Child Bride (1938) User Reviews

Child Bride

[dav07dan02 · 5/10 · 17 June 2005]

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.

What the "Simple Folk" do.

[wingman35 · 4/10 · 16 February 2005]

Shot on the cheap using atmospheric scenery, decent set decoration and moody photography comes this expose' of the times. If you can endure the amateur acting and pedestrian script delivered by an ensemble cast of jug tippin mouth breathers, this film genuinely pack quite a wallop. Even more so now.

The story is set in a rural township deep in the Ozark hills where the adult men of the area spend their days standing around discussing how the "women folk" are getting fewer in number and that the town's under-age girls are "ripe for the pickin" as brides and laborers. One such fellow, Jake (Warner Richmond), sets his sights on young Jennie (Shirley Mills). He has already been intimate with Jennie's still married mother (Dorothy Carrol) and now has lust in his heart for the younger version.

To complicate matters Jake is in a partnership with Jennie's pappy(George Humphreys) operating the local still. They have a knock down, drag out brawl over money and Jake swears revenge after getting the tar whipped out of him.

Cut to the next scene where Jennie and her boyfriend Freddie head for the local watering hole for a little midday swim. This gives the filmmakers the opportunity to exploit young Jennie by showing her fully disrobing and taking an extended swim alone in crystal clear water that leaves nothing to the viewer's imagination. Heck, even Jennie's pet German Shepherd (unbilled) jumps in.

All of this frolicking around is observed by Jake leering from atop a nearby hill (with his mother, no less, standing right next to him!). Watching his reaction to the activities below is, in a word, disturbing.

In short order that night, Jennie's Pa is wounded by her Ma after a heated "throw-around" inside their cabin. This is seen by Jake who is lurking around outside, window peeping. He enters the cabin and finishes off Pa and then blackmails Ma by convincing her that she was the one who did the dirty deed. He'll get rid of the body and keep quiet if Ma consents to his taking Jennie for a bride.

The wedding ensues (you'll want to wipe "your" mouth when Jake kisses the bride) but Jake is shot and killed while preparing for his wedding night bliss. Who shot Jake? No, not Jennie. Not Jennie's Ma, and not young Freddie (even though he is outside the newlywed's bedroom window with his gun). And no, it wasn't Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy or Dopey. But you'd be getting close. To get the answer you'll just have to experience it for yourself.

How this movie passed through the censors remains a mystery. Shirley Mills (Incorrectly spelled "Miles" on the DVD box) was a mere twelve years old when the film was released. The frequent inuendo, stilted dialog, and the bare flesh exposed would never make it to the screen today, at least not using a real preteen and this storyline. Two years later Ms. Mills would play Ruthie in the John Ford classic "The Grapes Of Wrath".

This film gets a "4" for production but a "10" for sleaze.

Definitely one for the books!

Exploitation "classic" is more silly than shocking

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 18 January 2008]

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.

Intriguing Characters

[chow913 · 24 October 2011]

No this isn't a documentary about 21st century Utah or a grindhouse exploitation flick as the posters and DVD covers imply.

'Child Bride' is a surprisingly touching and powerful film. The production quality is very high and the characters are very intriguing.

Set in the rural mountains of an unknown state where people are dirt poor and uneducated we must admire their resilience and family bonds.

Much of it reminded me of 'VC Andrews' novel 'Heaven' except this time we're not routing for there to be any incest.

The local school teacher Miss Carol has devoted her life to ending child marriage. She even refuses to marry her fiancé an assistant district attorney until he successfully petitions the governor to sign a law against it.

But at the same time we can see the train wreck already coming for an innocent nymphet Jennie and her friend Freddie. (no Ys in this movie) Predictably after a series of unfortunate events Jennie is forced into child marriage with a dirty old man.

I said it's predictable that Jennie will encounter conflict but we still feel very deeply for her and the other characters.

SPOILER WARNING In the final moments of the film during Jennie's wedding night Miss Carol's fiancé proudly posts the new law banning child marriage. Miss Carol is delighted that the law came into affect 3 days ago thus voiding Jennie's marriage.

