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Child Bride

  • 1938
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 2m
IMDb RATING
4.5/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
Bob Bollinger, Dorothy Carrol, Diana Durrell, Shirley Mills, Warner Richmond, and George Humphreys in Child Bride (1938)
Home Video Trailer from Alpha Video
Play trailer1:02
1 Video
16 Photos
Drama

A schoolteacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying underage girls.A schoolteacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying underage girls.A schoolteacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying underage girls.

  • Director
    • Harry Revier
  • Writer
    • Harry Revier
  • Stars
    • Shirley Mills
    • Bob Bollinger
    • Warner Richmond
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.5/10
    1.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Harry Revier
    • Writer
      • Harry Revier
    • Stars
      • Shirley Mills
      • Bob Bollinger
      • Warner Richmond
    • 27User reviews
    • 22Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Child Bride
    Trailer 1:02
    Child Bride

    Photos16

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    Top cast10

    Edit
    Shirley Mills
    Shirley Mills
    • Jennie
    Bob Bollinger
    • Freddie
    Warner Richmond
    Warner Richmond
    • Jake Bolby
    Diana Durrell
    • Miss Carol
    Dorothy Carrol
    • Ma Colton
    George Humphreys
    • Ira Colton
    Frank Martin
    • Charles
    George Morrell
    George Morrell
    • Mike Nulty
    • (as Rex Baxter)
    Angelo Rossitto
    Angelo Rossitto
    • Angelo
    • (as Don Barrett)
    Al Bannon
    • Happy
    • Director
      • Harry Revier
    • Writer
      • Harry Revier
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews27

    4.51.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10edward_evans-2

    Eager to have it in my collection

    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.
    5dav07dan02

    Child Bride

    Director: Harry J. Revier, Cast: Shirley Mills, Bob Bollinger, Warner Richmond, Angelo Rossitto.

    1930's "exploitation" film about the backwoods/backward people of the Ozarks where it is considered acceptable for much older men to marry young adolescent girls. The local school teacher,with the help of her assistant D.A. boyfriend, are trying to have this practice stopped. Anyhow, young Jenny(played by Shirley Mills) is forced to marry much older Jake(played by Warner Richmond). Without giving away the story, Jake blackmails Jenny's mom into letting him wed her daughter.

    The way the hillbillies are portrayed in this film is amusing. I got a kick out of the dilapidated old schoolhouse with pigeons on the rafters! Other reviewers have made comments about the nudie skinny dipping scene. There is nothing about it that should trouble anyone. There is a huge difference between pornography and nudity. Yes Shirley Mills was just twelve years old in this movie but there absolutely nothing pornographic in this film. She is simply skinny dipping. It does show her nude going into the water but it is brief and in no way distasteful. The swimming scene alone would not have made this an exploitation film. It is the overall content that makes it so. The idea of old men trying to marry little girls.

    The is actually a rather interesting film and the acting although not "Gone With the Wind" material is actually alright. It certainly has a uniqueness about it that keeps the viewer interested in spite of its low budget. This is the only film for most of the actors. Warner Richmond has been in numerous films and Shirley Mills did about a handful of other films including The Grapes of Wrath. I might also add that Angelo Rossitto(the midget) has had a very long career in Hollywood. He has been in movies into the 1980's including Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. He was in Tod Browining's classic Freaks from 1932.
    astralknight

    a 72 year old mystery solved

    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
    Michael_Elliott

    Strange

    Child Bride (1938)

    ** 1/2 (out of 4)

    Incredibly insane film about mountain men (rednecks) who marry young girls to keep the population going. This film opens with a montage saying this is a warning to the public and it might have been but in the end this is pure exploitation. The shocking thing is that the film is actually very well made and the performances are right on the mark. The sexual nature towards the 10-year-old star is quite disturbing especially one skinny dipping scene, which has some nudity. There are some hilarious moments including a dwarf redneck, a school session with dumb kids trying to learn to spell and other stuff dealing with moonshine. Shirley Miles plays the young bride and her performance is wonderful and again, it's rather shocking too see the sexual nature and nudity. She would go on to star in The Grapes of Wrath.
    6CatherineYronwode

    Ozarks Exploitation

    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.

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    Related interests

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    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The only film the cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) refused to satirize after watching. During an interview, host Michael J. Nelson revealed that the crew considered the film "disturbing." In a separate interview with Frank Conniff, who selected films for the show, he cited it as the worst film he had watched as a potential selection for the show.
    • Goofs
      When Jennie walks to school she wears a light-colored collarless dress; in the next shot she wears a dark dress with a collar.
    • Quotes

      Charles: My job's done.

      Miss Carol: And mine's just starting.

      Charles: Darling, what do you mean?

      Miss Carol: Well, I can't be a child bride but...

      Charles: But what?

      [they kiss]

    • Crazy credits
      Angel Rossitto portrays diminutive moonshiner Angelo, but the credits identify him as "Don Barrett."
    • Connections
      Featured in Sleazemania III: The Good, the Bad and the Sleazy (1986)

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    FAQ15

    • How long is Child Bride?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 26, 1948 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Esclaves du désir
    • Filming locations
      • Columbia, California, USA(skinny dipping)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $24,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 2m(62 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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