B movies (exploitation boom)
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (September 2020) |
Part of a series on |
B movies |
---|
The 1960s and 1970s marked the rise of
1960s
Despite many transformations in the industry, the average production cost of an American feature film remained mostly stable over the course of the 1950s. In 1950, the figure had been $1 million; in 1961, it reached $2 million—after adjusting for inflation, the increase in real terms was less than 10 percent.
With the loosening of industry
In the early 1960s, exploitation movies in the original sense continued to appear: 1961's Damaged Goods, a
One of the most influential films of the era, on B's and beyond, was
Despite Psycho's impact and the growing popularity of horror, major Hollywood studios largely continued to disdain the genre, at least for their own production lines. Along with the output of "off-Hollywood" U.S. concerns similar to Lewis and Friedman's, distributors brought in more foreign movies to fill the demands of rural drive-ins, lower-end urban theaters, and outright grindhouses.
Decline of the Code
The Production Code was officially repealed in 1968 and replaced by the first version of the present-day MPA. That same year, two particularly relevant horror films were released. One was a high-budget Paramount production, directed by Roman Polanski and based on a bestselling novel by Ira Levin. Produced by B-horror veteran William Castle, Rosemary's Baby "took the genre up-market for the first time since the 1930s."[13] It was a critical success and the seventh-biggest box office hit of the year. The other was George A. Romero's now classic Night of the Living Dead, produced on weekends in and around Pittsburgh for $114,000. It built on the achievement of B-genre predecessors like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in its subtextual exploration of social and political issues, and was a critical and financial success.[14]
With the Production Code gone and the
In May 1969, the most important of all exploitation movies premiered at the
1970s
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of low-budget film companies emerged that drew from all the different lines of exploitation as well as the sci-fi and teen themes that had been a mainstay since the 1950s. Operations such as Roger Corman's
In addition to the start-ups, the growth of exploitation in the 1970s also involved the leading studio in the low-budget field. In 1973, American International gave a shot to director
Blaxploitation was the first exploitation genre to picked up by the major studios in a substantial way. Indeed, the United Artists release Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), directed by Ossie Davis, is seen as the first significant film of the type. Crossing over before the genre had even gotten established, Laurence Merrick's micro-budget independent The Black Angels (a.k.a. Black Bikers from Hell; 1970) followed by a few months.[22] But the movie regarded as truly igniting the blaxploitation phenomenon, again completely independent, came the following year: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Melvin Van Peebles wrote, co-produced, directed, starred in, edited, and composed the music for the film, which was completed with the last-minute help of a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby.[23]
In 1970, a low-budget crime drama shot in
Like Romero and Van Peebles, other filmmakers of the era made pictures that combined the gut-level entertainment of exploitation with biting social commentary. The first three features directed by Larry Cohen, Bone (a.k.a. Beverly Hills Nightmare; 1972), Black Caesar (1973), and Hell Up in Harlem (1973), were all nominally blaxploitation movies, but Cohen—also the screenwriter on each film—used them as vehicles for a satirical examination of race relations and the wages of dog-eat-dog capitalism. Cohen's The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), for AIP, might have "the look of tabloid sleaze," but one leading critic found it "perhaps the most intelligent film about American politics ever to come out of Hollywood."[26] The gory horror film Deathdream (a.k.a. Dead of Night; 1974), directed by Bob Clark and written by Alan Orsmby, is also a protest of the Vietnam War. Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg made many low-budget horror films which, while not ideological, still take a deep focus on existential and psychological problems, such as Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), and The Brood (1979)[27]
The horror field continued to attract young, independent American directors whose work would prove especially influential. As critic Roger Ebert explained in one 1974 movie review, "Horror and exploitation films almost always turn a profit if they're brought in at the right price. So they provide a good starting place for ambitious would-be filmmakers who can't get more conventional projects off the ground."[28] The particular movie under consideration was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Written and directed by Tobe Hooper, it was made on a budget of somewhere between $93,000 and $250,000.[29] It would earn $14.4 million in domestic rentals and become one of the most influential horror films of the decade.[30] John Carpenter, whose debut feature, the $60,000 Science fiction comedy Dark Star (1974) became a cult classic. Halloween (1978), produced for $320,000, grossed over $80 million at the box-office worldwide, making it "the most successful 'indie' movie ever released."[31] The film effectively established the slasher mode as the primary expression of the horror genre for the next decade. Just as Hooper had learned from Romero's landmark Night of the Living Dead, Halloween, in turn, largely followed the model of Black Christmas, directed by Deathdream's Bob Clark.[32]
The impact of these films still echoes through such movies as the
New markets for the B
In the early 1970s, the growing practice of screening non-mainstream motion pictures as late shows, with the goal of building a
On television, the parallels between the weekly series that became the mainstay of
As production of
"as with the old films, so with TV movies: the quick, deft westerns, mysteries and action melodramas that depend on well-established conventions may in the end exert a larger claim on our attention than their more pretentiously publicized rivals...Convenient to turn on, easy to flick off, movies made for TV approximate the conditions under which all movies used to be chanced by audiences years ago...when at least half the pleasure of movie-going derived precisely from the fact that no sense of cultural occasion was attached to that simple, inexpensive act.[34]"
While many TV films of the 1970s were action-oriented genre pictures of a type familiar from contemporary cinematic B production, the small screen also saw a revival of the B melodrama. Television films inspired by recent scandals—such as
The reverberations of Easy Rider could be felt in Nightmare in Badham County, as well as in a host of big-screen exploitation films of the era. But perhaps its greatest influence on the fate of the B movie was less direct. By 1973, the major studios were clearly catching on to the commercial potential of genres that had once been consigned to the bargain basement. Rosemary's Baby had shown that a well-packaged horror "special" could be a box-office hit, but it had little in common with the exploitation style. Warner Bros.'
