Originally Posted by julian_craster

Truly, madly, cheaply : British 'B' movies

It is good news that the BBC is covering neglected areas of British film history. Some of this documentary was very good, some parts very bad. The chapters on 'Quota Quickies' and 'Variety' were excellent, the latter featuring an informative and entertaining interview with Roy Hudd. Other good contributers were Michael Winner, Patricia Laffan, and Adrienne Fancey. Some of other interviews were a complete waste of time and money. There was no need to interview Sir Kenneth Baker just to chat about 'Henry V' (1943) and to discover that the Tories abolished the Eady levy. The programme was weak editorially :any problems of definition were dismised by Matthew Sweet, who suggested ignoring the 'technical definition' to consider the 'cultural context', so a film can be considered a 'B' movie if the viewer sees it that way (or if the presenter likes it, and even more to the point, if the producers can obtain some cheap clips...). This was allowed to determine much of the content. And it would have been so much better if the producers had determined a cut off year of 1965. Top of the bill movies such as 'Konga' and 'Trog' fall outside the classic 'B' film remit, and COI wartime documentaries (cut the irelevant Sir John Mortimer interview) and 1970s exploitation films are sufficiently distinctive to be the subjects of their own one hour programmes, and really had no place in this one. Others such as writer Brian Clemens could have made a much more valuable contribution. At the same time, more substantial areas were ignored: 'Them Nice Americans' (the1958 film) would have made a nice lead into a chapter featuring the numerous US and Canadian actors slumming it in London by starring in British 'B' films, and major producers such as the Danzigers (producers of 50 'B' films between 1954 and 1961) were ignored, apart from their untypical 'Devil Girl from Mars' (and why was this print so poor ? my Region 1 DVD is much better). The 'Scotland Yard' series (with Edgar Lustgarten) was briefly mentioned (but with no clips), and the 'Edgar Wallace' series (45 'B' films produced between 1960-63) was ignored completely. There was no mention of Baker and Berman or Hammer 'Bs'. All of these are far more representative of B film output of the 1950s than some of the featured films. It is also incorrect to say as Matthew did, that most 'B' films screened in UK cinemas were British, as persusal of the Monthly Film Bulletin will confirm. It it was also unfortunate that one could have read much his script in a Guardian article two months ago, so it seemed over-familiar. And why waste money on a clip from Olivier's 'Henry V' in a documentary on 'B' films, when we could have had more of the really interesting rarities, such as the first UK rock 'n' roll film 'Rock you Sinners' (1957) ? (but then I don't suppose the latter would have been prestigeous enough to engage Sir Kenneth Baker's time, and is perhaps indicative of how the producers got their priorities wrong). And the pot-porri of clips at the end of the documentary (almost as an afterthought) made one wish that these films had received more coverage in the main text. There is so much rich material here that hopefully, the BBC will commission 6 x 1 hour documentaries devoted to various aspects of aspects of the British 'B' film industry.

Originally Posted by charliekane

there was a suggestion that the UK film industry closed down at the outbreak of the war (Korda ensured that it didn't by making The Lion Has Wings and showing it to Churchill as evidence of how movies could help the war effort). To then give the impression that Henry V was somehow the film that restarted British cinema (it was made in 1944, for heavens' sake - what about The Archers, Carol Reed, Asquith et al throughout the war years ?) was completely inaccurate.

Originally Posted by charliekane

Think the programme to some extent just supported my theory (mentioned in an earlier post) that once someone has a 'reputation' within the BBC - however slight - as some kind of 'expert', then they are allowed to run on unchallenged and seemingly without anyone else proof-reading what they are doing.
- and, yes, Michael Winner was very entertaining

Originally Posted by penfold

You may not like his style, but he's on the side of the angels...would it kill you to support his efforts ???

Originally Posted by Hugo

I was quite surprised at his claim that Brando's The Wild One triggered off motorcycle gangs in the UK in the mid-50s when in fact this film was refused a certificate by the BBFC in 1954 and was not publicly shown in UK cinemas until 1968.

Originally Posted by penfold

The other side of this coin is - Matthew Sweet has earned himself a reputation, after Silent Britain, within BBC4 Arts which means he can pitch programme ideas to them that would be laughed out of the room if pitched by anyone else...so the fact that we have had any films of the thirties, forties or fifties shown on any BBC channel this weekend is thanks to Matthew Sweet.....
You may not like his style, but he's on the side of the angels...would it kill you to support his efforts ???

Originally Posted by charliekane

And no, it wouldn't exactly kill me to support his efforts, but I and others do wish he wouldn't get so many things wrong and, since you yourself have mentioned in the past how he does all his own research, he has no-one to blame for that but himself.

Ideally we should all be basking in the glow of a weekend of glorious movies and a well informed and entertaining documentary to accompany them but while the average viewer (if they watched it at all) might have found it all rather quaintly amusing, the more knowledgeable members of this forum perhaps feel that it could have been better.

Originally Posted by Mark O

Can't say I've heard of some of these B-movies but they seem like fun!........Jackie Collins appeared in a couple B's, she's certainly kept her looks!

I'll set for 'those people next door' seeing as there's a couple of my fave women in it!

Those People Next Door (1953) - Full cast and crew