B 級片是指製作的商業電影，而非文藝片。在最初定義裡，B 級片指在好萊塢黃金時代以形式發行的電影中相對鮮為人知的電影，類似唱片行業裡的 B 面歌。現今美國電影產業中，雙片連映的製作發行方式在 1950 年代末逐步消失，但 B 級片卻有了更廣泛的定義。在後黃金時代，B 級片的定義出現歧義：一方面，B 級片被認為是剝削電影，特色為淫穢內容；另一方面，B 級片被認為展示出電影的高工藝水準與美學創造力。 在這兩種解釋中，大多數 B 級片被認為代表一種特定的電影型別；西部片是 B 級片的黃金時代，而低成本科幻片和恐怖片則在 1950 年代開始受歡迎。早期的系列 B 級片裡，相同演員會重覆飾演相同角色。然而，B 級片片長總是短於頂級製作的電影，大多在 70 分鐘以內，導致當時觀眾認為 B 級片不如大製作電影，也讓很多影評人忽略個別 B 級片。 現代 B 級片雖會激發多部續集電影，但已很少出現系列電影。隨著大製作電影平均放映時長增加，B 級片片長也開始增加。如今，B 級片定義依舊存在矛盾：現代 B 級片可能是缺乏藝術野心的型別電影，也可能是既不像大製作電影被綁手綁腳、也不拘泥於 嚴肅獨立電影 的活潑歡快的電影。同時，這個術語也可指某些高預算且帶剝削性質的主流電影，它們通常與傳統 B 級片相關型別片有關。 一直以來，B 級片為很多電影從業人員和其他事業不順遂的人提供機會。安東尼曼、喬納森戴米等知名電影人都是從 B 級片開始鍛鍊製作電影的能力；約翰韋恩、傑克尼科爾森等著名影星亦以 B 級片為職涯開端；同時也給前電影明星文森特普萊斯和凱倫布萊克繼續發展的機遇。有些演員，像貝拉盧戈西、布魯斯坎貝爾、帕姆格里爾等，則將他們大部分電影生涯貢獻給 B 級片。B 級演員有時指主要或專門拍攝 B 級片的電影演員。 發展歷史 在 192728 年，無聲時代的末期，好萊塢主要製片廠的故事片平均成本從福克斯的 19 萬美元到米高梅的 275 萬美元不等。這些數字既反映了成本或高達 100 萬美元的 特輯，也反映了成本約 5 萬美元的速成電影。這些低成本電影讓製片廠能在重要電影的製片間隙最大限度地利用設施和合同員工，同時引入新人。Finler 2003 pp 4142 Balio 2003 p 29 而同時期，行業內規模不及大廠的製片廠，例如哥倫比亞影業和，則是將重點放在預算更低的專案。他們的影片通常市場更短，其目標通常是那些必須減少租金和運營費用的電影院，尤其是小城鎮和城市居民區的小影院（也被稱為 nabe）。甚至連更小規模的製片方（通常被稱作  都拍了預算可以低於 3000 美元的電影，他們經常在沒有得到大製片廠關注的人員之間撿漏。See eg Taves 1995 p 320 1929 年後，隨著有聲電影在美國的普及，許多獨立放映商開始放棄當時主流的放映模式，該模式通常包括現場表演和在長故事片前播放各種各樣的短片。此時發展出了一種新的設計方案：一個，一個短片和 或（，以及一部，最後是一組雙故事片。這種做法後來慢慢成為了標準操作。第二個故事片實際上在主活動前就放映，放映商只需付相較於等長的短片更低的價格。Balio 1995 p 29 See also Schatz 1999 pp 16 324 各大電影公司有利於其附屬影院的 許可 規則使得獨立影院無法及時獲得優質電影。第二個故事片則能讓他們提高數量。 附加的電影還為該計劃提供了 平衡：將不同型別的故事片組合在一起。這種做法向潛在觀眾暗示，不論具體上映了什麼，都可以期待自己感興趣的內容。20 年代的低成本電影因此演變成好萊塢黃金時代的第二部故事片，即 B 級電影。See Finler 2003 pp 26 4143 4749 好萊塢黃金年代 1930 年代 The major studios at first resistant to the double feature soon adapted all established B units to provide films for the expanding secondfeature market Block booking became standard practice to get access to a studios attractive A pictures many theaters were obliged to rent the companys entire output for a season With the B films rented at a flat fee rather than the box office percentage basis of A films rates could be set virtually guaranteeing the profitability of every B movie The parallel practice of blind bidding largely freed the majors from worrying about their Bs quality even when booking in less than seasonal blocks exhibitors had to buy most pictures sight unseen The five largest studios MetroGoldwynMayer Paramount Pictures Fox Film Corporation 20th Century Fox as of 1935 Warner Bros and RKO Radio Pictures descendant of FBO also belonged to companies with sizable theater chains further securing the bottom lineFinler 2003 pp 1819 Poverty Row studios from modest outfits like Mascot Pictures Tiffany Pictures and Sono ArtWorld Wide Pictures down to shoestring operations made exclusively B movies serials and other shorts and also distributed totally independent productions and imported films In no position to directly block book they mostly sold regional distribution exclusivity to states rights firms which in turn peddled blocks of movies to exhibitors typically six or more pictures featuring the same star a relative status on Poverty RowTaves 1995 pp 32627 Two majorminors Universal Studios and rising Columbia Pictures had production lines roughly similar to though somewhat better endowed than the top Poverty Row studios In contrast to the Big Five majors Universal and Columbia had few or no theaters though they did have toprank film distribution exchangesSee eg Balio 1995 pp 1034 In the standard Golden Age model the industrys top product the A films premiered at a small number of select firstrun houses in major cities Double features were not the rule at these prestigious venues As described by Edward Jay Epstein During these first runs films got their reviews garnered publicity and generated the word of mouth that served as the principal form of advertisingEpstein 2005 p 6 See also Schatz 1999 pp 1617 Then it was off to the subsequentrun market where the double feature prevailed At the larger local venues controlled by the majors movies might turn over on a weekly basis At the thousands of smaller independent theaters programs often changed two or three times a week To meet the constant demand for new B product the low end of Poverty Row turned out a stream of microbudget movies rarely much more than sixty minutes long these were known as quickies for their tight production schedulesas short as four daysTaves 1995 p 325 As Azam Patel describes Many of the poorest theaters such as the grind houses in the larger cities screened a continuous program emphasizing action with no specific schedule sometimes offering six quickies for a nickel in an allnight show that changed dailyTaves 1995 p 326 Many small theaters never saw a bigstudio A film getting their movies from the states rights concerns that handled almost exclusively Poverty Row product Millions of Americans went to their local theaters as a matter of course for an A picture along with the trailers or screen previews that presaged its arrival t he new films title on the marquee and the listings for it in the local newspaper constituted all the advertising most movies got writes EpsteinEpstein 2005 p 4 Aside from at the theater itself B films might not be advertised at all The introduction of sound had driven costs higher by 1930 the average US feature film cost 375000 to produceFinler 2003 p 42 A broad range of motion pictures occupied the B category The leading studios made not only clearcut A and B films but also movies classifiable as programmers also known as inbetweeners or intermediates As Taves describes Depending on the prestige of the theater and the other material on the double bill a programmer could show up at the top or bottom of the marqueeTaves 1995 p 317 Taves like this article adopts the usage of programmer argued for by author Don Miller in his 1973 study B Movies New York Ballantine As Taves notes the term programmer was used in a variety of different ways by reviewers of the 1930s p 431 n 8 Some presentday critics employ the MillerTaves usage others refer to any B movie from the Golden Age as a programmer or program picture On Poverty Row many Bs were made on budgets that would have barely covered petty cash on a majors A film with costs at the bottom of the industry running as low as 5000 By the mid1930s the double feature was the dominant US exhibition model and the majors responded In 1935 B movie production at Warner Bros was raised from 12 to 50 of studio output The unit was headed by Bryan Foy known as the Keeper of the BsBalio 1995 p 102 At Fox which also shifted half of its production line into B territory Sol M Wurtzel was similarly in charge of more than twenty movies a year during the late 1930sFinler 2003 pp 26 111 116 A number of the top Poverty Row firms consolidated Sono Art joined another company to create Monogram Pictures early in the decade In 1935 Monogram Mascot and several smaller studios merged to establish Republic Pictures The former heads of Monogram soon sold off their Republic shares and set up a new Monogram production houseTuska 1999 pp 18384 Into the 1950s most Republic and Monogram product was roughly on par with the low end of the majors output Less sturdy Poverty Row concernswith a penchant for grand sobriquets like Conquest Empire Imperial and Peerlesscontinued to churn out dirtcheap quickiesSee Taves 1995 pp 32129 Joel Finler has analyzed the average length of feature releases in 1938 indicating the studios relative emphasis on B productionAdapted from Finler 2003 p 26 United Artists produced little focusing on the distribution of prestigious films from independent outfits Grand National active 193640 occupied an analogous niche on Poverty Row releasing mostly independent productionsSee Taves 1995 p 323 McCarthy and Flynn 1975 p 20 In its peak year 1937 Grand National did produce around twenty pictures of its own 工作室 類別 平均片長 MGM Big