References:
Detour & Gun Crazy Discussion Notes
"A" Pictures (Majors)
- Generally known studios (MGM, Warner Brothers)
- Generally first tier stars
- Publicity machine
- Owned Distribution
- Premiers
- Usually 80% of the take
Poverty Row (Minors)
- Sub-industry
- Republic - John Wayne Westerns
- Monogram - became Allied Artists
- PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation
- CBC - became Columbia Pictures
CBC
- Academy Awards - took top 5 (sweeping):
- It Happened One Night
- One Flwe Over the Coocoo's Nest
- Silence of the Lambs
"B" Pictures
- Little known production companies
- Westers, genre films
- Little or no publicity
- Low, low budgets
- Often films from Poverty Row
- Return at flat rate of $100 - $200
- Saturday Mattinees
- Double feature = "A" film + "B" film
- Modern day equivalent of a "B" film is direct to TV or DVD
Fil Noir
- Noir films were generally "B" pictures
- Classic Noirs - "A" pictures
- The Asphalt Jungle and Gun Crazy was a middle ground film
- By the 1950's the magors had "B" units (ex. MGM) and eventially Poverty Row dies off
Gun Crazy
- Directed by Lewis
- Well known
- Not released as a "B" film
- French see it as significant in film noir history
- Press reviewed in New York
- Had a premier
- Had some machine in place
- "B" Noirs could be elevated
Discussion Questions:
- Similarities and Differeces between Gun Crazy and Detour
- Evolution of film noir, what does Schrader say?
- Metaphor of the road in Gun Crazy and Detour
- Fasicination with "Lovers on the run"
- American Dream vs Waste Land
- Why is Detour a celebrated film?
- Visual representations of Waste Land in Detour
- Bofganovich and interview with Ulmer
- Unreliable narrator in Detour