I expected the couple to rush in and save Jennie on her wedding night. But instead Jennie is saved by her 12 year old boyfriend Freddie simply killing her husband in cold blood and the film closes with him saying that now someday Jennie can be his wife.

Not that we're crying for the dead pervert but this seems to be stating that vigilante justice and not the law defeats evil?

"Child marriage must go!"

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 26 November 2007]

This just might be the creepiest movie I've seen to date, and not even for reasons posted in some of the other viewer comments on this board. The scene that got to me was the wedding ceremony near the end of the story with old Jake Bolby (Warner Richmond) all but licking his chops to get little Jennie Colton (Shirley Mills) home for consummation of the marriage. I don't doubt that stuff like this went on during the era represented, or that it might even be happening today under cover of darkest secrecy, but seeing it on display in this 'educational' format was downright horrific. As with the exploitation drug films of the 1930's, the film makers were attempting to hit the lowest common denominator on the prurient interest scale to make a quick buck and move on to the next subject. It seemed to be a prerequisite with the anti-drug films to include a dead body in the story for graphic punctuation, and so it was here too; impending child bride weddings cause suffering, pain, and even death.

Now on the other hand, I didn't seem to have as much a problem with Jenny's nude swim scene that most other reviewers had. Within the context of the story, it seemed like a natural thing to do at the time, probably the only way these mountain people ever got to take a bath. There was really nothing 'to see' in the version I watched, though I understand the Mill Creek DVD presentation is somewhat less graphic with a couple of missing minutes of footage. I'm almost tempted to go back to see if there was something I missed, but then I'd be part of that low end prurient interest faction, so I think I'll pass.

You know what else was pretty nasty? How about those pigeons dumping on the schoolbooks in the Thunderhead Mountain School classroom? I wonder if there was an exploitation film about the dangers of bird doo?

By the time the child bride plot device happens, the film is nearly over.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 19 June 2020]

These cheaply done "exploitation" films are usually only available in faded, grainy badly maintained prints where the sound is difficult to decipher the dialog. In the case of this supposed look at the plight of child brides of the backwoods, I was able to find a decent print which featured decent sound and picture quality, and had what was supposed to be a scandalous underage bit of teen nudity. Whatever it was is barely viewable, and the way that it is done is not remotely erotic in any way, You see young Shirley Mills hidden by leaves and other objects of nature as she dives into a lake while wearing no clothes, having ordered her same age friend Bob Bollinger to close his eyes. Unfortunately, she is spotted by the creepy Warner Richmond who uses the presence of Mills' dead father (George Humphreys) to blackmail her mother (Dorothy Carol) to allowing him to marry Mills. This leads to the most sickening wedding in movie history where you hope that one of Richmond's many enemies will shoot him before he can kiss his new bride.

There's only a few minutes of screen time with Mills and Richmond (a veteran character actor of B westerns), and Richmond isn't on screen long enough to even make any type of nightmarish impression. The moral of the story is provided by Mills and Bollinger's school teacher (Diana Durrell) who is kidnapped by the disgusting trolls of the town who fight her desire to end the practice of underage marriages (ridiculously underage in fact), and when she is seen after that abduction, she acts as if nothing took place when her boyfriend comes to take her away to be married. If anything, the whole idea is more scandalous than the movie, and the script is just plain bad with mediocre performances by most of the main cast. Fans of "Freaks" and the Bela Lugosi Monogram films will notice Angelo Rossito as the little person whom Richmond tries to throw into a lake in an earlier scene after he robs him. The bad script is barely able to hide the fact that these characters have absolutely no depth which makes the residents of Dogpatch U.S.A. (Li'l Abner's home) less cartoonish and real than the cardboard cutouts here.

Creepers Will Love It

[utgard14 · 2/10 · 13 January 2014]

Exploitation movie disguised as educational film about Ozarks hillbillies. The movie's supposed message is that it is anti-child marriage but that's a small part of the plot. The story revolves less around the child bride of the title and more around this one evil hillbilly (Warner Richmond) who keeps doing messed-up stuff. First he shoots his partner. Then he tries to take money from a dwarf and another guy who run a still, which results in a ridiculous fight sequence. Then he joins a gang of masked men who drag the teacher from her house in the middle of the night, take her to the woods, and attempt to whip her bare back. Then, because he wants the little girl, he tries to blackmail her mother (whom it was heavily implied he had been having sex with before her husband died). So he's a real winner.

