A new term, “ double feature” came into prominence as the theaters started to offer two movies at the price of one, the second one being a low budget, B or C grade movie. A scheme of events evolved and the minor players of Hollywood studios started focusing on quickly made, “ cheap” movies to be shown at theaters running with tight austerity measures to save their necks in the battle. The Hollywood was undergoing a turbulent transformation and everyone was on their edges to survive in the highly volatile scenario. The history of B and C grade movies can be traced back to the late 20s, the end of the silent era in Hollywood. Moreover, every industry enjoys its own history and characteristic genre features for B and C grade movies, which are shaped according to the moral, cultural, political, and social variants of the society in which the industry functions. A complex system of C grade movies is all the more vulnerable to such a mishap because of its numerous, and often overlapping, subgenres.
Even though boxing movies into genres is an inevitable part of cinema history, the very act allows certain movies and personalities escape or lost through the cracks. But, the scholars often attribute certain genre specifications to them like low budget, poor publicity, lecherous, dark, and cheap entertainment.
The evolution of C grade movies is diverse and complex, according to the cultural background and visual history of a particular movie industry. The origin, propagation, and consumption of the B and C grade movies are rooted in this fathom level of seeing and are guided by the influential and decisive forces of capital. These multiple possibilities of gazes in cinema make it a complex system of psychological warfare, which depends on which side the perception falls into. While watching a movie, the spectators can watch the characters, the characters can watch each other or the spectators and last but not the least, the filmmaker can watch either the spectators or the characters.
There are a number of gazes possible in cinema, irrespective of its genre or nationality. The sequence had many interpretations of the critics, and the important one among them was concerned about the “gazes” in cinema. In the next shot, he stumbles upon a fully packed cinema, with the faces of the spectators are immersed in the inevitable darkness. Once located the right place, he drills a hole with his index finger, opens a door and steps in. “Eyes Without A Face”, The Obscured World of Indian C Grade Moviesįrench filmmaker Leos Carax’s 2012 movie, Holy Motors, opens up with a man, Carax himself, waking up and searching for a keyhole in a wall that resembles a forest.
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