Five 879 minutes Paramount Big Five 764 minutes 20th Century Fox Big Five 753 minutes Warner Bros Big Five 750 minutes RKO Big Five 741 minutes United Artists Little Three 876 minutes Columbia Little Three 664 minutes Universal Little Three 664 minutes Grand National Poverty Row 636 minutes Republic Poverty Row 631 minutes Monogram Poverty Row 600 minutes Taves estimates that half of the films produced by the eight majors in the 1930s were B movies Calculating in the three hundred or so films made annually by the many Poverty Row firms approximately 75 of Hollywood movies from the decade more than four thousand pictures are classifiable as BsTaves 1995 p 313 The Western was by far the predominant B genre in both the 1930s and to a lesser degree the 1940sNachbar 1974 p 2 Film historian Jon Tuska has argued that the B product of the Thirtiesthe Universal films with Tom Mix Ken Maynard and Buck Jones the Columbia features with Buck Jones and Tim McCoy the RKO George OBrien series the Republic Westerns with John Wayne and the Three Mesquiteers achieved a uniquely American perfection of the wellmade storyTuska 1974 p 37 At the far end of the industry Poverty Rows Ajax put out oaters starring Harry Carey then in his fifties The Weiss outfit had the Range Rider series the American Rough Rider series and the Morton of the Mounted northwest action thrillersTaves 1995 pp 32728 One lowbudget oater of the era made totally outside the studio system profited from an outrageous concept a Western with an allmidget cast The Terror of Tiny Town 1938 was such a success in its independent bookings that Columbia picked it up for distributionTaves 1995 p 316 Series of various genres featuring recurrent titleworthy characters or name actors in familiar roles were particularly popular during the first decade of sound film Foxs many B series for instance included Charlie Chan mysteries Ritz Brothers comedies and musicals with child star Jane WithersSee eg Taves 1995 p 318 These series films are not to be confused with the short cliffhangerstructured serials that sometimes appeared on the same program As with serials however many series were intended to attract young peoplea theater that twinbilled parttime might run a balanced or entirely youthoriented double feature as a matinee and then a single film for a more mature audience at night In the words of one industry report afternoon moviegoers composed largely of housewives and children want quantity for their money while the evening crowds wantsomething good and not too much of itQuoted in Schatz 1999 p 75 Series films are often unquestioningly consigned to the B movie category but even here there is ambiguity at MGM for example popular series like the Andy Hardy and the Dr KildareDr Gillespie chronicles had leading stars and budgets that would have been Alevel at most of the lesser studiosNaremore 1998 p 141 For many series even a lesser majors standard B budget was far out of reach Poverty Rows Consolidated Pictures featured Tarzan the Police Dog in a series with the proud name of Melodramatic Dog FeaturesTaves 1995 p 328 1940 年代 By 1940 the average production cost of an American feature was 400000 a negligible increase over ten years A number of small Hollywood companies had folded around the turn of the decade including the ambitious Grand National but a new firm Producers Releasing Corporation PRC emerged as third in the Poverty Row hierarchy behind Republic and Monogram The double feature never universal was still the prevailing exhibition model in 1941 fifty percent of theaters were doublebilling exclusively and others employed the policy parttimeSchatz 1999 p 73 In the early 1940s legal pressure forced the studios to replace seasonal block booking with packages generally limited to five pictures Restrictions were also placed on the majors ability to enforce blind biddingSchatz 1999 pp 1921 45 72 16063 These were crucial factors in the progressive shift by most of the Big Five over to Afilm production making the smaller studios even more important as B movie suppliers Genre pictures made at very low cost remained the backbone of Poverty Row with even Republics and Monograms budgets rarely climbing over 200000 Many smaller Poverty Row firms folded as the eight majors with their proprietary distribution exchanges now commanded about 95 of US and Canadian box office receiptsSchatz 1999 p 16 In 1946 independent producer David O Selznick brought his bloatedbudget spectacle Duel in the Sun to market with heavy nationwide promotion and wide release The distribution strategy was a major success despite what was widely perceived as the movies poor qualitySchatz 1993 p 11 The Duel release anticipated practices that fueled the B movie industry in the late 1950s when the top Hollywood studios made them standard two decades after that the B movie was hard hitSee eg Finler 2003 pp 4 6 Considerations beside cost made the line between A and B movies ambiguous Films shot on Blevel budgets were occasionally marketed as A pictures or emerged as sleeper hits one of 1943s biggest films was Hitlers Children an RKO thriller made for a fraction over 200000 It earned more than in rentals industry language for a distributors share of gross box office receiptsJewell 1982 181 Lasky 1989 18485 Particularly in the realm of film noir A pictures sometimes echoed visual styles generally associated with cheaper films Programmers with their flexible exhibition role were ambiguous by definition As late as 1948 the double feature remained a popular exhibition modeit was standard policy at 25 of theaters and used parttime at an additional 36Schatz 1999 p 78 The leading Poverty Row firms began to broaden their scope in 1947 Monogram established a subsidiary Allied Artists to develop and distribute relatively expensive films mostly from independent producers Around the same time Republic launched a similar effort under the Premiere rubricSchatz 1999 pp 34041 In 1947 as well PRC was subsumed by EagleLion a British company seeking entry to the American market Warners former Keeper of the Bs Brian Foy was installed as production chiefSchatz 1999 p 295 Naremore 1998 p 142 In the 1940s RKO stood out among the industrys Big Five for its focus on B picturesSchatz 1999 p 173 table 63 From a latterday perspective the most famous of the major studios Golden Age B units is Val Lewtons horror unit at RKO Lewton produced such moody mysterious films as Cat People 1942 I Walked with a Zombie 1943 and The Body Snatcher 1945 directed by Jacques Tourneur Robert Wise and others who became renowned only later in their careers or entirely in retrospectSchatz 1999 p 232 Finler 2003 pp 21920 The movie now widely described as the first classic film noirStranger on the Third Floor 1940 a 64minute Bwas produced at RKO which released many additional melodramatic thrillers in a similarly stylish veinFinler 2003 p 216 The other major studios also turned out a considerable number of movies now identified as noir during the 1940s Though many of the bestknown film noirs were Alevel productions most 1940s pictures in the mode were either of the ambiguous programmer type or destined straight for the bottom of the bill In the decades since these cheap entertainments generally dismissed at the time have become some of the most treasured products of Hollywoods Golden AgeSee eg Dave Kehr Critics Choice New DVDs The New York Times August 22 2006 Dave Kehr Critics Choice New DVDs The New York Times June 7 2005 Robert Sklar Film Noir Lite When Actions Have No Consequences The New York Times Week in Review June 2 2002 In one sample year 1947 RKO produced along with several noir programmers and A pictures two straight B noirs Desperate and The Devil Thumbs a RideJewell 1982 pp 218 219 Ten B noirs that year came from Poverty Rows