Obviously the main reason this movie is even talked about today, and the reason I can't recommend it just to laugh at it, is due to the nudity of 12 year-old Shirley Mills. Don't listen to any of the talk about tasteful this or that or how we're just prudish Americans or whatever. That's all smokescreen. The nudity in this film has nothing to do with art at all. It's there simply to attract grown men who are aroused by young girls. To defend it is simply to label yourself a creeper. The acting is, of course, atrocious. I read some reviews that praise the acting and I wonder what they're smoking. It's a no-budget production that has no artistic or technical merits to speak of. Were it not for the gross exploitation elements, I could recommend it to those who like to laugh at terrible movies. But I can't recommend this to anybody.

Child marriage and murderer child.

[daviuquintultimate · 2/10 · 30 December 2020]

Well, well, well... something big's happening here. In a certain southern county of the U.S., according to the movie, however, child marriage was diffuse: in the sense the the children were wives, and grown-up men the husbands. "Lack of women", they used to say to justify this practice. The village's teacher, miss Carol, - a native of the place that had the luck to go somewhere else and complete her education - is against it, and her boyfriend Charles, as an assistant District Attorney, is trying to endorse her views within the law. So, while Charles is pleading to the governor to take heed of the problem, the pedophile male majority of the little mountain town try to dissuade Carol from her intentions of opposing child marriage by a very simple mean: they kidnap her, one night, take her to the woods, tie her on a tree, and begin to whip her... She is rescued by Ira Colton, one of the few of the inhabitants still holding his wits. Ira is the father of our little heroin, the young Jennie. Her age is never stated in the movie, but it must not have been over 13 (the actress, Shirley Olivia Mills, by the time the film was shooted was 12). Plenty of scenes in which the little Jennie, who usually goes around in a sort of mini skirt quite unfit for the mountains, bathes naked in the river... and is noticed by the lascivious Jake Bolby, a sort of Aqualung, businness partner of Ira and, in a sense, his arch-enemy. And, sometimes even the best man can fall: Ira, one night, comes back home, drunk as a log, and beats his wife Flora, who, in self-defence, and even not realizing, kills him. The scene had been witnessed by Jake. Now, les jeux sont fait! Jake induces Flora to give her assent to the wedding of her daughter Jennie to the brute, lest he can accuse her of murder. And the marriage takes place, in front of a peaceful-smiling minister of God, while Jennie's same-aged friend, Freddie, who's a little in love with the girl, is upset. But then, the day after, comes Charles, who tells Carol the the governor issued a law stating that no marriage should be allowed for people under eighteen. "Well, when was the law inforced?" "Three days ago". So Jennie's and the ogre's marriage is not valid! Easy conclusion: Carol and Charles can say to the newly married couple that their marriage is against the law, and therefore invalid, just in time to save the little girl from the beast's paws. Does it really end this way? No! Too easy: Charles and Carol just forget all about it, lost in their own love story. They are not to be seen any more in the movie. Jake is taking his shivering and disgusted child-wife in the nuptial bed for the first night, when a rifle shot fired from outside the house shoots him dead. It was Freddie. Jennie comes out of the house, meets Freddie, the murderer-child, who lays down the rifle; they kiss and begin talking their future wedding, when they will be of age. No justice, no law, no repental, no nothing. The end. Heed! It's worth watching, as it can be one of the worst movies you'd ever see.

A sleazy exploitation film with writing, acting and directing talents comparable to that of chimps

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 3 September 2007]

This is a bad movie that purports to be an educational film designed to warn America about the menace of child brides in the Ozarks. However, like almost all the so-called "educational" films of the 30s and 40s, it was really a shabby little film designed to be snuck past the censors of the Hays Office. In 1934, the major studios all agreed to abide by the dictates of a stronger Production Code--eliminating sex, nudity, cursing and "inappropriate" plots in films (these had actually been relatively common in films in the early 30s). However, in an effort to sneak in smut, small studios created films to shock adults when they learn about terrible social ills, though they were REALLY intended to titillate and slip adult themes past the censors! Such films as MARIJUANA, MAD YOUTH, REEFER MADNESS and SEX MADNESS were all schlocky trash that skirted past the boards because they were supposedly educational. Even though they were laughably bad, they also made money due to low production costs and because they offered nudity, violence and sordid story lines--all in the name of education!

