“B” Movies: An Informal Survey of the American Low-Budget Film 1933–1945
Don Miller
Language: English
Pages: 370
ISBN: 2:00271598
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An unduly obscure history of the minor studios, B Films gathers together histories of such factories as Monogram and PRC. The book was forged from an essay that appeared in Focus on Film, and the book was meant to be part of a series under the general editorship of Leonard Maltin. It's unclear how many if any of the proposed titles were published. The index cites film titles only.
The Heist Film: Stealing with Style (Short Cuts)
The Triumph of Propaganda: Film and National Socialism, 1933-1945
Moving Places: A Life at the Movies
affirmatively, the killer smiles and whispers, “So can I. . . ." and quietly expires. It has remained through the years as the best scripting device to avoid lengthy explanations. Song of lhe Ciry (1937). weakest of Taggart‘s MGM efforts, concemed love and larceny on the waterfront, or she was only a sherman's daughter but he took one look and floundered. The scion of wealth who fell was played by Jeffrey Dean, who reverted to his original cognomen of Dean Jagger thereafter. Margaret Lindsay was
Republic had done the unprecedented by 1941. They were lll F independent company, yet they would produce one or two class A" pictures each season, and not just by accident. Since 1937, the Republic specials had. been planned, would appear, and usually paid o critically and nancially. That year it had been The Hit Parade and Manhattan Merry-Go-Round, muslcals. ln I938 it was Army Girl, a service story with Preston Foster, Madge Evans, some spectacular action scenes of military maneuvers and a
Universal serials, but this was the rst time he had been portrayed in a feature. For some unfathomable reason the series did not catch on with the public. Doubly curious, for each episode had something going for it—the introductory member was well-publicized, for an independent product; number two had a good plot; number three featured it a comeback attempt by Jackie Coogan, then in the news as husband of Betty Grablc; and the last was practically a lmed hallyhoo stunt centering around a Scouts
nishes with the whole thing in'65 minutes and clocks more laughs along the way than did most 90-minute screwball comedies. Blithely bypassed by critics in the wake of A Mun to Remember, itg showed Kanin was more than’ capable of handling all types of stories. His next, The Great Man Votes (i939) starred John Barrymore in a mixture of politics, human comedy and tender drama that was a critic's picture. Kanin was now one of the top directors on the RKO lot. ’ Dalton Trumbo was under contract to RKO
that the "B" lms were being taken seriously starting in I939, add Columbia's Blind Alley to the list. As a production it was in the top bracket of the category but still a “B" picture. As a lm, it bowed to none. Expertly fashioned from James Warwick's play about a killer who invades the home of a psychiatrist, Blind Alley had an excellent cast of Chester Morris (the killer), who must surely be a contender for all-time king of the "B" pictures; Ann Dvorak (the moll), Ralph Bellamy (the
