![]() | The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema The emergence of the double-bill in the 1930s created a divide between A-pictures and B-pictures as theaters typically screened packages featuring one of each. With the former considered more prestigious because of their larger budgets and more popular actors, the lower-budgeted Bs served largely as a support mechanism to A-films of the major studios--most of which also owned the theater chains in which movies were shown. When a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling severed ownership of theaters from the studios, the B-movie soon became a different entity in the wake of profound changes to the corporate organization and production methods of the major Hollywood studios. BLAIR DAVIS is an assistant professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University. His essays appear in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies , and in such anthologies as American Horror Film , Caligari's Heirs , and Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear . |
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