Now if CHILD BRIDE was intended as a real attempt to stop sexual exploitation and abuse of children, why was it so darn trashy?! Several times during the film, adult female leads exposed their breasts (all in the name of education, mind you) and, most disturbing of all, a child who played the lead was often shown in very sexually exploitative ways. It disturbed me greatly when this child (about 10 or 11 years-old) walked around in a tattered dress that was torn in strategically located places, dressed and undressed in front of the camera and went skinny dipping. NONE of these scenes did anything to further the plot and made this seem like a film intended to be marketed to pedophiles! So the producers seemed to want to attract adults looking for nudity, social reformers as well as sexual deviants at the same time! This must be a first!

As for the technical merits of the film, the acting was generally bad as was the direction, writing and every aspect of the film. One of the only slightly less rotten performances in the film was by veteran character actor, Angelo Rossitto. He was a very small dwarf that appeared in many grade-z films--most notably with Bela Lugosi as his sidekick. While not quite bad enough to merit a score of 1, it came close and was a sick and worthless film. Watch it at your own risk.

Nudity not shocking

[wmav01 · 6/10 · 4 April 2006]

I saw this movie at a film festival about a month ago. Everyone seems shocked by the nudity, but I thought it was very tasteful. I totally agree it was not necessary to the storyline, and I'm trying to think of reasons why it was there. Although the actress was only 12, I think they were trying to personify her innocence. One comment I read said the girl was developed, and that is totally not true. I also think that a pubescent girl in 1938 was not considered "arousing". A full grown woman skinny dipping would have been out of the question. This movie is supposedly made (in the likeness of "Reefer Madness") to shock the public (as a public service). I found the movie very period and interesting (did you catch the "nigger in the woodpile" reference?), I have to admit being a softy and liking the happy ending.

I think I would have to divorce myself from watching this film ever again. 1938's Child Bride is pretty horrible.

[ironhorse_iv · 3/10 · 13 August 2013]

