Editing B movie (section)

====1930s====
The [[studio system|major studios]], at first resistant to the double feature, soon adapted; all established B units to provide films for the expanding second-feature market. [[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. With the B films rented at a flat fee (rather than the box office percentage basis of A films), rates could be set virtually guaranteeing the profitability of every B movie. The parallel practice of [[block booking|blind bidding]] largely freed the majors from worrying about their Bs' quality; even when booking in less than seasonal blocks, exhibitors had to buy most pictures sight unseen. The five largest studios: [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], [[Paramount Pictures]], [[Fox Film Corporation]] ([[20th Century Fox]] as of 1935), [[Warner Bros.]], and [[RKO Radio Pictures]] (descendant of FBO), also belonged to companies with sizable theater chains, further securing the bottom line.<ref>Finler (2003), pp. 18–19.</ref>

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. In no position to directly block book, they mostly sold regional distribution exclusivity to "[[Film distribution#Pre-studio era film release|states rights]]" firms, which in turn peddled blocks of movies to exhibitors, typically six or more pictures featuring the same star (a relative status on Poverty Row).<ref>Taves (1995), pp. 326–27.</ref> Two "major-minors", [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] and rising [[Columbia Pictures]] had production lines roughly similar to, though somewhat better endowed than, the top Poverty Row studios. In contrast to the Big Five majors, Universal and Columbia had few or no theaters, though they did have top-rank [[film distribution]] exchanges.<ref>See, e.g., Balio (1995), pp. 103–4.</ref>

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. Double features were not the rule at these prestigious venues. As described by [[Edward Jay Epstein]], "During these first runs, films got their reviews, garnered publicity, and generated the word of mouth that served as the principal form of advertising."<ref>Epstein (2005), p. 6. See also Schatz (1999), pp. 16–17.</ref> Then it was off to the subsequent-run market where the double feature prevailed. At the larger local venues controlled by the majors, movies might turn over on a weekly basis. At the thousands of smaller, independent theaters, programs often changed two or three times a week. 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.<ref name = "Taves_p325">Taves (1995), p. 325.</ref>

As Azam Patel describes, "Many of the poorest theaters, such as the 'grind houses' in the larger cities, screened a continuous program emphasizing action with no specific schedule, sometimes offering six quickies for a nickel in an all-night show that changed daily."<ref>Taves (1995), p. 326.</ref> Many small theaters never saw a big-studio A film, getting their movies from the states rights concerns that handled almost exclusively Poverty Row product. Millions of Americans went to their local theaters as a matter of course: for an A picture, along with the [[Trailer (film)|trailers]], or screen previews, that presaged its arrival, "[t]he new film's title on the marquee and the listings for it in the local newspaper constituted all the advertising most movies got", writes Epstein.<ref>Epstein (2005), p. 4.</ref> Aside from at the theater itself, B films might not be advertised at all.

The introduction of sound had driven costs higher: by 1930, the average U.S. feature film cost $375,000 to produce.<ref name=F42>Finler (2003), p. 42.</ref> A broad range of motion pictures occupied the B category. The leading studios made not only clear-cut A and B films, but also movies classifiable as "programmers" (also known as "in-betweeners" or "intermediates"). As Taves describes, "Depending on the prestige of the theater and the other material on the double bill, a programmer could show up at the top or bottom of the marquee."<ref>Taves (1995), p. 317. Taves (like this article) adopts the usage of "programmer" argued for by author Don Miller in his 1973 study ''B Movies'' (New York: Ballantine). As Taves notes, "the term ''programmer'' was used in a variety of different ways by reviewers" of the 1930s (p. 431, n. 8). Some present-day critics employ the Miller–Taves usage; others refer to any B movie from the Golden Age as a "programmer" or "program picture".</ref>

On Poverty Row, many Bs were made on budgets that would have barely covered petty cash on a major's A film, with costs at the bottom of the industry running as low as $5,000.<ref name = "Taves_p325"/> By the mid-1930s, the double feature was the dominant U.S. exhibition model, and the majors responded. In 1935, B movie production at Warner Bros. was raised from 12% to 50% of studio output. The unit was headed by [[Bryan Foy]], known as the "Keeper of the Bs".<ref>Balio (1995), p. 102.</ref> At Fox, which also shifted half of its production line into B territory, [[Sol M. Wurtzel]] was similarly in charge of more than twenty movies a year during the late 1930s.<ref>Finler (2003), pp. 26, 111, 116.</ref>