Notes
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 42.
- ^ Thompson (1960).
- ^ Quoted in Di Franco (1979), p. 97.
- ^ See, e.g., Hogan (1997), pp. 212 et seq.
- ^ Gibron, Bill (July 24, 2003). "Something Weird Traveling Roadshow Films". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016.
- ^ a b Halperin (2006), p. 201.
- ^ The earliest usage of "sexploitation" in a cinematic context so far located is in two Los Angeles Times articles from 1958: Howard Whitman, "Crisis in Morals" (May 26), and movie industry reporter Philip K. Scheuer, "Actor Clears Up Rip Torn Mystery" (June 3). In 1959, Scheuer may have been the first to use the phrase "sexploitation movie" (more precisely, "'sexploitation' movie") in his review "'Blue Denim' Tells of Youths' Plight" (August 20). That same year, the phrase "sexploitation film" appears in the government document Juvenile Delinquency: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, pp. 7030, 7099. The term appears to have been in general circulation by 1964, judging from its repeated use that year in the periodical Film World.
- ^ Such movies were usually covered by the major media with great disdain. The anonymous New York Times reviewer begins: "'HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI'—yep, that's the title that appeared yesterday on a circuit double bill. And anyone who ambles inside expecting the worst won't be disappointed. For here, finally and in color, is the answer to a moron's prayer." These films were often close to the last stop for faded stars; as the nameless reviewer put it, "This time let's pity Brian Donlevy, Mickey Rooney and good, old, now-departed Buster Keaton." "'Wild Bikini' Appearing in Neighborhoods," The New York Times, January 12, 1967 (available online).
- ^ Cook (2000), p. 222.
- ^ Paul (1994), p. 33.
- ^ Worland (2007), p. 90.
- ^ Per commentary by Tim Lucas on Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD, cited in Kehr (2007).
- ^ Cook (2000), pp. 222–223.
- ^ Cook (2000), p. 223.
- ^ Canby (1969).
- ^ Worland (2007), p. 96.
- ^ Quote: Cagin and Dray (1984), p. 53. General history: Cagin and Dray (1984), pp. 61–66. Financial figures: per associate producer William L. Hayward, cited in Biskind (1998), p. 74.
- ^ See Finler (2003), p. 359, for top films. Finler lists Hello, Dolly! as 1970, when it made most of its money, but it premiered in December 1969. The Owl and the Pussycat, 51 minutes shorter, replaces it in this analysis.
- ^ From 1955: Apache Woman, The Beast with a Million Eyes, Day the World Ended, The Fast and the Furious, and Five Guns West. From 1970: Angels Die Hard, Bloody Mama, The Dunwich Horror, Ivanna (aka Scream of the Demon Lover; U.S. premiere: 1971), and The Student Nurses. For purchase of Ivanna: Di Franco (1979), p. 164.
- ^ Di Franco (1979), p. 160
- ^ Kael (1976), p. 269.
- ^ Puchalski (2002), pp. 33–34.
- ^ Van Peebles (2003).
- ^ Quoted in Reynaud (2006). See Reynaud also for Loden's fundraising efforts. For production cost: Schickel (2005), p. 432. See also "For Wanda" essay by Bérénice Reynaud, 2002 (1995); part of the Sense of Cinema website. Retrieved 12/29/06.
- ^ Konrad, Todd (2006). "Wanda (review) Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine" part of Independent Film Quarterly. Retrieved 4/11/07.
- ^ Taylor (1999), p. 835; Robin Wood, quoted in Cook (2000), p. 232.
- ^ Paul (1994), pp. 368–69.
- ^ Ebert (1974).
- ^ Rockoff (2002), p. 42.
- ^ For the film's U.S. rentals: Cook (2000), p. 229. For its influence: Sapolsky and Molitor (1996), p. 36; Rubin (1999), p. 155.
- ^ Harper (2004), pp. 12–13.
- ^ Rockoff (2002); Paul (1994), p. 320.