big threeRepublic Monogram and PRCEagleLionand one came from tiny Screen Guild Three majors beside RKO contributed a total of five more Along with these eighteen unambiguous B noirs an additional dozen or so noir programmers came out of HollywoodFor a detailed consideration of classic B noir see Lyons 2000 Still most of the majors lowbudget production remained the sort now largely ignored RKOs representative output included the Mexican Spitfire and Lum and Abner comedy series thrillers featuring the Saint and the Falcon Westerns starring Tim Holt and Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller Jean Hersholt played Dr Christian in six films between 1939 and 1941Finler 2003 pp 21415 The Courageous Dr Christian 1940 was a standard entry In the course of an hour or so of screen time the saintly physician managed to cure an epidemic of spinal meningitis demonstrate benevolence towards the disenfranchised set an example for wayward youth and calm the passions of an amorous old maidJewell 1982 p 147 Down in Poverty Row low budgets led to less palliative fare Republic aspired to majorleague respectability while making many cheap and modestly budgeted Westerns but there was not much from the bigger studios that compared with Monogram exploitation pictures like juvenile delinquency exposé Where Are Your Children 1943 and the prison film Women in Bondage 1943Schatz 1999 p 175 In 1947 PRCs The Devil on Wheels brought together teenagers hot rods and death The little studio had its own house auteur with his own crew and relatively free rein director Edgar G Ulmer was known as the Capra of PRCNaremore 1998 p 144 Ulmer made films of every generic stripe his Girls in Chains was released in May 1943 six months before Women in Bondage by the end of the year Ulmer had also made the teenthemed musical Jive Junction as well as Isle of Forgotten Sins a South Seas adventure set around a brothelSee Mank 2001 p 274 1950 年代的轉型 In 1948 a Supreme Court ruling in a federal antitrust suit against the majors outlawed block booking and led to the Big Five divesting their theater chains With audiences draining away to television and studios scaling back production schedules the classic double feature vanished from many American theaters during the 1950s The major studios promoted the benefits of recycling offering former headlining movies as second features in the place of traditional B filmsStrawn 1974 p 257 With television airing many classic Westerns as well as producing its own original Western series the cinematic market for B oaters in particular was drying up After barely inching forward in the 1930s the average US feature production cost had essentially doubled over the 1940s reaching by the turn of the decadea 93 rise after adjusting for inflation The first prominent victim of the changing market was EagleLion which released its last films in 1951 By 1953 the old Monogram brand had disappeared the company having adopted the identity of its higherend subsidiary Allied Artists The following year Allied released Hollywoods last B series Westerns Nonseries B Westerns continued to appear for a few more years but Republic Pictures long associated with cheap sagebrush sagas was out of the filmmaking business by decades end In other genres Universal kept its Ma and Pa Kettle series going through 1957 while Allied Artists stuck with the Bowery Boys until 1958Lev 2003 p 205 RKO weakened by years of mismanagement exited the movie industry in 1957Lasky 1989 p 229 Hollywoods A product was getting longerthe top ten boxoffice releases of 1940 had averaged 1125 minutes the average length of 1955s top ten was 1234See Finler 2003 pp 35758 for top films Finler lists The Country Girl as 1955 when it made most of its money but it premiered in December 1954 The Seven Year Itch replaces it in this analysis the two films happen to be virtually identical in length In their modest way the Bs were following suit The age of the hourlong feature film was past 70 minutes was now roughly the minimum While the Golden Agestyle second feature was dying B movie was still used to refer to any lowbudget genre film featuring relatively unheralded performers sometimes referred to as B actors The term retained its earlier suggestion that such movies relied on formulaic plots stock character types and simplistic action or unsophisticated comedySee eg Matthews 2007 p 92 Lyons 2000 p 53 At the same time the realm of the B movie was becoming increasingly fertile territory for experimentation both serious and outlandish Ida Lupino a leading actress established herself as Hollywoods sole female director of the eraLev 2003 pp 6061 In short lowbudget pictures made for her production company The Filmakers Lupino explored taboo subjects such as rape in 1950s Outrage and 1953s selfexplanatory The BigamistHurd 2007 pp 1013 Her best known directorial effort The HitchHiker a 1953 RKO release is the only film noir from the genres classic period directed by a womanMuller 1998 p 176 Cousins 2004 p 198 That year RKO released Split Second which concludes in a nuclear test range and is perhaps the first atomic noirJewell 1982 p 272 The most famous such movie the independently produced Kiss Me Deadly 1955 typifies the persistently murky middle ground between the A and B picture as Richard Maltby describes a programmer capable of occupying either half of a neighbourhood theatres doublebill it was budgeted at approximately 400000 Its distributor United Artists released around twentyfive programmers with production budgets between 100000 and 400000 in 1955Maltby 2000 The films length 106 minutes is A level but its star Ralph Meeker had previously appeared in only one major film Its source is pure pulp one of Mickey Spillanes Mike Hammer novels but Robert Aldrichs direction is selfconsciously aestheticized The result is a brutal genre picture that also evokes contemporary anxieties about what was often spoken of simply as the BombSchrader 1972 p 61 Silver 1995 The fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union along with less expressible qualms about radioactive fallout from Americas own atomic tests energized many of the eras genre films Science fiction horror and various hybrids of the two were now of central economic importance to the lowbudget end of the business Most downmarket films of the typelike many of those produced by William Alland at Universal such as Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 and Sam Katzman at Columbia including It Came from Beneath the Sea 1955provided little more than thrills though their special effects could be impressiveKinnard 1988 pp 6773 But these were genres whose fantastic nature could also be used as cover for mordant cultural observations often difficult to make in mainstream movies Director Don Siegels Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 released by Allied Artists treats conformist pressures and the evil of banality in haunting allegorical fashionLev 2003 pp 186 184 Braucort 1970 p 75 The Amazing Colossal Man 1957 directed by Bert I Gordon is both a monster movie that happens to depict the horrific effects of radiation exposure and a ferocious coldwar fable that spins Korea the armys obsessive secrecy and Americas postwar growth into one fantastic wholeAuty 2005 p 34 See also Shapiro 2002 pp 12024 The Amazing Colossal Man was released by a new company whose name was much bigger than its budgets American International Pictures AIP founded in 1956 by James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff in a reorganization of their American Releasing Corporation ARC soon became the leading US studio devoted entirely to Bcost productions American International helped keep the originalrelease double bill alive through paired packages of its films these movies were lowbudget