I appreciate the insightful remarks of James Schamus and Harriet Margolis in response to my noting postmodern traces in 1930s and 40s low budget filmmaking. James is quite right to question my implied valorization of "self-consciousness". What I should have more carefully indicated was the belief that some of the "B" (for lack of a better word) filmmakers were indeed intentionally either artistically or for other reasons stretching the bounds of convention in narrative and-or visual technique. I noted this in the perhaps mistaken anticipation that the assumption would be that such filmmakers would be regarded as merely after the bottom line, getting the picture ground through on time and moving automatically to the next project with little if any creativity. Harriet and James have also effectively noted the multiplicity of methodologies in approaching such popular culture. Brian Taves Motion Picture Division, Library of Congress Tavesmail.loc.gov P.S. These opinions may or may not reflect those of the Library.