Description

Child Bride, also known as Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks, and Dust to Dust (USA reissue titles), is a 1938 (see note). The copyright date on the print of the film shown by Turner Classic Movies in January 12, 2014, is “MCMXLII” (1938) but lists it as 1941. American film directed by Harry Revier and produced by Raymond L. Friedgen. The film was promoted as educational and as an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states.

Cast

• Shirley Mills as Jennie Colton
• Bob Bollinger as Freddie Nulty
• Angelo Rossitto as Angelo the dwarf
• Warner Richmond as Jake Bolby
• Diana Durrell as Miss Carol
• Dorothy Carrol as Flora Colton
• George Humphreys as Ira Colton

Cast notes:

• This was Shirley Mills’ first role and she would later appear in The Grapes of Wrath (film) in 1939. 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.
• Angelo Rossitto had a long career in movies, stretching from the 1920s to the 1990s. 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.
• 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).