Badmovies.org Forum

A while back I watched two movies with a little person as the lead character in each. They were James Bond spoofs made in the Philippines named For Your Height Only  (1981) and The Impossible Kid (1982). Both were entertaining bad movies.

Midgets in movies is a good thing.

Can anyone name more movies with midgets?

Full Moon Pictures movies are full of midgets, there's one that comes out very often who
is a good "character actor". Let's see Ghoulies, Troll, Blood Moon, theres one I bougt a
while back thats got a midget Frankenstein werewolf and mummy, There's one called raw
meat (I think) featuring the actor who is the lead character from Willow (There's plenty there too)
playinga character called "Plates" who launches freshly washed plates with deadly precission.

Speaking of character actors, has Lance Henriksen cloned himself? I see him everywhere.

Don't forget the classic THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/tinytown/).  Of course little people played significant roles in THE WIZARD OF OZ and UNDER THE RAINBOW, not to mention FREAKS.

THE SINFUL DWARF and SWAMP THING spring to mind for me...

Leprechaun, Phantasm, Child's Play (assuming the actor was a Midget)

Don't forget Time Bandits!

Living in oblivion comes to mind.

UNDER THE RAINBOW!! Wow, Rev, that's one I haven't seen in many a blue moon. What a crappy movie, but somehow I remember liking it when I was a young teen. Perhaps that was because Carrie Fisher was still hot then.

Warwick Davis is Willow.  He's also Wicket in Return of the Jedi - a part he played when he was like 12 or 13, probably making him the coolest kid in school, dwarf or not. 

One of the better dwarf actors is Peter Dinklage, who I best remember from Elf.  Phil Fondacaro is one of the best known ones - he's in Land of the Dead, Willow, Ghoulies II, and numerous others. 

Speaking of Warwick Davis, how about the Leprechaun franchise? That's Warwick Davis as well.

From Star Wars to Willow to Leprechaun. An unfortunate career arch.

Well he did bounce to the Harry Potter series as Professor Flitwick.  And did appear in the Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.  Those are pretty big franchises.  

Phil Fondacaro in Hard Rock Zombies Comes to mind.  He was also in Blood Dolls.  

Theres the sadist midget in Bloodsucking Freaks.

More mainstream films like Pirates Of The Carribean and Austin Powers comes to mind.

Angelo Rossitto!

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l79/RCMerchant/10842302_gal.jpg)
Here he is in Al Adamson's DRACULA VS.FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

He was in HUNDREDS mof films and TV shows! Among them....
.MAD MAX:BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985)
.LITTLE CIGARS (1973)
.BRAIN OF BLOOD (1971)
.THE MAGIC SWORD (1962)
.INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN (1957)
.MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953)
.SCARED TO DEATH (1947) w/ Bela Lugosi
.THE SPIDER WOMAN (1944)
.THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942) w/ Lugosi
.SPOOKS RUN WILD (1941) again with Bela!
.CHILD BRIDE (1938)
.FREAKS (1932)
.SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1929)
WHILE THER CITY SLEEPS (1927) w/ Lon Chaney Sr.!!!!

Was it High Plains Drifter where Billy Barty was in it with Clint Eastwood?

And one of the cameramen for Weird Al was a midget in UHF.

Kenny Baker as R2-D2.  :teddyr:

(http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr223/MARNEYtheGHOST/Science%20Fiction/kenny-baker-r2d2.jpg)

Also, there was a dwarf in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, played by Verne Troyer.  I actually liked him in that movie.

God, I need to finish watching that film.  It came on really late at night recently and I was enjoying it but I was too sleepy to finish it.  Rossitto also had a very small role in Something Wicked This Way Comes, a favorite film of mine.

Lots of good films have been mentioned.  I'll add Even Dwarfs Started Small; a strange but great film with a cast of all little people.  The entire thing can be found on YouTube, I think.

Close! But no cigar! That was Billy Curtis...who also starred in LITTLE CIGARS (about a midget gangster). He was also the mayor of Munchkin Land in the WIZARD OF OZ. Whish also starred....Billy Barty!-who was one of the Lollipop Kids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhjRUKCKIG4

Jordan Prentice in In Bruges.  :smile:

I could add Adeleine Poerio in Don't Look Now to this but  :buggedout: :buggedout:

Feast 2
Death at a funeral

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory had quite a few midgets playing Oompa Loompas.

Speaking of which, Deep Roy, who played all the Oompa Loompas in the remake, has been in a lot of really good movies, as well as a few that were bad but well-known just the same. Return of the Jedi (and not as an Ewok!), The Pink Panther Strikes Again, The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, the Star Trek reboot, and a few classic TV shows, including Doctor Who during the Tom Baker years.

Sorry guys, but isn't midget a degradory term? :bluesad:

True. They prefer to be called "little people" which is more dignified for some reason that escapes me.

