Child Bride

Exploitation classic thats more humorous now then either titillating or shocking. This is an anti-child bride film. Yes there was a time when young, even preteen girls could get married to older men. This is the story of a young girl who may be doomed to suffer such a fate. A serious subject, the film is now very silly with some acting styles that went out of style in the early days of silents (Watch the scene when Jennie gets up in the morning and try not to fall on the floor laughing.) Give the film points for having some realer characters than many backwoods films coming from Hollywood, but take a few away since this film is really just an exploitation film. Notorious for a brief flash of nudity in a skinny dipping scene by the then 12 year old star (some prints excise it) its nothing even remotely titillating or sexy. Its actually done in such away as to be fleeting and not even clear. I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it except some people are shocked or horrified by it. The film itself is better than it should be, however its still not very good. As I said much of it plays more humorous than serious and its so creaky that you can see the machine like plot clacking away towards its conclusion where you end up on the edge of your seat waiting to see if Jennie will suffer a fate worse then death.(Its much less over the top than say a film like Reefer Madness where you can laugh at it, which takes away much of the fun) If you're a fan of creaky exploitation films give it a try. All others stay away.

This low-budget independent film is considered one of the most controversial accomplishments of all time, as it portrayed the nakedness of a 12-year-old girl in a sexual context back in the 1930s. However, I think calling it a "sexploitation" movie is an unfounded exaggeration. The scene is neither explicit nor tasteless, nor does it depict or insinuate the act of sex. It's just plain skinny-dipping in a pond. The film is about a rural environment where it is customary for parents to marry their minor daughters with significantly older men. The girl who escaped from there, later returns as a teacher and tries to stop this tradition. Whether the intention of the author was really to criticize this ill custom and draw public attention to it, or whether he simply used it as an excuse to make for that time shocking film, remains to be speculated. Interestingly, most of the actors in this film never filmed anything else. Exceptions are George Morrell and Warner Richmond with rich filmographies, Shirley Mills with a few more roles, and Angelo Rossitto, whose height of only 88 centimeters brought him a bunch of interesting roles, from the cult "Freaks" (1932) by Tod Browning to the role of The Master in the famous Master Blaster tandem from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985). The movie does not deserve any praise for its quality, but it's not badly done either. Certainly, it is worth a look as a curiosity.

6/10

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

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.

Like most savvy exploitation mellers of the thirties and forties this one has two versions.One with a hot reel and one with a soft reel. The version that seem more innocent and is on the Mill Creek Collection is the one with the soft reel that cuts out two minutes of the skinny dip scene.

The hot version is still available on some download sites(not sure about the Alpha version) and it definitely raises the eyebrows higher.It's not kiddee porn but it could be perceived as close to it especially with the insert of the leering Hill Billy.

Much like Reefer Madness this pretends to be a moral plea to remove injustice but it's merely an excuse to get around the Hays office and show a lot of cleavage and violence.These films got away with this by playing mostly small towns and roadshows or one night midnight shows in the larger cities.They were in and out before the law knew what hit em.

While not as dizzying or bee-zar as Dwain Esper's Maniac,Child Bride has enough weird elements as to make Reefer Madness seem tame.Several scenes are of the S&M variety and there are a lot of politically correct references to race and handicapped people.

On the whole this movie is just plain wrong but I enjoyed it immensely