There are several terms used by film journalists, reviewers, industry insiders – and film fans – to describe particular kinds of films. Some terms are quite precise, others have changed meanings over time. Of the latter, the term ‘B’ picture is one of those used loosely and sometimes inappropriately. What exactly was a ‘B’ picture? Do they still exist and has the meaning changed?
I guess I’m partly addressing younger readers who might not be aware of what cinema from before the 1970s and 1980s was really like, but also, perhaps, some older readers who remember the term but aren’t sure exactly how it came about. The first point to make is that there were ‘B’ pictures in other major film industries as well as in the American system, i.e. Hollywood. But for now, I’ll stick with the Hollywood studio system and the period from the early 1930s through to the 1950s.
The double bill and full supporting programme
When the Great Depression began to bite in the early 1930s, cinemas offered one of the few possibilities of cheap entertainment and when it was cold, a good way of keeping warm. Initially it was some of the small independent cinema owners and small circuits who hit on the idea of showing two feature films in each programme (although big prestige pictures remained in ‘single feature’ programmes). Two for the price of one was attractive and eventually the major studios who owned the best ‘halls’ – big cinemas in the cities – felt obliged to follow suit because their patrons expected a double bill. In addition, the majors offered newsreels and cartoons and other forms of short films. There were 20,000 cinemas in the US and that required a lot of films for two new titles a week. The majors had the choice to make the ‘second feature’ themselves or to buy in a film from a smaller studio such as Republic, Monogram or PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). They already did this with some main features from the ‘mini majors’ which made and distributed films but didn’t own cinemas. This meant Universal and Columbia. Meanwhile, United Artists were quite successful distributing the prestige films of leading independent producers such as Selznick and Goldwyn.
Janet Staiger (1985) suggests that the five major studios (MGM, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox and RKO) were organised on the basis of three types of production. The standard production was intended as their main film going to all their cinemas. This was in effect the ‘A’ feature. Above that were a few prestige productions that were more expensive and intended for a special release as the single feature film in the programme. Some of these films became known as ‘roadshow pictures’ but this term was mainly used from the 1950s onwards. The third type of film was what became known as the ‘B’ picture. The smaller studios only made relatively low budget pictures which usually ran around 60-70 minutes. The ‘Bs’ paid their wages.
Studio Hollywood was a system based on cost like any business. The big studios might spend up to $1 million or more to make ‘A’ pictures but the cheapest Bs were made for $20,000. A prestige film might have a 100 day shoot but the cheapest ‘B’ was completed in two to three weeks or 10-15 days. The low budget meant that Bs had limited studio time, probably a limit on the amount of film exposed, little funding for new sets (i.e. a reliance on existing sets/costumes etc.) and they were assigned the contracted actors who were not needed on ‘A’ shoots at the time. Whether the crews were similarly regarded as a ‘B team’ is a debatable point. Major studios did set up ‘B’ production units themselves to ensure a continuous production of films. These could act as training grounds for younger promising creatives and stars. Some studios ran ‘B’ units that focused on just one or two genres or on serials production. Some of the smaller companies became known for a single genre such as Republic with Westerns (even though they made other genre pictures as well).
The Hollywood focus on costs and box office did have a flaw, of course. It was in a way a self-fulfilling process. Since senior managers set budgets for the three types of production, they virtually ensured that the higher budget films would make more money at the box office, partly because the audience saw the money on the screen and appreciated that they were getting ‘value for their ticket money’, but also because the studio made more effort to get the film shown in their own cinemas and in other cinemas. In turn, the exhibitor would attempt to put on more screenings to maximise the audience. The system was at a bit of a loss if an expensive ‘A’ picture didn’t make the expected rentals figure. It might then be quietly written off.
Distribution
The ‘B’ picture also fared differently in distribution. An ‘A’ feature was ‘rented’ out by the studio’s distribution system to an exhibitor on the basis of a fee which was based on a percentage of the money earned at the box office. Percentages varied but usually this would be less than 50%, but possibly more for some prestige pictures. The ‘B’ film was offered at a small flat fee. This meant that ‘B’ production carried less risk but conversely was not likely to make great amounts of money, except on the odd occasion that it was shown on its own or possibly with another ‘B’ when it might earn a rental fee. Another contentious aspect of the system was the practice of ‘blind selling’ or ‘block booking’ by the majors in regard of smaller revenue cinemas. Until a 1940 anti-trust decision took hold, smaller cinemas could be forced by the majors to book packages of many releases sight unseen. The majors could ‘dump’ cheap product while maintaining a reasonable price. The anti-trust actions then made the market more competitive for the independent ‘B’ producers. But the majors still controlled the industry. They could always use their resources to price out independents. They could control the market, at least for ‘A’ pictures, by making fewer, more expensive films. In wartime (1942-45) the majors were very profitable with fewer ‘A’ pictures lasting longer in cinemas.
Defining a ‘B’
There was no strict definition of a B movie but there was a practical question – did the film earn rentals or a flat fee? Beyond that things got trickier. A good guide was the length of the film. Bs were sometimes called ‘programmers’ because their function was to fill out the programme which might already have an A feature, a newsreel and a cartoon. Most cinemas wouldn’t want the programme to be too long so the desirable length for a B was around 60-70 minutes. If we add this stipulation to the other features listed above, such as lack of stars, low budget, few sets etc. it should be relatively straightforward to spot a B. But really it isn’t. Take this example for instance – The Web (Universal 1947).
