CHILD BRIDE (1938) Shirley Mills, Bob Bollinger & Warner Richmond | Drama, Exploitation | B&W

Child Bride, also known as Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust (US reissue titles),[citation needed] is a 1938[1] American drama film written and directed by Harry Revier, and produced by Raymond L. Friedgen. It was promoted as educational in an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states.Show more

Set in a remote town in the Ozarks, the film was very controversial at the time—both for its theme and because of a topless and nude swimming scene by then-12 year old Shirley Mills. The film bypassed the onscreen nudity ban under the Hays Code by being produced and distributed independently of the studio system, and by claiming to be educational. Although the film was banned in many areas, its controversial nature gave it a certain infamy and it played on the so-called exploitation circuit for many years.

Child Bride was one of Revier's last. His previous work included a variety of low-budget, independent features including The Lost City series and Lash of the Penitentes.

SYNOPISIS
A schoolteacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying underage girls.

Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) is an idealistic teacher in a remote one-room schoolhouse. A native of the Ozarks herself, she is determined to stop the practice of child marriage, in which older men marry teen or preteen girls. Her campaign raises the ire of some local men, led by Jake Bolby (Warner Richmond), who one night drags her into the woods and ties her to a tree, with the intention of tarring and feathering her. Before this can be done, however, Angelo the dwarf (Angelo Rossitto) and Mr. Colton (George Humphreys) arrive with a shotgun to save the day.

Following this, Jake Bolby comes across young Jennie Colton (Shirley Mills) swimming naked. When her father dies, Bolby decides to take advantage of the opportunity to blackmail her mother into letting him marry the girl, threatening that otherwise he will see her hanged for murder. After he "courts" Jennie by giving her a doll, the two are married.

CAST & CREW
Shirley Mills as Jennie Colton (Girl)
Bob Bollinger as Freddie Nulty (Boy)
Warner Richmond as Jake Bolby
Diana Durrell as Miss Carol (Teacher)
Dorothy Carrol as Flora "Ma" Colton
George Humphreys as Ira "Pa" Colton
Frank Martin as Charles, Asst. D.A.
George Morell (Rex Baxter) as Mike Nulty
Angelo Rossitto (Don Barrett) as Angelo the dwarf
Al Bannon as Happy

Directed by Harry Revier
Written by Harry Revier
Produced by Raymond L. Friedgen
Cinematography Marcel Le Picard
Edited by Helene Turner
Music by Felix Mills
Production company Astor Pictures
Distributed by Astor Pictures
Release date March 2, 1938
Running time 62 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $24,000 (est.)

NOTES
This was Shirley Mills' first role and she would later appear in The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. She would go on to appear in many films over the next decade, mostly in supporting roles. She quit acting in her twenties to become a singer.
This was Bob Bollinger's only film role. According to Mills' website, now offline, the two young actors became friends, and Bollinger later asked her to marry him, which she declined. His ultimate fate is unknown.
Angelo Rossitto had a long career in movies, stretching from the 1920s to the 1990s, usually in less heroic roles than in this film. He is perhaps best known for his role as Master in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). The reason he was billed as "Don Barrett" in this film is unknown.[2]
Along with Mills and Rossitto, Warner Richmond was one of the few actors involved in this film who had any sort of film career. He appeared in over 140 films between 1912 and 1946, including the Gene Autry serial The Phantom Empire (1935).

Child Bride was the first film produced by noted exploitation film producer and promoter Kroger Babb, who marketed it as an educational film and who would reissue it under various titles, including Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust. The movie is perhaps best known for the lengthy nude child swimming scene, which Allmovie described as "completely gratuitous" and "obviously Child Bride's main selling point and the reason for its longevity on the exploitation circuit."

The film had been submitted to the Production Code Administration for a certificate of approval, but was denied because of its subject matter, which was said to be "a sexually abhorrent abnormality which violates all moral principles", and because of the onscreen child nudity. The censors also objected to the murderer never being punished for his deeds.

The production of the film in 1938 followed shortly after mass media coverage of the 1937 marriage of 9-year-old Eunice Winstead to Charlie Johns, causing the film to be compared to it.