B-movie
A B-movie is usually a low-budget movie crafted by second rate talents and starring lesser-known actors. In the past, these movies were the second feature on a double-bill. Some actors (such as Bela Lugosi) appeared mostly in B-movies. Today, many of these movies are highly regarded. Detour starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage, for example, has come to be considered as one of the greatest of film noirs.
B-movie Media
The "King of the Bs", Roger Corman, produced and directed The Raven (1963) for American International Pictures. Vincent Price headlines a cast of veteran character actors along with a young Jack Nicholson.
Columbia's That Certain Thing (1928) was made for less than $20,000 (about $297,791 today). Soon, director Frank Capra's association with Columbia helped vault the studio toward Hollywood's major leagues.
Stony Brooke (Wayne), Tucson Smith (Corrigan), and Lullaby Joslin (Terhune) did not get much time in harness. Republic Pictures' Pals of the Saddle (1938) lasts just 55 minutes, average for a Three Mesquiteers adventure.
Rocketship X-M (1950), produced and released by small Lippert Pictures, is cited as possibly "the first postnuclear holocaust film". It was at the leading edge of a large cycle of movies, mostly low-budget and many long forgotten, classifiable as "atomic bomb cinema".
Barbara Loden spent six years raising funds for the production of Wanda (1970), which was filmed on a low budget of $115,000.
Ed Wood's ultra-low-budget Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) is often called "the worst film ever made"