Not a B-movie


This is not a "B" movie at all, as one of the reviewers on site has it. B movies at the time were budgeted very cheaply (from around $20,000 up to around $50.000), were generally no more than about an hour long, and usually featured B-movie specialist actors who might play out their whole screen career at this level. In contrast, I'd bet this film cost around $200,000 or so -- even at Warners' pinch-penny rates -- and featured two established leading men -- Lewis Stone and Pat O'Brien -- both quite popular primarily in A-movies, if not quite at major star level, one in a very gradual decline from silents, the other on a long rise; Bette Davis, well and truly on the rise by now and exclusively in A's, if not spectacular ones; and in a minor role, Glenda Farrell, who would indeed settle into B-movie 'stardom' though almost as popular at the box-office as stable-mate Joan Blondell. Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly and others of the cast were very well regarded supporting actors without the requisite "looks" of a star. All in all, Bureau Of Missing Persons (1933) rates as a more than respectable entry in the "A" release schedule of a major studio of the era though not in the classic class.

reply

It would be nice if people actually knew what those terms mean -- 'B movie', 'film noir', 'farce', 'screwball comedy', et cetera, et cetera -- before they used them, don't you think?

Though I should mention -- one minor quibble, forgive me -- at this particular point it was not uncommon for 'A' movies to run around an hour as well, so that should not be considered a signifier of a film's being a 'B'. Ten or fifteen years later, sure, but not in 1933.

reply