but instead of a flat rate they were rented out on a percentage basis like A filmsStrawn 1974 p 259 Lev 2003 p 206 The success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf 1957 thus brought AIP a large returnmade for about 100000 it grossed more than Lentz 2002 p 17 As the films title suggests the studio relied on both fantastic genre subjects and new teenoriented angles When Hot Rod Gang 1958 turned a profit hot rod horror was given a try Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow 1959 David Cook credits AIP with leading the way in demographic exploitation target marketing and saturation booking all of which became standard procedure for the majors in planning and releasing their massmarket event films by the late 1970sCook 2000 p 324 See also p 171 In terms of content the majors were already there with films about juvenile delinquency such as Warner Bros Untamed Youth 1957 and MGMs High School Confidential 1958 both starring Mamie Van DorenDenisoff and Romanowski 1991 pp 6465 95100 105 In 1954 a young filmmaker named Roger Corman received his first screen credits as writer and associate producer of Allied Artists Highway Dragnet Corman soon independently produced his first movie Monster from the Ocean Floor on a 12000 budget and a sixday shooting scheduleDi Franco 1979 p 3 Among the six films he worked on in 1955 Corman produced and directed the first official ARC release Apache Woman and Day the World Ended half of Arkoff and Nicholsons first twinbill package Corman directed over fifty feature films through 1990 As of 2007 he remained active as a producer with more than 350 movies to his credit Often referred to as the King of the Bs Corman has said that to my way of thinking I never made a B movie in my life as the traditional B movie was dying out when he began making pictures He prefers to describe his metier as lowbudget exploitation filmsCorman 1998 p 36 It appears Corman made at least one true B pictureaccording to Arkoff Apache Woman to Cormans displeasure was handled as a second feature Strawn 1974 p 258 In later years Corman both with AIP and as head of his own companies helped launch the careers of Francis Ford Coppola Jonathan Demme Robert Towne and Robert De Niro among many othersRausch and Dequina 2008 p 56 In the late 1950s William Castle became known as the great innovator of the B movie publicity gimmick Audiences of Macabre 1958 an 86000 production distributed by Allied Artists were invited to take out insurance policies to cover potential death from fright The 1959 creature feature The Tingler featured Castles most famous gimmick Percepto at the films climax buzzers attached to select theater seats unexpectedly rattled a few audience members prompting either appropriate screams or even more appropriate laughterHeffernan 2004 pp 1024 With such films Castle combine d the saturation advertising campaign perfected by Columbia and Universal in their Sam Katzman and William Alland packages with centralized and standardized publicity stunts and gimmicks that had previously been the purview of the local exhibitorHeffernan 2004 pp 9598 The postwar drivein theater boom was vital to the expanding independent B movie industry In January 1945 there were 96 driveins in the United States a decade later there were more than 3700Segrave 1992 p 33 Unpretentious pictures with simple familiar plots and reliable shock effects were ideally suited for autobased film viewing with all its attendant distractions The phenomenon of the drivein movie became one of the defining symbols of American popular culture in the 1950s At the same time many local television stations began showing B genre films in latenight slots popularizing the notion of the midnight movieHeffernan 2004 p 161 Increasingly Americanmade genre films were joined by foreign movies acquired at low cost and where necessary dubbed for the US market In 1956 distributor Joseph E Levine financed the shooting of new footage with American actor Raymond Burr that was edited into the Japanese scifi horror film GodzillaMatthews 2007 p 91 The British Hammer Film Productions made the successful The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 and Dracula 1958 major influences on future horror film style In 1959 Levines Embassy Pictures bought the worldwide rights to Hercules a cheaply made Italian movie starring Americanborn bodybuilder Steve Reeves On top of a 125000 purchase price Levine then spent on advertising and publicity a virtually unprecedented amountCook 2000 p 324 The New York Times was not impressed claiming that the movie would have drawn little more than yawns in the film market had it not been launched throughout the country with a deafening barrage of publicityNason 1959 Levine counted on firstweekend box office for his profits booking the film into as many cinemas as he could for a weeks run then withdrawing it before poor wordofmouth withdrew it for himHirschhorn 1979 p 343 Hercules opened at a remarkable 600 theaters and the strategy was a smashing success the film earned in domestic rentals Just as valuable to the bottom line it was even more successful overseas Within a few decades Hollywood was dominated by both movies and an exploitation philosophy very much like Levines Also playing rounds during this time was K Gordon Murray known for distributing international matinee fare like the 1959 Mexican kids movie Santa Claus 黃金年代的剝削 1960 年代 Despite all the transformations in the industry by 1961 the average production cost of an American feature film was still only after adjusting for inflation less than 10 more than it had been in 1950 The traditional twin bill of B film preceding and balancing a subsequentrun A film had largely disappeared from American theaters The AIPstyle dual genre package was the new model In July 1960 the latest Joseph E Levine swordandsandals import Hercules Unchained opened at neighborhood theaters in New York A suspense film Terror Is a Man ran as a cofeature with a now familiar sort of exploitation gimmick The dénouement helpfully includes a warning bell so the sensitive can close their eyesThompson 1960 That year Roger Corman took AIP down a new road When they asked me to make two tenday blackandwhite horror films to play as a double feature I convinced them instead to finance one horror film in colorQuoted in Di Franco 1979 p 97 The resulting House of Usher typifies the continuing ambiguities of B picture classification It was clearly an A film by the standards of both director and studio with the longest shooting schedule and biggest budget Corman had ever enjoyed But it is generally seen as a B movie the schedule was still a mere fifteen days the budget just 200000 one tenth the industry averagePer Corman quoted in Di Franco 1979 p 97 and its 85minute running time close to an old thumbnail definition of the B Any movie that runs less than 80 minutesQuoted in Reid 2005a p 5 With the loosening of industry censorship constraints the 1960s saw a major expansion in the commercial viability of a variety of B movie subgenres that became known collectively as exploitation films The combination of intensive and gimmickladen publicity with movies featuring vulgar subject matter and often outrageous imagery dated back decadesthe term had originally defined truly fringe productions made at the lowest depths of Poverty Row or entirely outside the Hollywood system Many graphically depicted the wages of sin in the context of promoting prudent lifestyle choices particularly sexual hygiene Audiences might see explicit footage of anything from a live birth to a ritual circumcisionSchaefer 1999 pp 187 376 Such films were not generally booked as part of movie theaters regular schedules but rather presented as special events by traveling roadshow promoters they might also