Child Bride

The last time I was able to see this film was about three years ago. It was on tape and was on loan from a private collection. This is an excellent example of the moral genre of the period. The camera work shows great detail to use of light and position. I am eager to get this film in my collection and hopefully someone will see fit to put this on DVD.

This film deals with the subject of underage women (rather pre-teenage girls) forced into marriages with older men in the Appalachian mountains and the school teacher who is desperate to get a law passed to outlaw this procedure. She enlists the help of her boyfriend, who is an assistant district attorney.

The focus is on little Jennie (played by Shirley Mills at 12 years of age) who catches the eye of horrible (and much older) Jake when she is swimming naked in the river, and who then blackmails her mother into giving Jennie to him.

The biggest shocker is seeing Shirley Mills bare all in this movie, not to mention that she has already matured at such a young age. First you see her completely topless as she undresses to go swimming in the river (not a short clip either!), then extended shots of her swimming totally nude with her back to the camera, then later a full frontal shot of her in the water. Considering the standards back then as opposed today, it is unbelievable that whoever was handling Shirley Mills' career would have permitted her to do this type of filming, let alone Shirley having no qualms or shyness about doing these scenes - she appears totally natural and actually enjoying herself splashing in the water!

There is also some other brief nudity of Jennie's mother when Jennie's father is beating her up.

The film ratings were not around in 1938, but if they had been no question this would have gotten a minimum of an X rating. If this had been filmed today, it would be rated R, but a 12-year old girl being completely nude would never be permitted (in Europe, it would). It leaves you to wonder how on earth this was ever shown in theaters back then.

This is one of the strangest classic exploitation movies ever made, ranking with Chained For Life and The Terror of Tiny Town for sheer weirdness. The cast -- largely comprised of unknowns and non-actors, but also including popular Angelo Rossitto (aka Don Barrett) the dwarf -- portray a community of lascivious, drunken, lawless, moonshine-making Ozark hillbillies (in California, with Eucalyptus trees much in evidence) who want to marry little girls. Meanwhile, a schoolmarm, who has returned to her native hills to teach her fellow "mountain people" how to read, struggles against the evil custom of child marriage in a state that has, as yet, not enacted a minimum-age marriage law.

Most of the actors are not trained, but the central family of mother (Dorothy Carrol), father (George Humphreys), and daughter (Shirley Mills) are riveting in their realistic depiction of dirt-poor farm life. Mills' diction and gestures in this film were obviously influenced by the acting style of her famous contemporary, Shirley Temple, a fact that helped her project sincere distress during the more violent and emotionally wrenching scenes. Given her role here, and the naturalness with which she plays it, it is no wonder that Mills was later tapped to play Ruthie Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath." Angelo Rossitto, as a moonshine stiller, is at his athletic best here, clambering up and down the "Republic rocks" and engaging in an intense fight scene with a full-sized heavy, thus bringing his usual liveliness to an unusual role.

There is quite a bit of animal acting in this film, as it is set on a farm. The early morning scene in which Mills goes out to feed the pigs and gets into the pen to "rescue" a piglet, is very true to life, as is her family's stern response to what might seem to modern eyes as a cute child-in-the-mud scene: Pigs, especially sows with piglets, can be dangerous if angered, and the film-makers knew that well enough that they did not actually place Mills in confrontation with the sow; a couple of jump-cuts show us what happened. I also enjoyed the uncredited Alsatian Police Dog who played Ritz, a well-trained canine actor with dark fur and long ears who, unless my eyes deceive me, was a Rin-Tin-Tin relative or understudy. There are also a couple of very much UNtrained milk goats in this film -- a white Saanen and a black Alpine -- who stand nicely to be milked (obviously the role for which they were cast), but provide some over-the-top emoting during a funeral march, as they react with panic and a determination to buck, butt, or escape whenever the dog Ritz (who is very docile) gets near them.

"Child Bride" carries an explicit moral message -- "These child-marriages must be stopped!" -- but, like most exploitation films, it quickly subverts its own message, in this case with extended scenes of child nudity, as barely pubescent Shirley Mills frolics in a clear mountain pool with her German Shepherd dog. Despite the child nudity, which i frankly found disturbing as it went on so long and showed so many prurient repeat shots of Mills' backside underwater, there is some charm to this story, and enough plot twists to make it interesting. I think this is a movie that every fan of the obscure and off-beat, every fan of B-movies, and certainly every exploitation fan, will want to see.

A little movie about a serious topic. Child brides and the old men that marry them. We are not talking about 18 and 19 year old girls we are talking about 12 year old girls. The story centers around a schoolteacher who is trying to get this practice banned and young girl who some pervert who is already dating her mom got his eyes on and some local town folk who are either with the teacher or not. They are so threatened by her that one night, in the fashion of a KKK raid they steal her away in the night. All wearing hoddies to hide their faces they drag her off to some rock were lord knows what they were going to do. If she was not rescued we know it was something horrific because her clothes were torn almost all off. To me this scene is much more controversial then the 12 year old who tells her friend he can't look at her without any clothes on anymore when they go swimming. So she goes ahead and takes a dip with her dog. While the friends closes his eyes It was a very sweet scene, until we notice that leach who is fooling around with her mother is watching her every move. It would of been less realistic for her to be wearing a bathing suit at her age where they live at. In any case the moms boyfriend cooks up a blackmailing scheme so the mother will have to force her daughter to marry him. I am not going to spoil it for you because it is pivotal part of movie. It was also very touching about her little friend who was very upset and crying over her upcoming marriage. I felt so bad for him. He asks for help but the teacher can't offer any. It was looking pretty grim for all involved. But the teachers boyfriend comes to show her the law about child brides have been changed. And it was enacted 3 day prior so the marriage would be null. But the hubby is getting ready for the big night and it really doesn't matter about the new law. Something you we see why at the end. All in all it was a good little move. The lighting was bad. But other then that I say take a look if you can find it. I have Roku and one of the channels has all of these old movies. So that is how I got to see it.

I just thought I should share this amazing story with everyone. In 1938 or so... my mother happened upon the set of this movie and thought it was a ghost town... they used to go back to Sonora area (columbia) and try to find it (the set) and even look 'old timers' to interview, trying to find this ghost town. Well,,, the only thing they knew was that the schools name was 'Thunderhead Mountain School' ... Thanks to one of the reviews here, a search returned the name of that school and I was able to find the date (1938) and the location of its filming (Sonora area). A 72 year old mystery was solved... my mother was only 12 when they found that movie set.... now shes 83... She was so excited to here that the mystery was finally solved... thanks to one of your reviews mentioning the school in this movie... thanks again AK