Arthur Lyons: DEATH ON THE CHEAP

Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir
Arthur Lyons
Da Capo Press, 2000

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Once film noir addicts have seen all the “A” movies like The Big Sleep or The Woman in the Window, they begin to dig deeper into the realm of “B” cinema, in which films were made as second features. (Any good film connoisseur should know that “B” refers to “budget”, not “bad”, as inexpensive films were made as second features for the good old days when a movie ticket bought two features, a serial, a newsreel, some cartoons, and if you came on Saturday afternoons, a free comic book!) Until now, as far as I know, there hasn’t been a comprehensive study on “B” noir, so for this alone, Death on the Cheap, is a valuable little book. While it is hardly exhaustive (and how could it be for such a slim volume?), it is an informative look at a lot of genre films that slipped through the cracks, and for that matter, away from people’s consciousness, over the years. The book opens with a nifty little history of the evolution of B movies (and current film writing needs something like this to correct the misconception of the term since Don Miller’s exhaustive tome, “B” Movies, is once again out of print), as to why the second feature had to exist. Then there is a concise history of the noir genre, in which he chronicles the progressions made within its “classic period”, generally agreed to be circa 1940 to 1959.

Although cine-nostalgists treasure the B movies as much as anyone would the A pictures, there were infinitely more bad or mediocre second features than good ones. Thus, the appeal of a B movie for any diehard cinephile would not be whether it was worth watching once, but if it was worth seeing more than once. To be sure, once you read one synopsis after another of the titles that Lyons has selected, you get to see just how derivative many of the B films really are, even for noir. After a few reviews, you’ll think that all there is to a noir film is everybody shooting everybody over money, and that the plots are full of coincidences. Yet for fifteen cents, audiences never really cared. (For completists, though, the appeal is not the formula, but in the ingredients.)

Indeed, his 150 reviews are heavy on the plot synopses and short of actual analyses. To the nostalgic movie buff, it may be enough that he has remembered to include some of the more elusive titles (the letter “V” at the end of a review signifies if it is available on video, and many of them are missing this symbol), as today, one’s only hope of seeing some of these elusive films is by chance on the late late show (if you still have one), or by selection in a cine-club. Perhaps it may be an extraneous task to over-analyze a bunch of films that finally blur together, but it is a disservice to dismiss each film’s appeal (or not) with one or two lines, and then to cap the review with a bit of trivia about its stars or its makers. But even so, Death on the Cheap is a fun read, especially for those who are interested in B cinema’s rich history during Hollywood’s Golden Age. As you turn the pages, you are gently reminded of those faces and names of hopeful starlets who fell short of making it on the “A” lot, or technicians who turned out B movies with the routine of changing a shirt, or those who never got to live up to their promise. Not too many film books today recall such names as Veda Ann Borg, Regis Toomey, Lew Landers or Reginald Le Borg… although they should. For that alone, this book is definitely worth having.

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Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #13 (“Noir”), and significantly, before a lot more B noir appeared on home video or YouTube.