appear as fodder for grindhouses which typically had no regular schedule at all The most famous of those promoters Kroger Babb was in the vanguard of marketing lowbudget sensationalistic films with a 100 saturation campaign inundating the target audience with ads in almost any imaginable mediumSchaefer 1999 p 118 In the era of the traditional double feature no one would have characterized these graphic exploitation films as B movies With the majors having exited traditional B production and exploitationstyle promotion becoming standard practice at the lower end of the industry exploitation became a way to refer to the entire field of lowbudget genre filmsSchaefer 1992 p 176 n 1 The 1960s saw exploitationstyle themes and imagery become increasingly central to the realm of the B Exploitation movies in the original sense continued to appear 1961s Damaged Goods a cautionary tale about a young lady whose boyfriends promiscuity leads to venereal disease comes complete with enormous grotesque closeups of VDs physical effects At the same time the concept of fringe exploitation was merging with a related similarly venerable tradition nudie films featuring nudistcamp footage or striptease artists like Bettie Page had simply been the softcore pornography of previous decades As far back as 1933 This Nude World was Guaranteed the Most Educational Film Ever ProducedHalperin 2006 p 201 In the late 1950s as more of the old grindhouse theaters devoted themselves specifically to adult product a few filmmakers began making nudies with greater attention to plot Best known was Russ Meyer who released his first successful narrative nudie the comic Immoral Mr Teas in 1959 Five years later Meyer came out with his breakthrough film Lorna which combined sex violence and a dramatic storylineFrasier 1997 pp 78 13 Faster Pussycat Kill Kill 1965 made for about 45000 ultimately became the most famous of Meyers sexploitation pictures Crafted for constant titillation but containing no nudity it was aimed at the same passion pit drivein circuit that screened AIP teen movies with winkwink titles like Beach Blanket Bingo 1965 and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini 1966 starring Annette Funicello and Frankie AvalonFrasier 1997 pp 911 90 Denisoff and Romanowski 1991 pp 11618 Roger Cormans The Trip 1967 for American International written by veteran AIPCorman actor Jack Nicholson never shows a fully bared unpainted breast but flirts with nudity throughoutFrank 1998 p 186 McGilligan 1996 p 183 The Meyer and Corman lines were drawing closer One of the most influential films of the era on Bs and beyond was Paramounts Psycho Its in earnings against a production cost of 800000 made it the most profitable movie of 1960Cook 2000 p 222 Its mainstream distribution without the Production Code seal of approval helped weaken US film censorship And as William Paul notes this move into the horror genre by respected director Alfred Hitchcock was made significantly with the lowestbudgeted film of his American career and the least glamorous stars Its greatest initial impact was on schlock horror movies notably those from secondtier director William Castle each of which tried to bill itself as scarier than PsychoPaul 1994 p 33 Castles first film in the Psycho vein was Homicidal 1961 an early step in the development of the slasher subgenre that took off in the late 1970s Blood Feast 1963 a movie about human dismemberment and culinary preparation made for approximately 24000 by experienced nudiemaker Herschell Gordon Lewis established a new more immediately successful subgenre the gore or splatter film Lewiss business partner David F Friedman drummed up publicity by distributing vomit bags to theatergoersthe sort of gimmick Castle had masteredand arranging for an injunction against the film in Sarasota Floridathe sort of problem exploitation films had long run up against except Friedman had planned itRockoff 2002 pp 3233 This new breed of grossout movie typified the emerging sense of exploitationthe progressive adoption of traditional exploitation and nudie elements into horror into other classic B genres and into the lowbudget film industry as a whole Imports of Hammer Films increasingly explicit horror movies and Italian gialli highly stylized pictures mixing sexploitation and ultraviolence fueled this trendLangford 2005 p 175 The Production Code was officially scrapped in 1968 to be replaced by the first version of the modern rating systemHeffernan 2004 p 221 Cook 2002 pp 7071 That year two horror films came out that heralded directions American cinema would take in the next decade with major consequences for the B movie One was a highbudget Paramount production directed by the celebrated Roman Polanski Produced by B horror veteran William Castle Rosemarys Baby was the first upscale Hollywood picture in the genre in three decadesCook 2000 pp 22223 It was a critical success and the years seventhbiggest hitHeffernan 2004 pp 190 2001 The other was George A Romeros Night of the Living Dead produced on weekends in and around Pittsburgh for 114000 Building on the achievement of B genre predecessors like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in its subtextual exploration of social and political issues it doubled as a highly effective thriller and an incisive allegory for both the Vietnam War and domestic racial conflicts Its greatest influence though derived from its clever subversion of genre clichés and the connection made between its exploitationstyle imagery lowcost truly independent means of production and high profitabilityCook 2000 p 223 With the Code gone and the X rating established major studio A films like Midnight Cowboy could now show adult imagery while the market for increasingly hardcore pornography exploded In this transformed commercial context work like Russ Meyers gained a new legitimacy In 1969 for the first time a Meyer film Finders Keepers Lovers Weepers was reviewed in The New York TimesCanby 1969 Soon Corman was creating nudityfilled sexploitation pictures such as Private Duty Nurses 1971 and Women in Cages 1971Di Franco 1979 pp 162 165 In May 1969 the most important exploitation movie of the era premiered at the Cannes Film FestivalSee eg Mathijs and Mendik 2008 p 167 James 2005 pp 282 398 Cagin and Dray 1984 pp 6667 Much of Easy Riders significance owes to the fact that it was produced for a respectable if still modest budget and released by a major studio The project was first taken by one of its cocreators Peter Fonda to American International Fonda had become AIPs top star in the Cormandirected The Wild Angels 1966 a biker movie and The Trip as in taking LSD The idea Fonda pitched combined those two proven themes AIP was intrigued but balked at giving his collaborator Dennis Hopper also a studio alumnus free directorial rein Eventually they arranged a financing and distribution deal with Columbia as two more graduates of the CormanAIP exploitation mill joined the project Jack Nicholson and cinematographer László KovácsCagin and Dray 1984 pp 6166 The film which incorporated another favorite exploitation theme the redneck menace as well as a fair amount of nudity was brought in at a cost of 501000 It earned in rentalsFinancial figures per associate producer William L Hayward cited in Biskind 1998 p 74 In the words of historians Seth Cagin and Philip Dray Easy Rider became the seminal film that provided the bridge between all the repressed tendencies represented by schlockkitschhack since the dawn of Hollywood and the mainstream cinema of the seventiesCagin and Dray 1984 p 53 1970 年代 In the late 1960s and early 1970s a new generation of lowbudget film companies emerged that drew from all the different lines of exploitation as well as the scifi and teen themes that had been a mainstay since