Tomorrow's Children / Child Bride (Forbidden Fruit Vol. 5)

These two exploitation films split the difference between bringing controversial issues to light and exploiting them for maximum profit. One does so more effectively than the other, but both are well worth a look. There are no big-name actors or directors involved, but the subjects are sure to interest today's viewers as much as yesterday's. Actor-turned-director Crane Wilbur's Tomorrow's Children (1934), the classier effort, looks at forced sterilization, a practice that was on the books in 27 states at the time. The film, written by Harlem Renaissance writer Wallace Thurman, takes place in California, one of the last to ban it. Alice (Diane Sinclair, very good), a responsible young woman from a disreputable family of drunks does her best to look after them. All of her siblings have developmental disabilities. Though two brothers are uncharitably described as "imbeciles," their behavior suggests that at least one may be on the autism spectrum. Just as she's preparing to marry her equally responsible fiancé, Jim (Carlyle Moore, Jr.), her mother has a miscarriage, and public-health authorities inform her parents that they'll have to undergo sterilization in order to keep receiving public assistance. Since Alice is underage, she'll have to join them, even though she and Jim had been looking forward to having children. The rest of the film revolves around the efforts of the crusading Dr. Brooks (Donald Douglas) to spare Alice—and to ban the practice altogether. Sterling Holloway, best known for voicing Winnie the Pooh, provides (or tries to provide) comic relief as a floppy-haired doctor who can't catch a moment of shut-eye, no matter how hard he tries. Harry Revier's Child Bride (1938), the more problematic affair, brings another harmful practice to light, but the acting and tech credits fall short of Tomorrow's Children's standards, even if it's the more lively effort. Shirley Mills (The Grapes of Wrath) plays Jennie, a bright 12-year-old who has a shot at a life beyond the backwards hillbilly holler of Thunderhead Road. Her best friend, Freddie (Bob Bollinger), hopes to marry her someday, but fate has other plans when creepy neighbor Jake (Warner Richmond) blackmails her mother into letting him do the honors. Jennie's teacher, Miss Carol (Diana Durrell), the crusading figure in this case, works with her DA fiancé to ban child marriage, but the town won't make it easy. Mills' charisma helps to power her performance, though the other actors are pretty stiff, and many of them wouldn't act again, with the exception of Angelo Rossitto (Freaks, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), a 2' 11" actor who plays one of the film's more noble characters. (Mills also has a nude bathing scene, which seems about as discomforting now as it must have 82 years ago). Eric Schaefer (Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films) provides the audio commentary for Tomorrow's Children, and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study) handles Child Bride, both film historians providing a great deal of fascinating context. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)