@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:Wayne alwasy disgusted me. He started out making one reeler (i.e., fimls lasting 20 to 30 minutes) westerns for Republic.
Well, actually Wayne started out as an extra and bit player in silent films, and had his first major starring role in
The Big Trail for Fox in 1930. He later went to Republic when the major Hollywood studios cut back on westerns.
A reel of film is approximately 10 minutes long, so a one-reeler would be about 10 minutes, not 20-30 minutes. And Republic, as far as I know, never made one-reelers. Its feature films were usually five- or six-reelers, which meant that they were shorter than the major studios' features. That made them the perfect length for the second film on a double feature.