- ^ See, e.g., Jack Stevenson, Land of a Thousand Balconies: Discoveries and Confessions of a B-Movie Archaeologist (Manchester: Headpress/Critical Vision, 2003), pp. 49–50; Joanne Hollows, "The Masculinity of Cult," in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, ed. Mark Jancovich (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 35–53; Janet Staiger, Blockbuster TV: Must-see Sitcoms in the Network Era (New York and London: New York University Press, 2000), p. 112.
- ^ Schickel (1974).
- ^ Paul (1994), pp. 288, 291.
- ^ Paul (1994), p. 92.
References
- Archer, Eugene (1960). "'House of Usher': Poe Story on Bill With 'Why Must I Die?'" The New York Times, September 15 (available online).
- Biskind, Peter (1998). Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock'n'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80996-6
- Cagin, Seth, and Philip Dray (1984). Hollywood Films of the Seventies. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-091117-4
- Canby, Vincent (1969). "By Russ Meyer," The New York Times, September 6 (available online).
- Cook, David A. (2000). Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970–1979 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-23265-8
- Corliss, Richard (1981). "This Is the Way the World Ends," Time, January 26 (available online).
- Corman, Roger, with Jim Jerome (1998). How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, new ed. New York: Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80874-9
- Di Franco, J. Philip, ed. (1979). The Movie World of Roger Corman. New York and London: Chelsea House. ISBN 0-87754-050-0
- Ebert, Roger (1974). "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Chicago Sun-Times, January 1 (available online Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine).
- Epstein, Edward Jay (2005). The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood. New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6353-1
- Finler, Joel W. (2003). The Hollywood Story, 3d ed. London and New York: Wallflower. ISBN 1-903364-66-3
- Greenspun, Roger (1973). "Guercio's 'Electra Glide in Blue' Arrives: Director Makes Debut With a Mystery," The New York Times, August 20 (available online).
- Grimes, William (2010). "Joseph Sarno, Sexploitation Film Director, Dies at 89," The New York Times, May 2 (available online).
- Halperin, James L., ed. (2006). Heritage Signature Vintage Movie Poster Auction #636. Dallas: Heritage Capital. ISBN 1-59967-060-7
- Harper, Jim (2004). Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies. Manchester, UK: Headpress. ISBN 1-900486-39-3
- Hogan, David J. (1997). Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0474-4
- Joiner, Whitney (2007). "Directors Who Go Together, Like Blood and Guts," The New York Times, section 2 ("Arts & Leisure"), pp. 13, 22, January 28.
- Kael, Pauline (1976 [1973]). "Un-People," in Reeling. New York: Warner, pp. 263–279. ISBN 0-446-83420-3
- Kehr, Dave (2007). "New DVDs: The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1," The New York Times, April 10 (available online).
- McCarthy, Todd, and Charles Flynn, eds. (1975). Kings of the Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System—An Anthology of Film History and Criticism (New York: E.P. Dutton). ISBN 0-525-47378-5
- Osgerby, Bill (2003). "Sleazy Riders: Exploitation, "Otherness," and Transgression in the 1960s Biker Movie," Journal of Popular Film and Television (September 22) (available online).
- Paul, William (1994). Laughing, Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08464-1
- Puchalski, Steven (2002). Slimetime: A Guide to Sleazy, Mindless Movies, rev. ed. Manchester, UK: Headpress/Critical Vision. ISBN 1-900486-21-0
- Reid, John Howard (2005). Hollywood 'B' Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills. Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu. ISBN 1-4116-5065-4
- Rockoff, Adam (2002). Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978–1986. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1227-5
- Reynaud, Bérénice (2006). "Wanda's Shattered Lives" (booklet accompanying Parlour Pictures DVD release of Wanda).
- Rubin, Martin (1999). Thrillers. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58183-4
- Sapolsky, Barry S., and Fred Molitor (1996). "Content Trends in Contemporary Horror Films," in Horror Films: Current Research on Audience Preferences and Reactions, ed. James B. Weaver Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 33–48. ISBN 0-8058-1174-5
- Schaefer, Eric (1999). "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959. Durham, N.C., and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2374-5
- Schickel, Richard (1974). "The New B Movies," Time, April 1 (available online).
- Schickel, Richard (2005). Elia Kazan: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019579-7
- Taylor, Paul (1999). "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover," in Time Out Film Guide, 8th ed., ed. John Pym. London et al.: Penguin, p. 835. ISBN 0-14-028365-X
- Van Peebles, Melvin (2003). "The Real Deal: What It
Was...Is! Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" (commentary accompanying Xenon Entertainment DVD release of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song). - Worland, Rick (2007). The Horror Film: An Introduction. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-3902-1
External links
- B-movie Italian-language Wikipedia entry covering the term's use in the Italian film industry
- "What Exactly Is a B-Movie?" essay by B-Movie Central's Duane L. Martin, focusing on 1960s and 1970s exploitation styles