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!!!
"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!!!