The Web is now available as part of the Universal Noir #1 Blu-ray boxset. Several commentators suggest it is a B Movie. Why? Because it doesn’t boast an A List star, perhaps and one of the four actors named on the poster is Ella Raines, one of several women to be dubbed ‘Queen of the Bs’ because she appeared in so many similar films. But Ms Raines and the other three names: Edmond O’Brien, William Bendix and Vincent Price were either well-known supporting actors or simply younger actors who would become stars – like Vincent Price. Crucially, the film is 87 minutes long, too long for a B. It also has some big names behind the camera and in post-production. Universal at this point (after its merger with International Pictures) was attempting to make more ‘mid-budget’ pictures which could be sold as ‘A pictures’.
Quality
Did designation as a ‘B’ automatically mean that the quality of the film suffered? Not necessarily: some ‘B’ units employed skilled directors and charismatic actors and if the script was written in a way that facilitated a rapid shoot, the film could be ‘high quality’. Examples of quality ‘Bs’ include those from the Val Lewton Unit at RKO (a studio which in the 1940s prioritised lower-budget productions). I Walked With a Zombie and Cat People are examples of Lewton’s output. It is difficult, in retrospect, to always be able to distinguish which is a ‘B’ production and which an ‘A’. The series of Sherlock Holmes films from Hollywood were popular but the first two from 20th Century-Fox, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), were budgeted like ‘A’ pictures whereas the majority (i.e. the later films from Universal were definitely ‘B’s.
What did audiences want?
One of the intriguing aspects of the ‘Bs’ was that audiences did have preferences for certain B movie actors and for the more experimental ideas of some genre films. There were several young women who revelled in the title of ‘Queen of the Bs’ and I’ve scattered their images throughout this piece. Similarly, there were male B leads with fan clubs and for many audiences the thrills of the B movie were more exciting than the more genteel offerings of the ‘A’ prestige picture.
Films noirs
The retrospective designation of many crime melodramas and films policiers as ‘films noirs‘ has been problematic since it has led to confusion over which noirs are ‘A’s and which are ‘B’s. Films like Double Indemnity (1944) or The Big Sleep (1946) are clearly ‘A’s because of their ‘A’ List stars and directors and their production by major studios, whereas some of the low budget classics such as Detour (Edward G. Ulmer, PRC, 1945) running only 66 minutes are clearly ‘B’s. But what of the many others (200 or so) – how do we distinguish the ‘B’s? Does a ‘B’ designation diminish them in the eyes of fans? Films noirs remain very popular, even today but some film journalists routinely refer to them as ‘B’s.
The move to television and the decline of the mass cinema audience
The majors stopped making ‘B’s around the mid-1950s (though some of the independents continued) and many of the resources from ‘B’units and the personnel moved into the new market for filmed TV shows. One of the most successful new TV studios was Desilu (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball) which first bought a small independent studio and then in 1957 bought the RKO-Pathe studio when RKO ceased production. Desilu would be bought by Gulf+Western/Paramount in 1968. Another ‘major TV studio’ was Revue, set up by MCA in 1943 for radio production it became the home of various Western series, ‘Alfred Hitchcock presents’ and sitcoms. Later it became Universal Television studios. The ‘TV series’ in runs of usually 13 or 26 weekly episodes simply replaced the ‘B’ serials for cinemas made during the 1940s. ‘Singing cowboys’ like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were well-known for their ‘B’ Westerns for the cinema but in the 1950s there were nearly 50 Western series (most 30 or 60 mins) on US TV. In this way the ‘B’ movie lived on. But these series were not to be confused with the ‘TV movie’ that became more important from the 196os – that’s another story.
The idea of the cinema double bill and full supporting programme didn’t die immediately even if the ‘Bs’ themselves petered out in the late 1960s in the UK. I have no knowledge of how it worked later in North America but in the UK there were several options. One in the 1960s/1970s was to import foreign language films dubbed into English and probably cut to a B length of 60 or 70 minutes. Thus Italian giallos, Westerns etc., French spy films and Hong Kong kung fu movies appeared in UK circuit cinemas. A second strategy was to increase the number of re-releases with two previous hit films on the same bill. But the third option was simply to go for two new ‘A’ features in a ‘double header’. Eventually, however, after the first flowering of the multiplex, it gradually became the norm to have a single feature and gradually these seem to have got longer. But what if the film doesn’t work for you? It’s all you get apart from the standard 15-20 minutes of ads and trailers, which regulars now usually miss out. I can see lots of good reasons to include shorter films, including animations, as part of a programme and give young filmmakers a start. The best length for a feature film is 80-90 minutes. Anything longer has to offer something really important and a programme of two or more films is perhaps more enticing than the three hour epics of contemporary cinema.
Reference
Bordwell, David, Staiger, Janet and Thompson, Kristin (1985) The Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Style& Mode of Production to 1960, London: Routledge
itp Global Film 