the 1950s Operations such as Roger Cormans New World Pictures Cannon Films and New Line Cinema brought exploitation films to mainstream theaters around the country The major studios top product was continuing to inflate in running timein 1970 the ten biggest earners averaged 1401 minutesSee 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 The Bs were keeping pace In 1955 Corman had a producorial hand in five movies averaging 748 minutes He played a similar part in five films originally released in 1970 two for AIP and three for his own New World the average length was 898 minutesFrom 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 US premiere 1971 and The Student Nurses For purchase of Ivanna Di Franco 1979 p 164 These films could turn a tidy profit The first New World release the biker movie Angels Die Hard cost 117000 to produce and took in more than at the box officeDi Franco 1979 p 160 The biggest studio in the lowbudget field remained a leader in exploitations growth In 1973 American International gave a shot to young director Brian De Palma Reviewing Sisters Pauline Kael observed that its limp technique doesnt seem to matter to the people who want their gratuitous gore H e cant get two people talking in order to make a simple expository point without its sounding like the drabbest Republic picture of 1938Kael 1973 p 269 Many examples of the blaxploitation genre featuring stereotypefilled stories about African Americans and revolving around drugs violent crime and prostitution were the product of AIP One of blaxploitations biggest stars was Pam Grier who began her film career with a bit part in Russ Meyers Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 1970 Several New World pictures followed including The Big Doll House 1971 and The Big Bird Cage 1972 both directed by Jack Hill Hill also directed Griers bestknown performances in two AIP blaxploitation films Coffy 1973 and Foxy Brown 1974Willis 1997 p 254 n 30 Blaxploitation was the first exploitation genre in which the major studios were central Indeed the United Artists release Cotton Comes to Harlem 1970 directed by Ossie Davis is seen as the first significant film of the typeLawrence 2008 p 27 But the movie that truly ignited the blaxploitation phenomenon was completely independent Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song 1971 is also perhaps the most outrageous example of the form wildly experimental borderline pornographic and essentially a manifesto for an African American revolutionCook 2000 p 260 Melvin Van Peebles wrote coproduced directed starred in edited and composed the music for the film which was completed with a loan from Bill CosbyVan Peebles 2003 Its distributor was small Cinemation Industries then best known for releasing dubbed versions of the Italian Mondo Cane shockumentaries and the Swedish skin flick Fanny Hill as well as for its one inhouse production The Man from ORGY 1970Haines 2003 p 69 Landis and Clifford 2002 pp 11721 These sorts of films played in the grindhouses of the daymany of them not outright porno theaters but rather venues for all manner of exploitation cinema The days of six quickies for a nickel were gone but a continuity of spirit was evidentHaines 2003 p 49 Landis and Clifford 2002 pp 34 In 1970 a lowbudget crime drama shot in 16 mm by firsttime American director Barbara Loden won the international critics prize at the Venice Film FestivalMerritt 2000 p 229 Wanda is both a seminal event in the independent film movement and a classic B picture The crimebased plot and often seedy settings would have suited a straightforward exploitation film or an oldschool B noir The 115000 production for which Loden spent six years raising money was praised by Vincent Canby for the absolute accuracy of its effects the decency of its point of view and purity of techniqueQuoted in Reynaud 2006 See Reynaud also for Lodens fundraising efforts See also Like Romero and Van Peebles other filmmakers of the era made pictures that combined the gutlevel entertainment of exploitation with biting social commentary The first three features directed by Larry Cohen Bone 1972 Black Caesar 1973 and Hell Up in Harlem 1973 were all nominally blaxploitation movies but Cohen used them as vehicles for a satirical examination of race relations and the wages of dogeatdog capitalismWilliams 1996 pp 17173 The gory horror film Deathdream 1974 directed by Bob Clark is also an agonized protest of the war in VietnamWood 2003 pp 11819 Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg made seriousminded lowbudget horror films whose implications are not so much ideological as psychological and existential Shivers 1975 Rabid 1977 The Brood 1979Kauffman 1998 pp 11828 Williams 1996 pp 198200 An Easy Rider with conceptual rigor the movie that most clearly presaged the way in which exploitation content and artistic treatment would be combined in modestly budgeted films of later years was United Artists bikerthemed Electra Glide in Blue 1973 directed by James William GuercioSee eg Milne 2005 p 389 The New York Times reviewer thought little of it Under different intentions it might have made a decent gradeC Roger Corman bike moviethough Corman has generally used more interesting directors than GuercioGreenspun 1973 In the early 1970s the growing practice of screening nonmainstream motion pictures as late shows with the goal of building a cult film audience brought the midnight movie concept home to the cinema now in a countercultural settingsomething like a drivein movie for the hipSee eg Stevenson 2003 pp 4950 Hollows 2003 Staiger 2000 p 112 One of the first films adopted by the new circuit in 1971 was the threeyearold Night of the Living Dead The midnight movie success of lowbudget pictures made entirely outside the studio system like John Waters Pink Flamingos 1972 with its campy spin on exploitation spurred the development of the independent film movementMerritt 2000 pp 25457 The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975 an inexpensive film from 20th Century Fox that spoofed all manner of classic B picture clichés became an unparalleled hit when it was relaunched as a late show feature the year after its initial unprofitable release Even as Rocky Horror generated its own subcultural phenomenon it contributed to the mainstreaming of the theatrical midnight movieHoberman and Rosenbaum 1983 p 13 Asian martial arts films began appearing as imports regularly during the 1970s These kung fu films as they were often called whatever martial art they featured were popularized in the United States by the Hong Kongproduced movies of Bruce Lee and marketed to the same audience targeted by AIP and New WorldCook 2000 pp 26671 Desser 2000 Horror continued to attract young independent American directors As Roger Ebert explained in one 1974 review Horror and exploitation films almost always turn a profit if theyre brought in at the right price So they provide a good starting place for ambitious wouldbe filmmakers who cant get more conventional projects off the groundEbert 1974 The movie under consideration was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Made by Tobe Hooper for less than 300000 it became one of the most influential horror films of the 1970sFor the films cost West 1974 p 9 Rockoff 2002 p 42 For its influence Sapolsky and Molitor 1996 p 36 Rubin 1999 p 155 John Carpenters Halloween 1978 produced on a 320000 budget grossed over worldwide and effectively established the slasher flick as horrors primary mode for the next decade Just as Hooper had learned from Romeros work Halloween in turn largely followed the model of Black Christmas 1974 directed by Deathdreams Bob ClarkFor the films cost and worldwide gross Harper 2004 pp 1213 For its influence and debt to Black Christmas Rockoff 