The Origins of B Movies | Film 101

B Movies have been a fixture of Hollywood since the 1940s, but why did they come about and what does it mean to be a "B Movie?" This July, TCM is spotlighting original and deep-cut B Movies, and in this Film 101, we explore the origins of these lower budget features and their lasting impact.

B Movies will air on TCM Thursdays in July, programmed by author Jeremy Arnold.

Written by Raquel Stecher & Tom Reimann

Narrated by Tom Reimann

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[robertdoherty]

Love ‘B’ movies - YouTube is loaded with them. Cheap, sleazy and fun. They’re not always schlocky or bad - just modest, starring good actors who either never got the big break or went on to become household names in television later.

[johnnytoobad]

This a great compliment to Roger Cormans book: "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood...And Never Lost A Dime.
It's basically an abbreviated history of the "New Hollywood", complete with interviews.

[dolomitefan]

I thought B was short for budget. Learn something new everyday.

[andywellsglobaldomination]

The movie experience could be as much as: swing band concert, trailers, newsreel, cartoon, short, B movie then A movie, all in the same show.

[fmdog]

I loved the outer space movies where in the spacecraft were three uniformed guys, a lovely woman attached to one of them and an old guy or a dimwitted mechanic that always wore a baseball cap as if a pipe wrench was the only tool he needed to fix the ship. He always had a nickname like Happy or Chipper.

[auapplemac]

"A" movies were the high end feature. The first on the bill. Therefore "B" movie was the low budget second film on the bill.

[stephennootens]

It is interesting to note how many b movies that went on to become beloved classic films.

[orbyfan]

Universal had some of the best B-movies; in addition to the horror films of the 1940s, the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were B-movies.

[infinitesimians]

B-Movies are often fun. And I've considered some to be superior to similar feature films.
I always assumed the 'B' was derived from the record industry with B-side of record singles. A side was the hit, B side were the weaker songs on an album, or at least a song which they expected would take a few plays before becoming popular. Replays didn't happen in movies in that era, but many B-films were part of character series, such as name detective character movies. So, there were some B-films which required time to build an audience.
I don't know if record singles with flipsides came out during that movie era or later, but I still like my pet theory.

[TheNortheastAl]

Well done. Thanks for this bit of cinematic history.

[mikenixon]

Thank you for the lesson. It is funny, now that I am older I enjoy many B movies better than many of the features I have seen over the years.

[Rubi-llss]

There is Outside the Wall a Noir with a young Richard Basehart 1949 made at Universal. It is a great watch.

[susanrike]

Love "B" movies. In particular, many film noir movies. That's why I love TCM's "Noir Alley!"

[frugalseverin]

The B-movie on a double-bill can be thought of as the flip-side or b-side of a record single. You buy it for the hit on the a-side then get something different on the b-side, maybe something a little different or a castoff, a track that would not be on an artist's album.

[jillkjv]

If you love a B movie then it's an A movie to you. 😊

[nhpbob]

Excellent mini-history of the B-Movie. (I assumed it was called B as it was the lesser half of the double features.)

[Rubi-llss]

A great B Noir is Fingers at the Window 1942 from Metro. This film was the last film Lew Ayers made at Metro due to his firing.

[DanielGarcia-ustf]

Request: There are so many films which have been forgotten over time. Please, review the horror film Mr. Frost with Jeff Goldblum, the sci-fi films Scanner Cop 1 and Split Second with Rutger Hauer, the John Candy comedies Only the Lonely and Summer Rental along with The Resurrected horror movie with Chris Sarandon. Thank you!!!!

[buffstraw]

I love the thumbnail image. The knife is coming down and the man says to the woman: "Here, you get in front of me."
Woman: "Aren't you supposed to protect me?"
Man: "How can I protect you if I'm dead?"

[williamsnyder]

Over at Columbia, studio head Harry Cohn couldn't hide his affection for what he called those ''lousy little 'B' movies.'' For indeed, while Columbia did end up producing enough A films that it surpassed MGM as winners of Best Picture Oscars, Cohn's studio specialized in Bs, ranging from Blondie to Boston Blackie to the Crime Doctor to the Whistler. And while we're at it, howsa about the fortune the studio made on the Three Stooges shorts, talents MGM could have had, but rejected? The same was true with the Sherlock Holmes mysteries at Universal. When Fox dumped Holmes after two movies, Universal picked up the series, modernized it and made neat little 60-to-70 minute films that actually acted as the model for ''Murder, She Wrote, '' which Universal produced on TV 40 years later.