Child Bride is one of those movies so lurid and creepy, that even 1988's Mystery Science Theater 3000 turn it down to be parodied. Child Bride, also known as Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust in reissue titles, is a 1938 film directed by Harry Revier. The film was promoted as educational and an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states at the time, but it earn itself some controversial of its theme and because of certain child nudity in the film. In my opinion, it's one of the worst classic black and white movies, I ever saw. The movie is set in a remote town in the Ozarks, where a teacher, Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) is committed to stop the practice of child marriage. Her campaign anger some local men in the area, led by Jake Bolby (Warner Richmond). Jake Bolby wishes to marry a young 12 year old Jennie Colton (Shirley Mills) with or without against her will. He sees Miss Carol as a threat and starts to do anything to do to stop her. While, he is doing that, he is also blackmail Jennie's mother (Dorothy Carroll) into letting him marry the girl after witnessing her killed her husband (George Humphrey). The movie was made for good intentions, but sadly it fails as a film. The picture quality on the black and white film is rough at times, displaying a decent amount of obvious wear and tear. The music score doesn't match the film tone. The sound of the film is horrendous. Its sounds like a large swarm of bees. It's just awful, you can barely hear the dialogue. I can't believe Glen Glenn did the sound for this film. Oh Golly Gees- The dialogue is some of the worst. It's so cheesy and preaching. The acting is pretty overly melodramatic and just this side of amateurish, while the story seems to ramble along from one creepy sequence to another. The children sound like adults, and the country folks sound like dumber than a pile of rocks. Plus, why is there a dwarf in this film? I do like Don Barrett aka Angelo Rossitto, but he seem out of place. The movie made the Ozarks people looks horrible. At the time, the Ozarks was a little bit more modern than the film makes it out to be. At less, most of them really didn't wear rip clothes to school at the time, have 12 year boy killing husbands and most of the husbands didn't beat them wife to death. The "Hillbillies" are shown in pure negative stereotype as with Klan sheets for a lynching party and one character actually uses the n-word. The film also suffers from bad editing, as shots don't match with each other. In one scene, the dress the character Jennie in the woods is wearing changes in the next shot. The worst of all the scenes in the film is the infamous skinny dippy scene. It's a pedo bear wet dream as it shows a topless and lengthy nude swim scene by 12-year-old Jennie. It's get more disturbing when the two child actress are preaching to each other while half naked. The film had a lengthy long shot showing Jennie and Freddie, both topless and separated by a stand of trees, as they discuss how these changes will affect their relationship. This is follow up by two minutes consist of shots of Jennie swimming nude and frolicking with her dog. Why is this scene so long? Due to the controversial nature, some prints of the film have cut out the topless scene, leaving only the long shot nude swim sequence. Like that is supposed to help it be less disturbing. The filmmakers are rumors to used an adult woman to double for Mills in some shots if that helps make it less upsetting. Honestly, the whole scene wasn't needed. If they really needed the scene so the movie can work, at less, they should have been more careful about showing nudity. This movie was indeed made for Main Street outside the studio system. The film didn't get ban nationwide because under the Hays Code (forerunners of the modern-day MPAA) the film was trying to be educational. What is worst is how this movie market itself, it was bad exploitation that real tag line says see child nudity hiding in an educational film with lines like "where lust was called just!" and "A throbbing drama of shackled youth!". Although, that fact, the film was banned in many areas in the United States, and the movie's controversial nature gave it a certain ill repute by many people. The film is now in the public domain so any sicko pedo can watch it. The message of the film get lost due to that scene. It's like making a movie about against porno, but having long length scenes the character having sex. While at the time, child marriage laws in certain states had the legal age to marry as 14 years old due to the large death rate. It's 18 year old in all stats now. Since we don't live in frontier times and life expectancy is much longer, very few parents if any would permit marriage under 17 year old. So child marriage is culturally frowned upon and nearly dead here. Sadly, it's still practiced in other countries like Third World countries. Overall: If you like exploitation films, I guess watch it as it is surprising a powerful film but if you tried to make this movie today, as a shot-by-shot remake, you'd be arrested. And I mean that literally. Even possessing this movie may set you up for an arrest on some very nasty charges, for obvious reasons I can't recommend to most people.

Child Bride (1938) Was Based On A 1937 News Story About A 9 Year Old Bride In Tennessee

[DavidAllenUSA · 10/10 · 24 September 2009]

Child Bride (1937) Was Based On A 1937 News Story About A 9 Year Old Bride In Tennessee.

The movie is wrongly identified as a 1938 movie in movie guides and on this database, but the copyright year given in the main title states (in Roman Letters) 1937.

It is a "post-code" movie and might have been done differently in the freedom of the "pre-code" movie days of the 1930's. Food for thought.

Child Bride (1937) starring Shirley Mills was shot in Columbia, California as an independent movie 78 years ago (this is written in 2015) and is still alive and well, is currently sold in DVD video form and available for screening on home computers for free since the movie is now in the public domain.

It is a famous movie made during the Golden Age Of Big Studio Hollywood made outside the big studio system which lasted and lasted and lasted. It is a classic in its way.

Filmmakers created a story and a movie script, recruited a cast and technical crew, and shot the entire movie in two weeks in 1938.

The production values of the movie are very high and amazing considering the obviously low budget and lack of "big studio" resources the movie had.

We see torrential downpour rain scenes, snow scenes, fights/ wrestling boxing matches between men done skillfully.

The movie even includes a nighttime "torchlight" parade done "Ku Klux Klan" style when the bad guys abduct the noble (pretty, young adult crusading against child marriage) school teacher to a ceremonial outdoor place where she is to be "sacrificed" (the sacrifice is interrupted, but the whole scene is a cliffhanger well done in film noir style).

