue to the B movie... but... in the days of streaming... there is no media to be direct to...
i love a good b movie.
give me a list i w ill watch them all
❤
If TCM is going to do more videos, they need their hosts - or people of that caliber - narrating. Otherwise it’s just so generic.
To be fair their staff has been cut in more than half thanks to the new CEO.
This narrator is pretty bad and always sounds clueless, snarky and super young and disrespectful - I don't know why they keep using him. 😵💫
Otherwise it’s just a B vid!!! 😆🤪😳😂
Omg thank you my exact thoughts 2 seconds in
Do they still make b movies anymore
Considering the state of hollywood today and the film industry, was breaking up the old studio system correct? I argue no.
I don't think correct has anything to do with it. The studio system collapsed under its own weight. I agree that what eventually replaced it is worse but there was that period in the 70's where the Independent studios reigned supreme. The advent of the blockbuster in the mid 70's killed it.
@@Shadowman4710 but if studios were not forced to sell their theaters does the big studio era die? The government forced them to sell right?
Wait, what? The "B" moniker is of debatable origin?
It's for *Grade B." Like eggs. You put the lixuriously perfect Grade-A stuff on the high shelf, & then then set the things you don't mind getting handled by all the children & weirdos on the low shelves.
The B is just second-tier, like a report card grade.
Too bad TCM will have fewer and fewer of these featurettes as the new management will simply squeeze every penny they can by showing more and more commercials. RIP TCM
Historically, this is complete and utter harsh. Low-budget movies are not the same as "B" movies, which were produced by distributors to fill out double features and rented on a flat-fee basis, rather than a percentage of receipts. A lot of low-budget movies, like EASY RIDER or NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were great big hits, which never happened to true "B" movies. This featurette makes a complete jumble of film history.
This is a work of ignorance... The B movie was a part of the studio system. Always. They existed before the SCOTUS decision splitting production from distribution.
'Promo sm' 😩
weak
Great information, but the snarky and dismissive narration practically ruins it.
You can tell the narrator knows next to nothing about films or their history and is just reading a script - lots of misinformation and just an overall snarky tone. 😵💫😕 This guy hasn't watched a classic old movie in his life.
There are good B movies, but stop confusing trash for good B movies!
Sure would be nice if you hadn't canceled your b-movie show and fired the host and creator. Now you wanna talk b-movies? Ridiculous!
Plan 9 From Outer Space directed by Ed Wood. The worst movie ever made.
It's a classic in it's own way and is much beloved.