Foul Play.

Michael Dunn was brilliant as Alexander is Star Trek's "Plato's Stepchildren". He also had a recurring role on "Wild Wild West" as Dr. Miguelito Loveless and made appearances on other TV series such as "Get Smart", "Bonanza", "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Burke's Law". He also turned up perhaps most notably to bad movie fans in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971), THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON, DR. FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED (1974) and THE MUTATIONS (1974)

Dwarf is generally accepted as well, which is what I call them.  Considering they have dwarfism, that's what I call 'em.

That's my preference as well. It's the proper term, neither a nickname nor a vague PC term.

Although, for some reason, it just seems more fitting to use "midget" in a discussion of cheesy movies.

Jason "Wee-Man" Acuna is my favourite little person ~ seems like a genuinely nice person. His comment on the Jackass #2 soundtrack went like this:

JA: "Thanks for [Ryan] Dunn being here."
RD: "Huh?"  :question:
JA: "&^%$#@, throwing out *&^%$ M-bombs all day."

 :teddyr:

Wow, that's a lot of movies with little people, thanks for the titles.

I've just seen Forbidden Zone (1982) with Herve Villechaize as King Fausto of the Sixth Dimension. It's a very weird and creative movie. If you like strange movies you might want to see it.

I'm glad RC mentioned LITTLE CIGARS aka THE LITTLE CIGARS MOB (1973)!

Angel Tompkins stars as a gangster's moll who hooks up with a gang of larcenous midgets who do a terrible Vaudville-type show. Also starring the legendary Billy Curtis (THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN) and Felix Silla (Cousin Itt on TV's The Addams Family).

Yes, this is a real thing! I saw this at the Beautiful Lake Theater way back when. Comcast's On Demand was showing this one for free a couple of months ago.


(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/31671427_e321e8ebae.jpg)

IN the old days the term 'Midget' was used for people with pituritary conditions that made them very small. They were normally porportioned, had high voices, and basically looked like kids. The Munchkins in THE WIZARD OF OZ were played by midgets. FREAKS star Harry Earles (and his sister Daisy, who played Freida) were 'Midgets'.

'Dwarfs' have normal sized heads but very short limbs. Billy Barty and Angelo Rossitto   were 'dwarfs'.

Using these old terms almost all of the Little People you see nowadays are 'Dwarfs' since advances in Medical Science has made 'Midgets' pretty much extinct. Hormone treatments usually allow them to grow to normal heights.


(http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/freaks4.jpg)
MIDGET!

(http://www.zomboscloset.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/10/freaks05.jpg)
DWARF!

It's true that the words were used that way, but it wasn't technically correct. Dwarf is a medical term encompassing a whole range of conditions (not just two) that cause extremely small stature, including growth hormone deficiencies (pituitary dwarfism). As I understand it, midget was a term that originated in circus sideshows, which is why it's so widely used by the public, and why some take offense at it. There's a connotation of freakishness.

But yeah, when I think of dwarves, I invariably picture people with short limbs but a full-sized head and torso, which is the most common kind of dwarf. A quick Googling identifies them as achondroplastic dwarves. What I find interesting is that the condition is not restricted to people. Dogs like Basset Hounds, Corgis and Dachshunds were selectively bred for achondroplasia.

Oh phew, you scared me there at first!

A good idea, except that dwarfism generally describes an extremely short person with disproportionate limbs.  In other words all dwarfs are "midgets," but not all "midgets" are dwarfs.  I think: there still seems to be some debate going on about the proper terminology.   

Yes but they don't like to be called midgets!
They're little people: proletarians or something like that...

Why don't we just call em all "sawed-off little basterds"?  :question:
(i'm only 5'2"...so I qualify as a  'SOLB".)

You, sir, are a giant among midgets. 

My first girlfriend was 4'11", full grown.  And she had huge breasts.  Ah, memories! 

At least she was lower to the ground, she'd have problems if she was tall!

I think the term "little people" is twice as offensive as "midgets" but thats just me and I'm not a midget.  I think political correct terms are kind of silly because not matter what you pick, you're saying the person is "different" than the norm. 

I agree, "little people" seems much more patronizing. And for me, it conjures up images of dolls and Lilliputians and leprechauns.


As I understand it, all midgets are dwarves, but not all dwarves are midgets. Then again, in common parlance, the two have come to be pretty much interchangeable. But I think I prefer RC's blanket term.

In Brouges had a.. uh.. vertically challenged character in it.  :tongueout:

Billy Barty plays the Imp servant to Allison Hayes' witch Livinia in The Undead

XTRO had a short person taking those eggs from the cocooned babysitter, from what I recall.

I just ordered a copy of "For Y'ur Height Only".
Its a 1979 Filipino movie about a 3 foot tall secret agent named Weng Weng.
Can't wait till it arrives.