The latest category of content the Warner Archive Collection has been working to restore and release is the \u2018B\u2019 movie genre.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the movies fans love to hate July 19 at San Diego Comic-Con International were Warner Archive Collection podcast hosts George Feltenstein, Matthew Patterson and D.W. Ferranti, joined by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin and screenwriter Josh Olson, who contributes to Trailers From Hell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are several definitions of \u2018B\u2019 movies,\u201d Maltin said. \u201cMost people think of them as tacky films; that\u2019s the new definition.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Maltin explained the origins of the \u2018B\u2019 movie came out of 1930s Hollywood, when during the Depression the studios created double features so moviegoers could get two movies for the price of one.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut one was an \u2018A\u2019 movie and one was a \u2018B\u2019 movie,\u201d Maltin said.<\/p>\n
The studios produced them slickly and cheaply, he said, and in the 1960s, Feltenstein added, there was even a \u2018B\u2019 movie unit at Warner Bros.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese films deserve no mercy,\u201d Maltin said. \u201cEven though they were made by creditable people, they\u2019re terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Movies such as Queen of Outer Space with Zsa Zsa Gabor, Sex Kittens Go to College with Mamie Van Doren, Wild Wild Planet, The Cyclops, The Hand, The Beast With Five Fingers, Mitchell, The Five Man Army and many others are now being restored for release on Warner\u2019s new subscription streaming service Warner Archive Instant (instant.warnerarchive.com).<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these movies haven\u2019t been seen in decades,\u201d Feltenstein said. \u201cThank God for the ones that didn\u2019t get thrown out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Maltin and the rest of the panel in no way intend to completely dismiss these films.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not making fun of them,\u201d Maltin said. \u201cWe\u2019re just enjoying the results in a way they didn\u2019t intend.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a buff and a veteran collector, Maltin said just having access to these movies is value in itself from a film history perspective as well as to see a filmmaker\u2019s entire body of work.<\/p>\n
One \u2018B\u2019 movie from a director who went on to make an Academy Award winning film is The Green Slime from Kinji Fukasaku (Tora! Tora! Tora!). This film will be made available on Warner Archive Instant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to read an obscure play from Shakespeare, you can go to the library and find it,\u201d Maltin said. \u201cMovies are not considered the same as art and literature. Why shouldn\u2019t everything be available?\u201d<\/p>\n
One film Maltin is most excited to see get released is The Phynx, he said, which was completed in 1969 and set for a 1970 release. But the film was shown only at a press screening that Maltin missed, and Warner shelved it, piquing Maltin\u2019s curiosity ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow bad could it be to not ever get released?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The movie is about a rock group formed to rescue American pop culture heroes such as the Lone Ranger, Tarzan, the Bowery Boys, Col. Harland Sanders, Richard Pryor, James Brown, Busby Berkeley and many, many others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so bad, it\u2019s bad. You only have to see it once, and then you can scratch it off the bucket list,\u201d Maltin said. \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for Warner Archive, I wouldn\u2019t have ever seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the films that also will be available for the first time on DVD in addition to the streaming service are Tormented, The Beast With Five Fingers and The Frozen Dead, which will be released in color \u2014 the studio was too cheap to theatrically release the movie in color \u2014 Feltenstein said.<\/p>\n
Warner is also in discussions to release The Curse of Frankenstein from Hammer Studios on Blu-ray. The film is already available in high definition on the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the best movies ever made are \u2018B\u2019 movies,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n
Warner Archive Instant is available for $9.99 a month, with a two-week trial available.