2002 pp 4244 5055 Paul 1994 p 320 On television the parallels between the weekly series that became the mainstay of primetime programming and the Hollywood series films of an earlier day had long been clearWaterman 2005 pp 3839 In the 1970s original featurelength programming increasingly began to echo the B movie as well As production of TV movies expanded with the introduction of the ABC Movie of the Week in 1969 soon followed by the dedication of other network slots to original features time and financial factors shifted the medium progressively into B picture territory Television films inspired by recent scandalssuch as The Ordeal of Patty Hearst which premiered a month after her release from prison in 1979harkened all the way back to the 1920s and such movies as Human Wreckage and When Love Grows Cold FBO pictures made swiftly in the wake of celebrity misfortunesSchaefer 1999 p 224 Goodwin 1987 p 341 Many 1970s TV filmssuch as The California Kid 1974 starring Martin Sheenwere actionoriented genre pictures of a type familiar from contemporary cinematic B production Nightmare in Badham County 1976 headed straight into the realm of roadtrippinggirlsinredneckbondage exploitationLevine 2007 pp 11415 The reverberations of Easy Rider could be felt in such pictures as well as in a host of theatrical exploitation films But its greatest influence on the fate of the B movie was less directby 1973 the major studios were catching on to the commercial potential of genres once largely consigned to the bargain basement Rosemarys Baby had been a big hit but it had little in common with the exploitation style Warner Bros The Exorcist demonstrated that a heavily promoted horror film could be an absolute blockbuster it was the biggest movie of the year and by far the highestearning horror movie yet made In William Pauls description it is also the film that really established grossout as a mode of expression for mainstream cinema P ast exploitation films managed to exploit their cruelties by virtue of their marginality The Exorcist made cruelty respectable By the end of the decade the exploitation booking strategy of opening films simultaneously in hundreds to thousands of theaters became standard industry practicePaul 1994 pp 288 291 Writerdirector George Lucass American Graffiti a Universal production did something similar Described by Paul as essentially an AmericanInternational teenybopper pic with a lot more spit and polish it was 1973s thirdbiggest film and likewise by far the highestearning teenthemed movie yet madePaul 1994 p 92 Even more historically significant movies with B themes and Alevel financial backing followed in their wake 衰落 1980 年代 Most of the Bmovie production houses founded during the exploitation era collapsed or were subsumed by larger companies as the fields financial situation changed in the early 1980s Even a comparatively cheap efficiently made genre picture intended for theatrical release began to cost millions of dollars as the major movie studios steadily moved into the production of expensive genre movies raising audience expectations for spectacular action sequences and realistic special effectsHeffernan 2004 p 223 Intimations of the trend were evident as early as Airport 1970 and especially in the megaschlock of The Poseidon Adventure 1972 Earthquake 1973 and The Towering Inferno 1974 Their disaster plots and dialogue were Bgrade at best from an industry perspective however these were pictures firmly rooted in a tradition of starstuffed extravaganzas The Exorcist had demonstrated the drawing power of bigbudget effectsladen horror But the tidal shift in the majors focus owed largely to the enormous success of three films Steven Spielbergs creature feature Jaws 1975 and George Lucass space opera Star Wars 1977 had each in turn become the highestgrossing film in motion picture history Superman released in December 1978 had proved that a studio could spend on a movie about a childrens comic book character and turn a big profitit was the top boxoffice hit of 1978 Blockbuster fantasy spectacles like the original 1933 King Kong had once been exceptional in the new Hollywood increasingly under the sway of multiindustrial conglomerates they ruledSee Major film studioOrganizational lineage for a record of the sales and mergers involving the eight major studios of the Golden Age It had taken a decade and a half from 1961 to 1976 for the production cost of the average Hollywood feature to double from 2 million to 4 milliona decline if adjusted for inflation In just four years it more than doubled again hitting 85 million in 1980 a constantdollar increase of about 25 Even as the US inflation rate eased the average expense of moviemaking continued to soarFinler 2003 p 42 Prince 2002 gives as the average production cost in 1980 and a total of after adding on costs for manufacturing exhibition prints and marketing p 20 See also p 21 chart 12 The Box Office Mojo website gives as the 1980 production figure see With the majors now routinely saturation booking in over a thousand theaters it was becoming increasingly difficult for smaller outfits to secure the exhibition commitments needed to turn a profit Double features were now literally historyalmost impossible to find except at revival houses One of the first leading casualties of the new economic regime was venerable B studio Allied Artists which declared bankruptcy in April 1979Lubasch 1979 In the late 1970s AIP had turned to producing relatively expensive films like the very successful Amityville Horror and the disastrous Meteor in 1979 The studio was sold off and dissolved as a moviemaking concern by the end of 1980Cook 2000 pp 32324 Despite the mounting financial pressures distribution obstacles and overall risk many genre movies from small studios and independent filmmakers were still reaching theaters Horror was the strongest lowbudget genre of the time particularly in the slasher mode as with The Slumber Party Massacre 1982 written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown The film was produced for New World on a budget of 250000Collum 2004 pp 1114 At the beginning of 1983 Corman sold New World New Horizons later ConcordeNew Horizons became his primary company In 1984 New Horizons released a critically applauded movie set amid the punk scene written and directed by Penelope Spheeris The New York Times review concluded Suburbia is a good genre filmCanby 1984 Larry Cohen continued to twist genre conventions in pictures such as Q aka Q The Winged Serpent 1982 described by critic Chris Petit as the kind of movie that used to be indispensable to the market an imaginative popular lowbudget picture that makes the most of its limited resources and in which people get on with the job instead of standing around talking about itPetit 2005 p 1481 In 1981 New Line put out Polyester a John Waters movie with a small budget and an oldschool exploitation gimmick Odorama That October The Book of the Dead a gorefilled yet stylish horror movie made for less than 400000 debuted in DetroitCost per Bruce Campbell cited in Warren 2001 p 45 Its writer director and coexecutive producer Sam Raimi was a week shy of his twentysecond birthday star and coexecutive producer Bruce Campbell was twentythree It was picked up for distribution by New Line retitled The Evil Dead and became a hit In the words of one newspaper critic it was a shoestring tour de forceDavid Chute Los Angeles HeraldExaminer May 27 1983 quoted in Warren 2001 p 94 One of the most successful 1980s B studios was a survivor from the heyday of the exploitation era Troma Pictures founded in 1974 Tromas most characteristic productions including Class of Nuke Em High 1986 Redneck Zombies 1986 and Surf Nazis Must Die 1987 take exploitation for an absurdist spin Tromas bestknown production is The Toxic Avenger 1984 its hideous hero affectionately known as Toxie was featured in three sequels an upcoming reboot and a TV cartoon series One of the few successful B studio startups of the decade was Romebased Empire Pictures whose first production Ghoulies reached theaters in 1985 The video rental market was becoming central to B film economics Empires financial model relied on seeing a profit not from theatrical rentals but only later at the video storeMorrow 1996 p 112 A number of ConcordeNew Horizon releases went this route as well appearing only briefly in theaters if at all The growth of the cable television industry also helped support the lowbudget film industry as many B movies quickly wound up as filler material for 24hour cable channels or were made expressly for that purposeBerra 2008 p 74 1990 年代 到了 1990 年，美國電影的平均成本已超過 2500 萬美元。