# What was the last black and white studio film made for budgetary reasons?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-black-and-white-studio-film-made-for-budgetary-reasons/728582>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 23, 2015, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-black-and-white-studio-film-made-for-budgetary-reasons/728582 "2015-08-23T04:40:49Z")\
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**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-black-and-white-studio-film-made-for-budgetary-reasons/728582/41 "2015-08-29T01:49:05Z")

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> [@Spoke](#):
>
> **The Last Picture Show** (1971) was shot in black and white. As I understand it, that was for a mix of budgetary and artistic reasons.
> 
> It was Peter Bogdanovich’s first studio movie, so I am sure he was on a tight budget. But he has also said the black-and-white decision gave the film a more nostalgic feel. (He also used black-and-white for his subsequent nostalgia movie Paper Moon (1973).)

Peter Bogdanovich was on the most recent episode of Marc Maron’s _WTF_ podcast and was asked why he made it in black and white.

As told by him, when he got the movie he discussed it with Orson Welles and said he wanted to get the same deep focus that had been used in _Citizen Kane_ and Welles told him he’d never be able to get it in color. Bogdanovich said “but we have faster film now, can light it brighter” but Welles insisted it couldn’t be done. “I don’t think they’d let me do it in black and white” to which Welles said “have you asked?”

So he went to the studio and asked. And sold it as helping to get the period feel he wanted. The studio guy pretty quickly agreed and when Bogdanovich asked him later why he was so quick to agree, was told it was because it seemed like an interesting novelty.

When Maron asked if it was cheaper too, Bogdanovich said only marginally. So budget doesn’t seem to have played any role in the decision for anybody involved in making it. At least as told 45 years later.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-black-and-white-studio-film-made-for-budgetary-reasons/728582/42 "2015-08-29T02:08:47Z")

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The talk about color movies being reduced to black and white did remind me that a lot of film used in WWII was shot in color, but many do remember seeing that footage in B&W.

When the footage came to the news producers of the day, any color film was reproduced in B&W for the Newsreels and it was the newsreels and the still prevalent B&W movies of the day that used stock footage (also converted to B&W) what everybody remembers.

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