Not A Disney Film!

 

 

 

IT'S A SMALL WORLD-1950-Harry (Paul Dale) is a little person (called the now politically incorrect “midget” in this) who doesn't have a very nice childhood. His father (Will Geer) likes him but takes him out of school and keeps him out of sight in their house. His selfish sister (Shirley Mills, the star of CHILD BRIDE) wants him sent away. He does leave home to join a circus but the owner (Thomas Henry) is a jerk and Harry runs away from him. In the city he meets Sam (Todd Karns; George Bailey's brother in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)), a shoeshine guy who gives Harry a job. Everything is ok until he meets a floozy named Buttons (Lorraine Miller) who gets a black eye from her boyfriend Charlie (Steve Brodie). She seems to like Harry and they hang out but she two times him and lies to him and gets him involved with the giant sized Rose (Nina Koshetz)) who turns him into a pickpocket.

 

Unfortunately Harry gets sweet on Buttons but she only has eyes for Charlie and laughs at him. When he wants to quit fatso Rose threatens him. He turns them all in and (reluctantly) joins the Cole Brothers circus winter headquarters in Florida where he meets the cheery Dolly (Ann Sholter in her only film role), a woman his size who he sings a song to! They get married and live happily ever after....

Henry Corden has an un-credited role as a truck driver. By my count Thomas Henry was in 10 features in 1950.

While not a great movie IT'S A SMALL WORLD was an unusual feature for the time. It tries hard to show Harry's plight in a sympathetic way but sometimes seems a little too obvious. Lead actor Paul Dale was one of the Lollipop Guild in THE WIZARD OF OZ and at the time of this writing he was still alive (another member of the Guild Jerry Maren is also alive). He's good in the role and does a fairly amazing job of playing his Harry character from child to adult despite being 23 at the time!

William Castle (who appears as a cop) directed it but without the flair he'd use in his later “gimmick horror films” (The first of them MACABRE would come 8 year later).

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Child Bride

CHILD BRIDE-1938-A school teacher Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) tries to stop child marriages among “mountain people” in her old rural hillbilly burg. But the main focus is on Jennie (Shirley Mills ) a 12 year old girl who's father (George Humpreys) is a moonshiner but likes the teacher. One night a bunch of inbred idiots kidnap Carol with the intent of tar and feathering her because she preaches again them “marrying young uns”. Fortunately Jennie's dad and his moonshining buddies Angelo (Angelo Rossitto) and Happy (Al Bannon) save her. He seems ok but later he gets drunk and thinks his wife is fooling around with his sleazy partner Jake so he beats her. Pa winds up dead so Jake (Warner Richmond) blackmails Jennie's ma into letting him marry Jennie! 

Carol also has a district attorney boyfriend who tries to get pass a law prohibiting the marriages. When he talks to the governor he addresses him as “your excellency”. Though promoted as “educational” (and thus avoiding most censors) this exploitation film is kind of bizarre and depraved especially the marriage ceremony. And then the happy couple get ready for their wedding night! Whew! Fortunately a well placed bullet put into Jake stops that before it even starts and the Jennie and Freddie go home together.

One character uses a very racist line that I won't repeat here. The most notorious scene is when Jennie takes off her clothes (and is topless for a minute) and swims nude in a lake! 

This was the last film directed by Harry Revier who had made LASH OF THE PENTENTIES and several silent Tarzan movies. A 1945 reissue was “presented” by Kroger Babb. With the exception of Mills (who was later in THE GRAPES OF WRATH), Richmond and Rossitto most of the rest of the cast never made another movie!

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