Child Bride (1938) on Netflix
Jennie is twelve and lives with her parents in remote mountain country. Her schoolteacher, Miss Carol, was educated elsewhere and returned to end child marriage. Jake Bolby means to marry Jennie.
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- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb4.5/101,174 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Miss Carol teaches in a one-room schoolhouse in a remote part of the Ozarks, where she grew up. She has returned determined to stop the local practice of older men marrying girls in their teens, and her campaign angers men in the community. One night a group led by Jake Bolby seizes her in the woods and binds her to a tree, meaning to tar and feather her; Angelo and Mr. Colton arrive with a shotgun and stop them. Twelve-year-old Jennie Colton lives with her parents, Ira and Flora. Ira tries to shield Miss Carol from the men who want her campaign dropped, and Bolby has his eye on Jennie.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Child Bride (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The Production Code Administration refused the film a certificate of approval, calling its subject matter "a sexually abhorrent abnormality which violates all moral principles" and objecting to the onscreen child nudity. The censors also objected that the murderer is never punished.- The 1938 film's production followed shortly after mass media coverage of the real 1937 marriage of 9-year-old Eunice Winstead to Charlie Johns, which the film was compared to.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 writers Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy considered Child Bride for the show but found it too awful and disturbing, Murphy saying he needed "a good cry and a shower" afterwards. Staff writer Frank Conniff called it the worst film watched as a potential selection, alongside Manos: The Hands of Fate.
- Child Bride was the first film produced by exploitation promoter Kroger Babb, who marketed it as educational and reissued it under titles including Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust.
