Little Cigars (1973) User Reviews

Pretty Painful

[aimless-46 · 4/10 · 2 August 2005]

Another Viet Nam era veteran has commented about first seeing "Little Cigars" on a navy ship; I saw it in our base theatre. Playing to young captive male audiences in 1973 was pretty much the perfect venue for this movie. It played especially well to an audience that was drunk and/or stoned. Actually it's typical of the B-movie junk they showed the troops in those days-movies that did poorly on the domestic market and were quickly shipped to the military. It is not nearly as funny now as it was in 1973.

The premise is a troupe of midgets who travel around the country, performing as a kind of sideshow attraction and using their free time to steal from various places. The idea is to show various clever ways their size works to their advantage when breaking into a building. The writer quickly runs out of clever ideas and the capers get totally moronic. Even in 1973 we realized that the gang's advantage was also a major disadvantage because if they were seen they would be easily identified.

Angel Tompkins is the sexploitation factor, she had recently been featured in Playboy and that probably explained the above average attendance at our theatre. There is a MAJOR credibility problem with her hooking up with the lead midget (played by Billy Curtis). Not because he was a midget but because he looked about 80 years old. Good grief the guy played a munchkin in 1938. But even that was funny in 1973.

Tompkins was the Megan Fox of the 1970's, in that she had a negative charisma and a mean looking face that made her much more suited to bad girl roles.

Bottom line: My rating would have been a two but the movie is unique and Tompkins looks great. It's about as unprofessional looking as anything Hollywood put out in the early 1970's.

Strange, Fun Little Film

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 12 December 2012]

A gangster's former mistress (Angel Tompkins) hooks up with a troupe of circus midgets who, as a sideline, rob banks and casinos.

From producer Albert Band comes this very strange version of a gangster and/or heist film, with the criminals being midgets. That alone seems to be the selling point, and strangely enough it works. Angel Tompkins was hired on by Larry Gordon, and first-time director Chris Christenberry was a fan of hers and encouraged it. Band, oddly, seems to have been primarily the money, though he did help Gordon with casting.

I liked the attempt to give a nod to other, better films, especially the nice reference to "Dillinger" on the marquee. (I believe they were made by the same production company, but that might not be true.) And, lastly, I love how it dances around the R rating. Although there is the constant reference to sex and nudity -- and even gang rape at one point -- they never actually show anything and the language is relatively clean. So, it earns a PG despite clearly being an R-level film.

Tompkins recalls Christenberry having an alcohol problem on set, at one point almost falling off the crane. She also recalls having to teach the little people how to wash their hair, an act that earned her the unofficial title "Miss Little People". For the next thirty years, little people would approach her and thank her for making them feel normal.

It's okay, I guess

[pmtelefon · 5/10 · 15 July 2023]

I've been reading Quentin Tarantino's book "Cinema Speculation". He mentions a few movies that not only I haven't seen but that I have never even heard of. "Little Cigars" is one of those movies. Since QT mentioned the movie and it starred Angel Tompkins (who delivered a brief but memorable nude scene in "Chapter 2: Walking Tall"), I figured I'd give it a go. It's an okay watch. The cast is fine and Tompkins does look good. The cast members do a good job because they all play it straight. The movie, however, needed a better script. How many times can you show the gang doing robberies? Apparently a bunch. That's what most of the movie is. It gets pretty redundant after a while. I'm not going to say that "Little Cigars" is a good movie but I will say it's a lot better than "The Terror of Tiny Town".

A real oddity, unfortunately mostly forgotten.

[EyeAskance · 11 June 2004]

Angel Tompkins(grrrrr.....)stars in this dodgy modern retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", portraying a shifty waitress who falls into a life of crime with a band of midget grifters. Together, they turn their initial petty thefts into big-time capers which ultimately lead to very serious consequences.

Not at all the light comedy it was marketed as, though there are giggles in spots, the mien of LITTLE CIGARS borders more on seedy noir in a rather nontraditional and semi-exploitive way. Miles short of masterful, but a unique and quirky as hell B flick with considerable cult appeal.

5/10

Seems like a rough draft with no target audience

[dgaither · 3/10 · 2 March 2005]

This movie doesn't fit neatly into any category. It has elements of comedy, including slapstick, puns, sexual innuendo, and "witty" lines, but also contains foul language, brutal murders, robberies and assaults. Added to this lack of focus is terrible pacing. Some of this is the fault of the editor as he holds to long on a close-up of a character who has just said a "funny" line, but those extended pauses for laughs are present even when the scene does not cut away. I suppose the humor of the movie was supposed to derive from the surprise of seeing little people who are as nasty and cruel as everyone else. Even in 1972, this would not have surprised many people. This would probably have been a lot funnier if made a few years after the Wizard of Oz. The plot is nothing more than a series of "capers" that demonstrate the many clever ways you can smuggle a bunch of midgets into an establishment you are planning to rob. There's no indication of how or why this group of con artists suddenly become brutal armed robbers. There is nothing of the con artist subtlety in their later capers. What dramatic tension there is comes from trying to decide if Cleo (Angel Tompkins) really cares for Slick, or is just stringing him along. Since neither of these characters is sympathetic, it's hard to care to much about this.

Walked out

[redhairedlad · 1/10 · 21 September 2010]

When this movie was released, I was in the USAF, and Angel Tomkins came to our base for it's release there. She had been on some T.V. episodes, including a Bonanza that my wife and I liked in which she portrayed a pyromaniac. We were anxious to see the 'fire lady' and to see her act in something else.

I got to speak to her in person, and got a nice close-up photograph of other men fawning over her.

