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.

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.

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

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.

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.