[[File:PalsOfSaddlePoster.jpg|thumb|upright|Stony Brooke ([[John Wayne|Wayne]]), Tucson Smith ([[Ray "Crash" Corrigan|Corrigan]]), and Lullaby Joslin ([[Max Terhune|Terhune]]) did not get much time in harness. [[Republic Pictures]]' ''[[Pals of the Saddle]]'' (1938) lasts just 55 minutes, average for a [[The Three Mesquiteers|Three Mesquiteers]] adventure.]]
A number of the top Poverty Row firms consolidated: Sono Art joined another company to create [[Monogram Pictures]] early in the decade. In 1935, Monogram, Mascot, and several smaller studios merged to establish [[Republic Pictures]]. The former heads of Monogram soon sold off their Republic shares and set up a new Monogram production house.<ref>Tuska (1999), pp. 183–84.</ref> Into the 1950s, most Republic and Monogram product was roughly on par with the low end of the majors' output. Less sturdy Poverty Row concerns, with a penchant for grand sobriquets like Conquest, Empire, Imperial, and Peerless, continued to churn out dirt-cheap quickies.<ref>See Taves (1995), pp. 321–29.</ref> Joel Finler has analyzed the average length of feature releases in 1938, indicating the studios' relative emphasis on B production<ref>Adapted from Finler (2003), p. 26.</ref> ([[United Artists]] produced little, focusing on the distribution of prestigious films from independent outfits; [[Grand National Films Inc.|Grand National]], active 1936–40, occupied an analogous niche on Poverty Row, releasing mostly independent productions<ref>See Taves (1995), p. 323; McCarthy and Flynn (1975), p. 20. In its peak year, 1937, Grand National did produce around twenty pictures of its own.</ref>):
:{|class="wikitable"
!Studio
!Category
!Avg. duration
|-
|MGM
|Big Five
|87.9 minutes
|-
|Paramount
|Big Five
|76.4 minutes
|-
|20th Century Fox
|Big Five
|75.3 minutes
|-
|Warner Bros.
|Big Five
|75.0 minutes
|-
|RKO
|Big Five
|74.1 minutes
|-
|United Artists
|Little Three
|87.6 minutes
|-
|Columbia
|Little Three
|66.4 minutes
|-
|Universal
|Little Three
|66.4 minutes
|-
|Grand National
|Poverty Row
|63.6 minutes
|-
|Republic
|Poverty Row
|63.1 minutes
|-
|Monogram
|Poverty Row
|60.0 minutes
|}
Taves estimates that half of the films produced by the eight majors in the 1930s were B movies. Calculating in the three hundred or so films made annually by the many Poverty Row firms, approximately 75% of Hollywood movies from the decade, more than four thousand pictures, are classifiable as Bs.<ref>Taves (1995), p. 313.</ref>

The Western was by far the predominant B genre in both the 1930s and, to a lesser degree, the 1940s.<ref>Nachbar (1974), p. 2.</ref> Film historian Jon Tuska has argued that "the 'B' product of the Thirties—the Universal films with [[Tom Mix|[Tom] Mix]], [[Ken Maynard|[Ken] Maynard]], and [[Buck Jones|[Buck] Jones]], the Columbia features with Buck Jones and [[Tim McCoy]], the RKO [[George O'Brien (actor)|George O'Brien]] series, the Republic Westerns with [[John Wayne]] and the [[The Three Mesquiteers|Three Mesquiteers]] achieved a uniquely American perfection of the well-made story."<ref>Tuska (1974), p. 37.</ref> At the far end of the industry, Poverty Row's Ajax put out [[:wikt:oater|oater]]s starring [[Harry Carey (actor)|Harry Carey]], then in his fifties. The Weiss outfit had the Range Rider series, the American Rough Rider series, and the Morton of the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|Mounted]] "northwest action thrillers".<ref>Taves (1995), pp. 327–28.</ref> One low-budget oater of the era, made totally outside the studio system, profited from an outrageous concept: a Western with a cast consisting of only [[dwarfism|little people]], ''[[The Terror of Tiny Town]]'' (1938) was such a success in its independent bookings that Columbia picked it up for distribution.<ref>Taves (1995), p. 316.</ref>

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. Fox's many B series, for instance, included [[Charlie Chan]] mysteries, [[Ritz Brothers]] comedies, and musicals with child star [[Jane Withers]].<ref>See, e.g., Taves (1995), p. 318.</ref> These series films are not to be confused with the short, [[cliffhanger]]-structured serials that sometimes appeared on the same program. 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. In the words of one industry report, afternoon moviegoers, "composed largely of housewives and children, want quantity for their money while the evening crowds want 'something good and not too much of it.{{'"}}<ref>Quoted in Schatz (1999), p. 75.</ref>

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. Gillespie]] chronicles had leading stars and budgets that would have been A-level at most of the lesser studios.<ref>Naremore (1998), p. 141.</ref> 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.<ref>Taves (1995), p. 328.</ref>