Child Bride

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

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

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.

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.

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.