Afternoon Film Festival

Troubling aspects

The series faced several persistent handicaps. NBC's Matinee Theater occupied the same daily time slot, offering live one-hour dramas in color, a novelty at the time, while Afternoon Film Festival aired all films in black-and-white, even those originally shot in color. Color films were not broadcast in color on network television until the 1961-62 season. A second disadvantage was the limited number of films in the Rank package, which forced frequent reruns.

For example, The Cruel Sea, first shown on January 17, 1956, was rebroadcast ten days later; A Run for Your Money and Always a Bride, both debuting in the first week, were rerun two weeks later. The quality of the product also proved problematic. Although the series included prestigious titles like The October Man and The Way Ahead, most films held low-to-moderate critical and popular appeal, such as entries from The Huggetts series, Stop Press Girl, It's Not Cricket, and Third Time Lucky.

At a spring 1956 meeting of the TV Editorial Advisory Board, a questionnaire revealed that a sizable plurality of respondents feared these shows might become a dumping ground for Grade B, C, and D pictures, expressing that television should be more than a fifth-rate movie house.

First broadcasts, week by week (1956)

In the first six weeks of the run, 13 out of 30 broadcasts were reruns, nearly half. During the next few weeks, four out of every five showings were repeat telecasts. This trend continued until late March, when a spate of fresh titles was secured, but the supply soon dwindled, forcing heavy reliance on rebroadcasts. New titles trickled in at roughly one per week. Occasionally a notable entry, such as Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going!, made its bow, but the combined lack of quantity and quality became the rule throughout the 19-month run.