The movie has many night scenes where the weather and the bad weather skies in the mountains are shown complete with lightning flashes, wind....just like (well...similar too) "The Wizard Of Oz" (1939) bad weather/ cyclone scenes in Kansas.

But without big MGM money, sound stages, or expensive production talent.

The acting and casting are all very good and believable, including small parts.

The movie even includes a highly trained, charming dog which climbs and descends steep cliffs, and swims at length with lead actress Shirley Mills at a large mountain stream style "old swimming hole." The dog is charming, little "mermaid" Shirley Mills is charming, and the onlooking supporting actors include an old lady, a young 12 year old boy, and the adult villain male of the movie...all good actors, all quite compelling in minor roles.

Movies are hard to make, hard to get to come out well, and it is obvious that one of the reasons this great movie has lasted for almost 80 years (copyright in the title is given as 1937) is that it is well crafted and very watchable.

The script includes humor, suspense, and well crafted characters ranging from moonshiners in the boondocks to the Governor of the (unnamed) state listening carefully to the pleas of a young lawyer for changes in the state law regarding (still legal in 1937) child marriage.

The actor playing the Governor just listening carefully is very good, and he doesn't have as single line to speak in the movie! The movie is still alive and well. But truly a one of a kind movie and curious in many ways.

In some ways, Child Bride (1938) was a preview of radical feminism and the puritanical parts of it proclaimed indignantly in the 1970's, 40 years later.

The movie was about a crusading young female schoolteacher whose work results in laws outlawing marriage to very young girls.

The star of the movie, Shirley Mills (1926 - 2010), lived into her 80's and died in 2010.

She was a celebrity at "Nostalgia Conventions" which featured old movies and memorabilia and old stars from long ago like her.

She appeared at booths at "Nostalgia Conventions" which sold DVD copies of Child Bride (1938), movie posters for it, and other collector memorabilia.

In her later life, Shirley Mills claimed that the nude scene had been done by another actress slightly older than Shirley Mills in 1938 (she was 12 that year).

That may or may not have been true, but the movie (in the public domain, anyone can see it free on a home computer using Google.Com to find it and gain access to it) shows close up shots of topless then 12 year old Shirley frolicking and splashing water on her dog. The same highly talented, well trained dog appears in other scenes and is one of important stars of the movie! The movie was about distant, unpoliced places in the USA, about mountain people not constrained by the big government, big city puritanism which took over America after the World War I years, assisted by mass communications and high speed motorized transportation, which communicated and transported propaganda and government policing, and the righteous indignation and moralizing of an increasingly puritanical America.

A movie nostalgia magazine called FilmFax (Summer 2010, No. 124 issue) described the history of the making of Child Bride (1938) in a history article written by Paul Holbrook, a movie historian who did extensive research about Child Bride.

Child Bride (1938) starring Shirley Mills was thus an example of a movie created as a result of journalistic reporting.

The Life Magazine couple shown in the Feb. 15, 1037 issue (Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Johns....she was 9, he was 22) went on to have a long life together.

The groom died in his 80's and the bride died in her late 70's, cared for at the end of her life by a daughter who was born as a result of the 1937 marriage.

Ozarks Exploitation

[CatherineYronwode · 6/10 · 17 October 2006]

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.

Nothing Special Aside from What it's Infamous for

[Raptorclaw155 · 3/10 · 20 February 2020]

I can't help but to feel that this film's story is more of a vehicle for the nude swimming scene than to tell an actual story or to bring awareness to the practices of people who live in the country/mountains. It was surprising the amount of time spent on the swimming scene and I was confused about why we were forced to linger on it for so long.

The drama itself feels tacked on. The film's poster says it's about shackled youth but there is little-to-nothing to suggest that in the film itself up until the final 10 minutes or so. Everything else in this film feels like filler and almost everything that happens leading up to the bits the movie says it's actually about is inconsequential.

I noticed how surprisingly wooden the acting was, especially by Diana Durrell; the fact that she was outdone by two child actors was surprising.

This film is, overall, pretty flat and uninteresting. It isn't too long but still it manages to use so much time to focus on tangential plot points which end up being inconsequential that if the film were to have the fat trimmed from it, it would probably be half its current length and maybe even less.

