Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

Wednesday • 2010 April 21

Here's another interesting and specific film reference book: The British 'B' Film by Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane.

These days "B" is meant to describe any kind of supposedly schlocky movie, but it used to mean a movie that would play in a double feature before the "A" movie.

At least two of my favorite movies are featured inside, The Trollenberg Terror (a.k.a. The Crawling Eye) and Devil Girl from Mars (not technically a "B" film, apparently).

I'm lucky enough to have seen both of those on the big screen when I was a teenager! According to Chibnall and McFarlane, The Trollenberg Terror is "a spin-off from a television serial". I'd like to find out more about that.

This poster for 1958's Womaneater, "a deliciously far-fetched tale about a carnivorous 'devil' tree with an appetite for Vera Day" made me think of the Avengers episode "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green".

The authors note that it was "part of an unashamedly exploitative double bill with Blonde in Bondage ('In the spotlight she Strip-teased. In the shadows she collected her pay-cheque in shame!')".

Speaking of The Avengers, screenwriter Brian Clemens, who wrote many episodes of both that show and Danger Man, apparently spent years "churning out scripts" for Danziger Productions' 'B' films.

[Clemens] spoke affectionately of the time he spent with the [Danziger] brothers, and remembered how, before they built their own studios at New Elstree, they would use standing sets left over from bigger films: "they'd come to me and say, 'Look, we've got two weeks to shoot, so we want you to write something for these sets, a 70-minute second feature, and it must have the Old Bailey, a submarine and a mummy's tomb in it.'"

Edwin Astley, one of my favorite soundtrack composers (Danger Man, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Saint, etc.) also worked for the Danzigers. The authors single out his music for a movie called Naked Fury as an example of how his "sympathetic and unobtrusive score … would enhance the action". They also mention that he was Pete Townsend's father-in-law, which was news to me.

Fans of the Goon Show will find Harry Secmobe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan in here.

Michael Caine also makes an appearance, early in his career.

Ultimately it's all about money, and the authors give the finances their attention. Here's the Final Statement of Production Cost for The Diplomatic Corpse.

Strongroom looks good.

Great book! And since it's in English (unlike Segretissimi), I might actually read it.