About B Movies

Once upon a time, movies didn't cost three, five, eight, or ten dollars if you wanted to get into the theater to see them. In fact, it was so cheap that for your measly dime or quarter or [insert locally-valid small denomination] you could see not just one movie, but two.

There was the feature, of course. It had all the big-name stars. If you were following movies pretty closely, you'd probably recognize the producer's or director's name as well, maybe even the cinematographer's.

Paired with the feature on one of these double bills was usually a film of lesser caliber -- the B movie. (If you're old enough to remember 45-rpm records, you may also remember that most of them had a "B side" or "flip side" -- on the other side of the disk from the supposed hit.)

The Bs were quite often pretty awful. Even back then, when everything cost less, every dollar you could spend on making a good movie had to have some effect on the quality of the film. A good rule of thumb was (as it still is) that if the filmmakers had just a thimbleful of money to spend, the product showed it.

Since those golden days, of course, movies aren't generally released in pairs. But there's still the split in product: big movies with big names, and little movies, usually inexpensively made, starring and produced by almost no one you've ever heard of. So B movies haven't gone away; they've just found a separate niche.

Then or now, B movies share the same general characteristics with one another. Unfortunately -- both then and now -- the Bs often suffer the same fate as one another, too: neglect. They can't compete with the blockbusters' advertising dollars and attention from film critics. Sadly, then, you probably have missed (or simply forgotten) a lot of what they have to offer:

• Offbeat or out-and-out oddball premises
• Unpretentiousness
• The chance to see future A-movie stars and crew at work, in the process of becoming major talents
• Camera angles, lighting, sound, and other technical characteristics that influence later major studio releases

Yeah, you still have to wade through a lot of junk. Like Sturgeon's Law says, ninety percent of everything (even supposed A-grade movies) is crap, and when you're starting from a base of cheaply made movies, you can expect the crap to be very crappy indeed. Just keep your eyes open for the good stuff -- that remaining ten percent.