YeeeHawww! I got's me A Youngun.

[michaeldukey2000 · 12 July 2007]

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

Supposed attempt to turn us against child marriages...

[dwpollar · 2/10 · 22 January 2007]

1st watched 1/21/2007 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Harry J. Revier): Supposed attempt to turn us against child marriages in some fictional mountain area in the US comes across instead as "where the heck are the authorities?" to fight against adult atrocities like blackmail, murder and the like. A teacher born in the area moves to the city, gets an education, and returns to turn them against this so-called atrocity with her boyfriend lobbying the governor at the same time. The problem is that we're not given very good information as to what the big deal is(the why's). We're just supposed to accept that it's wrong and it should be stopped and follow along with the teacher's crusade thinking of her as some kind of hero for the area. The story then goes the direction of random violence revolved around the teacher being kidnapped by locals who don't like what she's doing with a midget and a guy named "happy" turning out to be the hero's saving her from the mean guys. This attempt at a public service announcement in the theatre, similar to the marijuana movies that came out around the same time, does not do it's job and is a pretty worthless piece of entertainment as well. I'm glad these were failed attempts in the 30's, otherwise we'd see movies with titles like "Timmy loves Tommy" or "Iraq - why we're there", lobbying varies government-based issues. Are choices are bad enough already, good thing we don't have these type added to the mix.

"Bearing Children is a Woman's Job"!!!

[kidboots · 5/10 · 23 January 2012]

To be thrust into such a repellantly exploitative film at such a young age and for her first film could have been disastrous for Shirley Mills but she had had extensive training in the arts prior to this and those skills, along with a professionalism, helped to develop a more lasting success. Apart from Angelo Rossitto, who had been around since the twenties, she was the only professional member of the cast who made good. Obviously type cast she appeared as Ruthie Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" and then played a bully in Gloria Jean's "The Underpup" but after that her film career went into oblivion and she was forced to fall back on her dancing and singing skills.

"Child Bride" was promoted as an educational movie by its director, exploitation heavyweight Harry Revier (he was responsible for the equally shocking "The Lash of the Penitentes") so it could bypass a restrictive censorship classification. Supposedly made to draw attention to the draconian child marriage laws that existed in some states.

Local teacher (Diana Durrell) faces an uphill battle trying to educate the children of mountain folk as well as stamp out the insidious practise of child marriage. She is also a mountain girl but has been out in the world and refuses to marry her frustrated fiancée ("it's been five years"!!!) until she can make sweeping changes to the law but at the moment her speeches are falling on deaf ears.

I don't know whether I saw the full length version (my copy was 62 minutes) but the movie started with the shooting of Freddie's father by the local thug Jake, who wants a bigger share of the moonshine still. You know he's rotten as he beats up Angelo, a dwarf, and throws a "simp" into the creek. Even though the shot man doesn't look long for this world everyone assures Freddie that he will soon be well!!! Needless to say you don't see him again. Freddie's friend Jenny (Mills) has more to worry about. She has caught Jake's lecherous eye and by convincing Flora, Jenny's mother, that she herself has killed Ira an a drunken brawl (yes, Jake's been at it again) he forces her to consent to his marriage to Jenny in exchange for his silence. Ira has been very vocal against Jake's ways and humiliates Jake when he catches him and his henchman about to tar and feather the local teacher for trying to stop "us gitin' young 'uns"!!!

The ending, you won't believe. I only print it here in case someone has seen a longer version. The laws are changed but no one has notified Jake who marries Jenny. Freddy takes the law into his own hands and shoots Jake and the film fades with Freddy hoping one day to take Jenny as his bride!!! Even though the teacher realises that she may be able to stop the wedding, she is too starry eyed and whispering sweet nothings to her fiancé to care. Very weird ending!!!

About the Cult Classics Version

[MrCitizen · 3/10 · 20 October 2006]

I got this movie through the Cult Classics DVD set-though I fail see why this one called a cult classic.I actually watched this garbage for one reason-I saw the comments about naked kids and such,and I was afraid of the kiddie porn tag.The 1 Cult Classics DVD,which this was on, does have the one truly great camp movie Reefer Madness on it,and I was ready to make a copy of Reefer madness and throw out the DVD.This wasn't necessary.This movie was bad,but I think I can be free of the kiddie porn tag-barely.It was poorly filmed and what little nudity there was,it was brief.Besides,if I lend to my friend with young kids at home,he'll see how bad it is from the start and stop watching anyway.

