- published: 08 Oct 2009
- views: 1370122
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity; on the other, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient. In some cases, both may be true.
In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the top-billed films they were paired with, many had running times of 70 minutes or less. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics.
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.
Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.
Caught a ride into South Dakota,
With two girls in a light blue Desoto,
You know one's name was Jane,
The other was plain,
But they both had racing motors.
Next I caught a ride with a gamblers wife,
She had a brand new laid down Rambler.
She stopped outside of town,
Laid the rambler down,
Said she sure could dig it if I rode her,
Said she sure could dig it if I rode her.
Doing my best to get back to you,
Ain't nothing' I'd rather do.
Look for me Sunday,
Gonna be there, honey,
With something special just for you.
Yeah a little something special just for you.
At a truck stop for toothpick and water,
Caught a ride with a fruit picker's daughter,
I drove her through the night,
While the fruit got ripe,
She gave me all I could eat for a quarter.
Next I hopped a train with a hobo woman,
Said she was from Texas too.
The way she did, what she did,
what she did, what she did to me,
made me think of you.
Yeah honey made me think of you.
Doing my best to get back to you,
Ain't nothing I'd rather do,
Look for me Sunday,
Hope I'll be there, honey
With something special just for you,
Yeah a little something special just for you
Bet all my money on a race horse baby
One they said can't lose.
Now I'm walking down here,
in the freezing rain
Trying to get to you, trying to get to you.
Doing everything I know how to do
I'm down here in the freezing rain, honey
Trying to get to you,
Yeah just trying to get to you.
Doing everything, everything I know how to do
Walking down here in the freezing rain, honey
Trying to get to you,
Yeah trying to get to you.
And I'm walking and I'm talking to myself
And it's raining and I'm freezing me to death
thinking 'bout you babe