If ever some old codger goes on about movies these days being full of sordid sex and violence you should tell them “well at least they don’t have 12 year old nude scenes any more, like they did in 1938.” That was the big selling point of this hillbilly-sploitation film which deals with the topic of child brides.A female school teacher, who was born and raised in the mountains, is determined to make marrying children illegal (her fiancée is an assistant DA but she won’t marry him til the job is done). Local men oppose her to the extent she is tarred and feathered.
The other plot concerns a 12 year old girl who is lusted after a nasty hillbilly who has a feud with her father. The nasty hillbilly develops his yen after watching said 12 year old go for a swim – so the famous nude sequence isn’t gratuitous in terms of plot, but it is in terms of what is being show: it’s fairly obvious the shots of her bare breasts and arse and the sheer length of it is to appeal to the pedophiles in the audience. (Of course there was no doubt a financial imperative behind this, so you could argue the gratuitousness isn’t really gratuitous).
Judged on exploitation grounds, it’s not a bad story though the two narratives run a bit too parallel – they could have been more incorporated to have the school teacher involved in trying to rescue the girl before a Fate Worse Than Death. (The school teacher is set up as this important character then sort of drops out).
To ensure the film’s got something for everyone there is also a sympathetic dwarf character (who actually saves the day – by killing the baddie in cold blood), a 12 year old male love interest (they even have a romantic kiss at the end – they’re 12!!! – he says she can be his wife later… when, 14??). Shelley Mills (the 12 year child star) is quite professional in the lead role and she went on to have a decent career; so too did the dwarf (he often co-starred as Bela Lugosi’s sidekick). The other acting is pretty bad.
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