Child Bride

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.

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.

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.

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.

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