Abstract
ABSTRACT: This essay examines the cinematic possibilities and reception of an important group of 35mm fine-grain, black-and-white, negative film stocks introduced in America in the period from 1937 to 1940. These new stocks included camera stocks, sound-recording stocks, duplicating stocks, and release-print stocks. All these new stocks were unprecedented in their ability to combine faster emulsion speeds with impressively fine grain—innovations in film manufacture that contributed significantly to improved images and sound quality in black-and-white theatrical films.