Girl of the Ozarks

"Girl of the Ozarks" is a film about a lonely little girl who just doesn't fit in at school. She comes from an impoverished family, her mother is extremely sickly and the child just needs some loving discipline. But instead, the school see tiny little Edie (Virginia Weidler) as incorrigible...though she's got a lot of promise and is actually rather sweet. In fact, the school keeps threatening to send her to the County Home (who would have thought the school had the authority to do this)! So what's gonna happen to her? See the film.

The film is sweet but also a bit saccharine and heavy-handed. It's not bad...but the more cynical out there probably would find it all a bit too much.

This is no comedy. From the depth of the depression, its a revolutionary movie about the relationship between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless. Virginia Weidler, as Edie, is the little girl of the Ozarks, a poor hill child whose mother is on her deathbed, whose grandmother supports the family shooting rabbits and quail. Mrs. Wilder, the school teacher treats her with the grossest abuse of power as she is made to stand in the corner on one foot the entire day, while the rest of the class laughs at her. The council, led by the rich merchant in the village, decides Edie is going to the county home, and no matter what Edie does, she is always blamed, always threatened and abused by a set of truly evil adults. In one scene, I don't blame 8-year-old Edie for pointing a loaded shotgun in their face. One can't come away from this movie without a deep feeling for the injustice done to poor, trampled upon children in America.... African-Americans, Hispanics and the rural poor will relate to this one.

Virginia is a very special child actress, a master in this movie. Unlike many of her era, she was am 8-year-old who could squeeze the last bit of emotion from the audience, eyes gleaming in one scene, dripping tears in the next... mischievous, adorable. Along with her big brown eyes, she could act. Viewers will also want to catch her singing "Old Dan Tucker". She sings it like a poor child really would and what happens during the song will break your heart.

Very good performances, especially by Virginia Weidler as the 8 or 9 year old Edie. A great scene was were Edie sent herself a number of Valentines (actually pages from her History book in envelopes with the name Edie Mosely on them). The teacher became suspicious because most of the other students ostracized or ridiculed Edie and the teacher herself harassed her because of her poverty.