This move was so ridiculous in its ludicrous story, its shoddy production and sexual exploitation that we walked out! It may be the only film I ever walked out on.

You should watch this only if you want to feel creepy and as if you've wasted precious time.

A Tepid Comedy Salvaged by the Presence of Angel Tompkins

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 27 May 2022]

This film essentially begins with an attractive woman named "Cleo" (Angel Tompkins) robbing a mob boss and quickly fleeing the scene in her car. Needless to say, this infuriates the mob boss who orders a couple of his men to track her down and kill her. To that effect, they eventually stumble upon her while she is working at a roadside diner but after a sudden altercation she manages to escape again. Not long afterward, she takes up with a small group of thieves in a traveling carnival and under her leadership they begin a lucrative crime spree that spans multiple states. What they don't realize, however, is that each heist brings them closer to getting captured by either the law or the mobsters still pursuing her. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a rather tepid comedy which had just one saving grace--the presence of Angel Tompkins who was absolutely stunning. That said, those viewers familiar with her career might find this film somewhat entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Little Cigars was the second consecutive movie featuring little people I watched

[tavm · 7/10 · 21 June 2009]

Having just watched the little people musical western The Terror of Tiny Town, I decided to go next to fancast.com to watch Little Cigars which stars two of TTOTT's players: Billy Curtis and Jerry Maren. Other members of their gang include Frank Delfino, Felix Silla, and Emory Sousa. There's also a statuesque blond played by Angel Tomkins who reluctantly joins their carnival act when she runs from her former gangster paramour's henchmen. At this point, the movie becomes a series of heists that provide some suspenseful moments. Most of the time, however, there's some highly humorous moments involving size and sex and fighting. In fact, I loved the scene when the Curtis character attempts to get "girlfriend" Tomkins out of the bar by beating up on the guy sitting next to her especially after previously seeing him doing the same to "Little Billy" Rhodes in The Terror of Tiny Town! No great shakes but Little Cigars comes highly recommended for anyone with a taste for the unusual. P.S. Angelo Rossito was another little person who appears here as part of a member of those his size put in a police lineup. His best known movie was Freaks. Also in continuing to point out actors with connections to my birth town of Chicago, Simmy Bow was also born there and Walter Beakel was a founding member of The Second City there.

VERY strange AIP film

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 5 February 2005]

A gangsters former mistress (Angel Tompkins) is on the run from him after robbing him. She falls in with a midget acting group (called Little Cigars) who are also robbers. She teams up with them and starts falling for the head of the group (Billy Curtis).

As you can see this is an odd film---even for American International Pictures (AIP). In many ways this is an fun but ordinary caper film--the dialogue and plot would not be out of place in any generic film. It's just this is done with midgets. You think that might play with that more but they don't. There is some pretty explicit sex talk for a PG film and it's pretty obvious that Tompkins is sleeping with Curtis. And get a load of the very obvious sexual animation during the opening credits! The acting is just OK but Tompkins is pretty good.

All in all a strange film. It is fun and it moves very quickly but why have midgets in it and not use that aspect at all? Still it was enjoyable. I give it an 8.

Hilarious little moments

[yenlo · 19 August 1999]

There are some hilarious moments in this comedy caper about a group of circus midgets who rob banks and casinos. Billy Curtis delivers some great lines. Angel Tompkins puts in a good performance as a kind of moll for the midgets. I first saw this film while on board a US Navy ship. It was the ships evening movie and throughout the showing hilarious roaring could be heard from all the compartments on board that had TV sets in them.

Cool Midgets...Hot Babe , what more could u want!

[baphomet25 · 10/10 · 24 January 2005]

The little people in this movie are pretty funny, especially when they fight. The lead man (Curtis) is a self proclaimed Pimp of tall women.The best part of this movie is the Hot blonde,anyway a movie with a band of thieving little people and hot chicks is gonna be great no matter how u look at it. Now if your the serious type it's not all that great....but then again why would you be watching a movie with a band of midgets charming hot babes and on a crime spree across the country. The fight scene in the bar when Curtis goes to get his babe back from the tall men is really funny and that little dude is tough probably cause he was pumped up EO bars.

A Film That Doesn't Know What It Wants to Be

[Michael_Elliott · 21 August 2012]

Little Cigars (1973)

** (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining, if 100% bizarre, film from AIP has a gangster's moll (Angel Tompkins) leaving his controlling arms and hooking up with a gang of midgets. The midgets are involved in a small circus but the woman turns them into bigger criminals with a string of robberies. LITTLE CIGARS will probably entertain those who like off the wall material but there's no question that the overall film is incredibly uneven. The film never seems to know if it wants to be kid friendly fun stuff or if it wants to be a tad bit darker and aimed for adults. The strange mix just makes for an uneven film and this here is what really kills things. The kinder side of the picture is innocent enough as the robberies are all done in good taste and none of them feature anything too graphic to the point where you couldn't show the film to kids. However, the darker side of the picture deals with a lot of sexual innuendo between the moll and the midgets, which is somewhat strange to watch. There's also a twist at the end, which leads to an ending that I won't spoil but this too is a lot darker than the rest of the film. These two elements just keep going back and forth and I really wish the filmmakers had selected one and just went all out with it. Still, there are some good things here that make the film worth viewing. The biggest is the performance of Tompkins who really comes off well here. The sexuality of her character is something the actress pulls off with no problems and there wasn't a single time where I didn't believe her in the part. Billy Curtis is also good as the leader of the midgets and I really enjoyed the fire and passion he brought to the character. The rest of the midget actors all fit their roles just fine and certainly help keep the film moving.