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.
Review of Child Bride