Child Bride

[BandSAboutMovies · 2/10 · 23 March 2024]

Directed and written by Harry Revier - who also made Lash of the Penitentes and would come back in the 50s and 60s to re-edit movie serial Buck Rodgers into Planet Outlaws and The Lost City into City of Lost Men - this original exploitation movie was the first produced by Kroger Babb, who would go on to make Mom and Dad.

Star Shirley Mills, who was also the youngest daughter in The Grapes of Wrath, is nude in this movie. That's pretty amazing seeing as how it was made at the time of the Hays Code. It was an educational movie and made outside of Hollywood, but Mills is also 12 years old in this movie. You can imagine how controversial it was.

Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) has come back to the Ozarks to be a teacher and to end child marriage, which is the shame of the movie. Jake Bolby (Warner Richmond) wants to marry Mills' character and is stopped by the law and then killed by Angelo the dwarf (Angelo Rossitto). Rossitto is in a ton of movies, all the way from the 20s to the 80s. He may be best known as the Master part of Master Blaster in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Babb tried submitting this movie for a certificate of approval, only to be told it was "a sexually abhorrent abnormality which violates all moral principles." He released it anyway and when it played Indianapolis, film critic Anna Horn said that she was horrified that a "cheap, crude, mislabeled morality play would be shown in a major Indiana family theater." Babb met with Horn and instead of her writing a review, they stayed together for thirty-six years. She would write his next film, Mom and Dad.

"Of course you can, silly. Only with my clothes on."

[Bored_Dragon · 6/10 · 30 December 2019]

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

Eager to have it in my collection

[edward_evans-2 · 10/10 · 29 December 2000]

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.

Thank God Jeb struck liquid gold and moved to Beverly Hills

[marbleann · 7/10 · 22 November 2010]

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.

A shocking and racy movie for the 1930s!

[moviewatcher2010 · 18 May 2005]

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.

In response to wmavm01

[moviereviewer-4 · 7/10 · 17 June 2007]

"I saw this movie at a film festival about a month ago. Everyone seems shocked by the nudity, but I thought it was very tasteful. I totally agree it was not necessary to the storyline, and I'm trying to think of reasons why it was there. Although the actress was only 12, I think they were trying to personify her innocence." In response to this... during the nude scene by the 12yo, she tells the boy "you can't see me naked, it might put bad thoughts in your head" or something to that effect. Then the man watches her, and later gets bad thoughts in his head. (marry the 12yo) I think the purpose of that scene was to say that seeing a girl naked can put bad thoughts in your head, which is why it should be considered wrong. So, why do we need to see her nude? Shock value. At first she is getting undressed, and a leaf covers her, then she reveals more. I think this would reach a wider audience had they been, less graphic. I think Shirley Mills did a great job in the film, especially compared to the other actors. She was very pretty, and would put to shame many of the so called "child models" out there.

The message of the movie was "child marriage is wrong". I think we need another shocker to denote "child modeling is wrong". It's not wrong for girls to look pretty, at any age. It's not wrong to capture such beauty in art. It is wrong to put it out there in the format of "child modeling" sites. Seeing them in such a way can put bad thoughts into a person's head. The question is who is paying for it, and why? I highly doubt that kids around the same age are the ones paying for it, so that they can admire girls their own age. I highly doubt someone would buy this as art, just to enjoy a few pictures. If this were the case, it would be a few good tasteful pictures, not just a bunch of upskirt lingerie series. Oh, and I doubt respectable modeling agencies are looking for portfolios on the net. Many of which will refuse to work with prior "child models".

Sorry for the rant, I will stop now. My reason for posting started as just a response to why the scene might have been there. It is worth seeing, so long as you aren't the type to "monkey see, monkey do."

a 72 year old mystery solved

[astralknight · 7 February 2010]

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