Grade B Studios Essay Research Paper As

Grade B Studios Essay, Research Paper

As a companion piece to the articles outlining the histories of the eight major film studios, this survey examines four low-budget studios. They produced mostly Grade-"B" films: genre efforts made quickly and cheaply for targeted audiences — usually young ones, whether it was the fare aimed at juvenile cowboy enthusiasts, provided by Monogram, PRC (Producers Releasing Company), and Republic during the 1930s and '40s, or the older teen crowds sold on AIP's (American International Pictures) horror or rock & roll movies (sometimes, horror and rock & roll!) of the 1950s and '60s. Critical recognition in their day was almost nil, but today all four are admired for having consistently entertained generations of film lovers. MONOGRAMThe history of Monogram begins in 1924, with the founding of the Rayart studio by its president W. Ray Johnston. After a few years of westerns, serials, and dramas, Rayart became Syndicate Film Exchange in 1928, and then Monogram in 1931; Johnston made Trem Carr the studio's executive director. In the early '30s Monogram attracted attention with the mystery The Thirteenth Guest (1932) starring Ginger Rogers and the literary adaptations Oliver Twist (1933) with Dickie Moore and Jane Eyre (1934) with Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive; but the studio's bread-and-butter were its many Western series, with such hard-riding heroes as Tom Tyler (Partners Of The Trail, 1931), Bob Steele (Breed Of The Border, 1933), and John Wayne (The Trail Beyond, 1934). In 1935 Monogram merged with Mascot Pictures and the processing lab Consolidated Film Industries to form Republic Productions, Inc. But the following year, Johnston and Carr withdrew over internal squabbles at Republic, and revived Monogram in 1937. Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) launched a short-lived series with Boris Karloff as an Asian detective. The Mongram mainstay continued to be Westerns, with such new series stars as Jack Randall (Riders Of The Dawn, 1938) and Tex Ritter (Down The Wyoming Trail, 1939). Monogram teamed former cowboy stars Buck Jones and Tim McCoy with Raymond Hatton for the "Rough Rider" series in 1941 (Arizona Bound; Gunman From Bodie), which was cut short the following year by Jones' tragic death in a fire. Johnny Mack Brown was teamed with Hatton for a successful Western series (Flame Of The West, 1945). Also popular were the "Cisco Kid" oaters with Gilbert Roland (The Gay Cavalier, 1946).Horror films became a Monogram specialty in the early '40s. Bela Lugosi starred in the British chiller The Human Monster (1940), which the studio released in the States; he then appeared in several Monogram scare films, most notably Invisible Ghost (1941), The Corpse Vanishes (1942), and The Ape Man (1943). Boris Karloff was a mad scientist in The Ape (1940), George Zucco held black-magic rites in Voodoo Man (1944), and John Carradine reanimated the dead in Revenge Of The Zombies (1943) and Face Of Marble (1946). Monogram's biggest success in the '40s, however, weren't horror films or Westerns, but rather the "East Side Kids" movies produced by Sam Katzman. Boys Of The City (1940), directed by Joseph H. Lewis and starring Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan, was the official start; by 1946, the series was retitled "The Bowery Boys" and began leaning increasingly on comedy, especially the antics of Huntz Hall in such films as Bowery Bombshell (1946) and Master Minds (1949). Monogram also revived the defunct 20th Centry-Fox series of "Charlie Chan" mysteries, starting with Charlie Chan In The Secret Service (1944), starring Sidney Toler as the Chinese sleuth. After Toler's death, Roland Winters took over the role in The Chinese Ring (1947), and kept up the series until the end of the decade. Just as Chan lost steam, producer Walter Mirisch teamed with writer/director Ford Beebe and actor Johny Sheffield (who'd played "Boy" in Johnny Weismuller's Tarzan films) for the popular "Bomba The Jungle Boy" series, including Bomba On Panther Island (1949) and Bomba And The Jungle Girl (1952). In 1945 Steve Broidy was elected Monogram's president and Johnston became chairman of the board. The following year, the studio formed Allied Artists Productions as a wholly owned subsidiary of Monogram, intending to release bigger-budget films under the new banner. What came out, however, were more cheap B-films. Although Monogram eventually renamed itself Allied Artists in 1953, it kept largely to the same product over the decade, making "Bomba" films until 1955 and "Bowery Boys" comedies until 1958. Several notable films did eventually emerge from Allied Artists in the '50s. Director Don Siegel and producer Walter Wanger made the prison drama Riot In Cell Block 11 (1954) and the science-fiction classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956). Allan Dwan directed the Korean War film Hold Back The Night (1956). Roger Corman produced and directed the 1956 shockers Attack Of The Crab Monsters and Not Of This Earth. William Castle, who directed Robert Mitchum and Kim Hunter in the acclaimed Monogram noir When Strangers Marry (1944, aka Betrayed), began to produce and direct gimmicky horror films with Macabre (1958) and House On Haunted Hill (1959). Other beloved Allied Artists scare fare includes Daughter Of Dr. Jekyll (1957), directed by Edgar G. Ulmer; The Cyclops (1957), written, produced, and directed by