Why are these movies from the 30’s and 40’s only about 1 hour long?
I started noticing on the earlier John Wayne movies from the 1930’s and 1940’s that a lot of movies from that period are only about an hour long. Why is this? Some are even as short as 47 minutes! Most in my collection are between 50 and 59 minutes. I think some of the Bela Lugosi movies are the same way.
The double-feature idea was my first guess but I know drive-in double-features where often full length so I wasn’t sure.
The reason the movies from that era are shorter is because at the theater not only did they show a movie, but also newsreels. the radio and theater were the only method of letting the public know what was what with war, politics, etc.
From an oldie.
Giant Gremlins Attack – Gremlins 3 warmup