當年上映的九部美國票房收入超過 1 億美元的電影中，有兩部在 1970 年代後期之前嚴格來說屬於 B 級片：《忍者龜》和《狄克崔西》。另外三部 科幻驚悚片《魔鬼總動員》、充滿動作的警匪驚悚片《終極警探 2》和當年最受歡迎的兒童喜劇《小鬼當家》 也更接近傳統的 B 級片，而非經典的 A 級片主題。 Dick Tracy literally had been B movie materialthe character was featured in four lowbudget RKO films in the 1940s For how espionage and crimebusting thrillers were long widely regarded as nothing more than Bmovie fodder see Chapman 2000 pp 4650 家庭電影的日益普及、有線電視和衛星電視上得以收看未經剪輯的電影、以及與日俱增的房地產壓力，使得作為獨立電影主要發源地的那種小型或非連鎖影院的生存更加困難。Heffernan 2004 p 225 汽車戲院也迅速從美國景觀中消失。Finler 2003 p 379 倖存的 B 電影以各種方式適應著。特羅馬娛樂製作的電影現在經常直接跳過院線發行。新線影業在成立最初十年中，幾乎完全是低成本獨立電影和外國型別片的分銷商；隨著剝削片老手衛斯克萊文原創的《半夜鬼上床》（1984）取得巨大成功（新線影業直接投入近 200 萬美元的成本），該公司開始穩步轉向更高預算的型別片製作。1994 年，新線影業被出售給透納廣播公司；它很快成為一個中型工作室，並與華納兄弟一起在時代華納集團內運營。Finler 2003 pp 287 290 次年，Showtime 電視網推出了《》，這是由製作的 13 部有線電視首映系列電影。《紐約時報》的一位評論家發現，一開始的作品被稱為 復古的科曼 從裸露的女性乳房到令人興奮的湯瑪斯曼在《魂斷威尼斯》的引述都含在內。OConnor 1995 在放映 B 級片的戲院消失的同時，獨立電影運動興起；結果就是低預算型別電影和 精緻 藝術電影之間的各種交叉。導演阿貝爾費拉拉以暴力 B 級片（如《》（1979）和《》（1981））聞名，他在 90 年代初拍了兩部電影，將剝削電影常見的性、毒品和一般猥褻描寫與對榮譽和救贖的複雜審查相結合：《》（1990）得到了一群主要為小型製作公司的支援，《》（1992）的 180 萬美元成本則完全獨立出資。Johnstone 1999 p 16 的小預算怪獸電影，如《No Telling》（1991）和《》（1997），分別重構經典型別主題 科學怪人和吸血鬼 以探索與當代相關的議題。King 2005 pp 167 17075 大衛柯能堡的《》（1996）預算為 1000 萬美元，雖然不算 A 級，但也算不上 B 級。這部電影的意像是另一回事：大衛柯能堡的《》在其令人震驚的表面上暗示了剝削片最令人不安的病態 評論家寫道。Maslin 1997 如同《》由一個製作公司財團資助，它由在美國發行。此結果反映了電影對定義的混亂：是新線影業的子公司，最近併入華納媒體 具體來說，它是舊剝削片發行商的藝術部門。Mottram 2006 pp 19798 Wyatt 1998 p 78 For details of the films distribution see Lewis 2002 pp 28688 由昆汀塔倫提諾以 850 萬美元預算執導的《黑色追緝令》（1994），藉由成為極具影響力的大片，正如詹姆斯莫特拉姆（James Mottram）所描述：憑藉其實驗電影的敘事結構、B 級片主題和好萊塢演員陣容，這部電影是三種不同電影傳統相交的軸心。Mottram 2006 p 75 21 世紀以降的轉型 到千禧年之際，製作一部美國電影已平均需耗時三年並花費超過 5000 萬美元成本。2005 年，美國票房前十的電影中，包含三部改編自兒童奇幻小說、一部延續及一部開啟系列電影（分別是《哈利波特：火盃的考驗》和《納尼亞傳奇：獅子女巫魔衣櫥》）、兒童動畫片（《馬達加斯加》）、漫改電影（《蝙蝠俠：開戰時刻》）、科幻系列電影續集（《星際大戰三部曲：西斯大帝的復仇》）、科幻改編電影（《世界大戰》），以及翻拍電影《金剛》。對科曼來說，這是漫長的一年：他只製作了一部電影，還沒有在美國上映，而過去十年他參與的大多數電影亦是如此。See eg 隨著高成本製作的好萊塢電影進一步取代傳統低預算型別片，B 級片品牌的生存能力受到嚴重質疑。《紐約時報》評論家警告說，B 級片的 俗氣、野蠻、罪惡的樂趣 即將 滅絕。Scott 2005 另一方面，最近的行業趨勢表明，傳統的 AB 分裂 在主要工作室的製作中重新出現，儘管有更少的 程式設計師 彌合差距。根據行業分析師阿方索馬龍 2006 年的一份報告，目前好萊塢電影的平均預算約為 6000 萬美元，如果將國內上映的行銷成本（僅限美國）考慮在內，則上升到 1 億美元。然而，我們現在正在目睹電影預算兩極分化成兩個層次：大型製作（12 到 15 億美元）和小眾電影（500 到 2000 萬美元）。 預計製作成本 3000 到 7000 萬美元的電影發行量將減少。 福斯於 2006 年成立了一個新的子公司 福斯原子能（Fox Atomic），專注於青少年面向的型別片。經濟模式為刻意的低成本，至少按照主要工作室的標準。根據《綜藝》的一份報告，福斯原子能的許多電影預算都保持在不高於 1000 萬美元。它還鼓勵電影製作人以數位方式拍攝 這是一種更便宜的流程，能產生更堅韌、更適合青少年的結果。並忘記明星。福斯原子能公佈的九部電影中，沒有一部是鼎鼎大名的。Zeitchik and Laporte 2006 新奇的 B 級片部門於 2009 年關閉。 正如《綜藝》的報導，近來的技術進步大大促進真正低預算電影的製作。雖然拍攝電影一直有經濟實惠的方式，包括超 8 毫米和底片，以及錄製到模擬 zhtw 錄影帶；zhcn 錄影帶； 上的 zhtw 攝影機；zhcn 攝像機，但都無法與 35 毫米膠片的畫面品質相媲美。如今數位相機和後製技術的發展，使電影製作者即便低預算也能作出亮眼的、而非必然 蒙上一層灰 的畫面品質與剪輯效果的電影。正如馬龍觀察到的，數位拍攝所需的裝置預算（攝影機、技術）大約為膠片的 110，大大降低獨立電影的製作預算。同時，（自 2000 年代初）數位電影的製作已顯著改善。 獨立電影製作人，不論拍攝型別電影還是藝術追求，發現儘管數位端對端的發行方法提供了新的機會，依然很難進入發行管道。以類似的方式，YouTube 等網站為展示低預算電影開闢了全新途徑。Rabiger 2008 pp 7 10 Davies and Wistreich 2007 p 5 同樣地，從 2000 年起，zhtw 電腦；zhcn 計算機； 影像技術的加速和應用以前所未有的速度持續著。這有助於做出以傳統手法成本過高的效果，特別是某些電影型別，例如使用越來越多 CGI 的災難片或怪獸電影。因此，這一趨勢刺激了面向大眾的 B 級片的增長。在這種情況下，瘋人院影業等電影公司或 Syfy 等頻道齊心協力開發 B 級片，有些公司甚至將此類電影作為其商業模式的關鍵部分。然而，許多此類電影的製作通常是為了利用更成熟的功能的成功。 此外，這一新方向同樣獲得羅傑科曼和吉姆懷諾斯基等資深 B 級片製片人的參與。 衍生術語 C 級片及更常見的 Z 級片指涉 B 級片裡逐漸降低的等級。與特定歷史現象相關的 汽車電影 和 這兩個術語現在常被視為 B 級片的同義詞。 C 級片 C 級片指品質比 B 級片更差的電影型別；在某些電影分類法中，C 級片指僅次於 B 級片的低等電影型別。1980 年代，隨有線電視興起，C 級片漸漸被視為低品質型別電影的代名詞，而這些電影大多進入有線電視市場。此後，C 級片中的 有了雙重含義：一方面指該類影片品質低於 B 級片，另一方面指有線電視英語 的首字母。電視劇《》（198899）C 級片的概念家喻戶曉，該劇第一年就在全國有線頻道播出（先是 Comedy Central 頻道，然後是 Syfy 頻道）。該劇更新了電視女主持人 30 多年前提出的概念，展示廉價、低等級的電影，主要是 1950 年代和 1960 年代的科幻題材及點出電影缺陷的配音評論。導演艾德伍德在這個意義上被稱為 C 級片大師，儘管 Z 級片可能更適用於他的作品。Oppermann 19961990 年代和 2000 年代，諸如 Sci Fi（及其 Sci Fi Pictures 製片公司）和 HBO 的型別節目頻道等利基有線和衛星頻道的迅速擴張，意味著當代 C 級片的市場，其中許多是直接在有線電視發行的電影 低預算型別電影從未在戲院上映。See eg Z 級片 Z 級片被用來描述品質遠低於大多數 B 級片甚至 C 級片的低預算電影。大多數被稱為 Z 級片的電影都是由電影界的邊緣運營商以極低預算製作的。1930 年代製作的微預算電影被認為可能是 Z 級片的前衛。See eg Taves 1995 p 323 導演艾德伍德的電影，例如《忽男忽女》（1953）和《外太空九號計劃》（1959） 後者經常被認為是 是經典 Z 級片的例子。後來的 Z 級片往往以暴力、血腥或色情內容為主打特色，幾乎沒有藝術追求，使得其中多數電影註定只能收費頻道上發行。See eg Quarles 2001 pp 7984 精神病電影 精神病電影是影評人邁克爾J韋爾登創造的術語 他被同行影評人稱為 邊緣電影歷史學家 代表那些常被評論機構鄙視或完全忽略的低成本型別片。該詞源於 1980 年的芝加哥邪典電影《》，該片主角為理髮師，他開發了以精神能量殺人的能力。根據韋爾登的說法，我一開始對這個詞的想法是它是由兩個部分組成的詞。Psycho代表恐怖電影，而tronic代表科幻電影。我很快地將這個詞的含義延伸為包括任何形式的剝削電影或 B 級片。 該詞在 1980 年代開始流行，隨著韋爾登的著作相繼出版，如《精神病電影百科全書》、《精神病影片指南》和《》雜誌，該詞陸續被粉絲和其他評論家引用。若遇到能作為坎普風欣賞的 B 級片，通常會以此術語強調對這些電影的關注與喜愛。See eg Schneider and Williams 2005 pp 2 5 Syder and Tierney 2005 pp 3435 5053 B 級劇 B 級劇是德國媒體學者在她的文章《從真、善、美到真正美的商品》（From the True the Good the Beautiful to the Truly Beautiful Goods）中使用的術語 德國 BTelevision 節目的觀眾識別策略，用 B 級片來比喻德國商業電視的發展，採用 廣告美學、每個參與者都散發著空虛的積極性，包含剪輯、柔焦和朗朗上口的音樂，以及 透過置入性行銷宣傳商品。舒馬赫指出，在 1984 年放鬆管制後，德國公共電視正要從巔峰滑落並逐漸被邊緣化，而新成立且在沒有社會合法性負擔的情況下運營的商業電視臺只關注盈利能力。為了建立和維持觀眾的忠誠度，這些電視臺播放真人秀、聳動新聞、每日肥皂剧、資訊娛樂節目、脫口秀、遊戲節目和軟調色情片。舒馬赫還在文中提及美國文化評論家尼爾波茲曼的著作《娛樂至死》，作者將電視節目比喻為廣告衍生品，並會形成 一種應被假訊息的訊息 錯置、無關、破碎或膚淺的訊息讓人以為自己懂了，實際上卻更加不懂。 與波茲曼一樣，舒馬赫指出，當代電視廣告通常是為了加強品牌忠誠度而非宣傳產品。電視廣播公司使用這種逆向行銷方法來宣傳電視臺自己。舒馬赫列舉三大具體原則：博觀眾眼球、使觀眾共情及抓住觀眾胃口來作為爭取市佔率的基石。RTL 電視臺以正面的方式描述建立觀眾忠誠度：RTL 為電視發現一個新東西：觀眾。 舒馬赫認為，觀眾忠誠度主要透過對熟悉的情感經歷及觀眾日常的問題來建立，這意味著私人電視臺主要播放私人的內容。這種方法的進一步發展促成真人秀問世，這類節目透過直接幹預參與者實際生活來創造現實。用理查德森尼特的話來說，這種電視節目的個性化和戲劇化促成了 公眾人物的墮落。 透過情感感受建立觀眾忠誠度的策略反映在可恥的 特別新聞 中，即 偏愛性和犯罪主題，採用高度情緒化的評論風格、剪輯美學及從犯罪片學來的配樂。例如，舒馬赫提到了《》，一個關於人類性行為的脫口秀，在 1990 年代由 NBC 一週播五次。標題本身包含了B 級劇的訊息：真實的人和他們真實的問題是這裡的焦點 舒馬赫認為。 提到大衛萊特曼和傑雷諾非常成功的娛樂節目，舒馬赫宣稱，每天在電視上看到脫口秀主持人幾乎成為家庭的一部分。不僅散播虛無，還散播安全感，主持人 提供我們日常生活一塊固定的部分 以及每日肥皂剧、每日資訊娛樂節目或每日遊戲節目。 吸引觀眾情緒和消費者的積極參與強化了B 級劇開拓市場的能力 舒馬赫總結道。 來自《》的埃瑞克亨利克森在評論電視劇《》時用 B 級劇 這個詞來描述那種不是 真的很棒 而是 剛好起作用的節目 儘管以有些尷尬且愚蠢的方式 成功娛樂觀眾，一週又一週地沿用相同角色，製作的模板情節擁有足夠原創性與獨特性來使它們變有趣並能分散注意力。 參考文獻 參考資料 Archer Eugene 1960 House of Usher Poe Story on Bill With Why Must I Die The New York Times September 15 available online Auty Chris 2005 The Amazing Colossal Man in Pym Time Out Film Guide p 34 Balio Tino 1995 1993 Grand Design Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise 19301939 Berkeley Los Angeles and London University of California Press Berra John 2008 Declarations of Independence American Cinema and the Partiality of 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Williams Tony 1996 Hearths of Darkness The Family in the American Horror Film Cranbury NJ London and Mississauga Ontario Associated University Presses Willis Sharon 1997 High Contrast Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film Durham NC Duke University Press Wood Robin 2003 Hollywood from Vietnam to Reaganand Beyond exp and rev ed New York and Chichester West Sussex Columbia University Press Wyatt Justin 1998 The Formation of the Major Independent Miramax New Line and the New Hollywood in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema ed Stephen Neale and Murray Smith pp 7490 New York and London Routledge Zeitchik Steven and Nicole Laporte 2006 Atomic Label Proves a Blast for Fox Variety November 19 available online 外部連結 B 級片在開放式目錄上 B 級片怪獸生物學 由芝加哥大學邁克爾拉帕博拉教授統計 B 級片專家的採訪 The Astounding BMonster Archive Badmoviesorg Interviews Rogue Cinema Search My Trash Category 電影術語 Category 電影型別