The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)

[Derf]

I got The Terror of Tiny Town, the infamous all-midget western, on dvd a few weeks ago and finally got the chance to watch it. I'd seen it a few years ago, but I'd forgotten a lot.

The movie starts with an announcer making bad midget puns and telling the audience not to take the movie too seriously, at which point the hero of the movie, played by Billy Curtis, comes out and says that the movie is serious and is an exciting adventure story and love story. Then the villain, played by "Little Billy" Rhodes, comes out and pulls a gun on the audience. There is a scuffle, and the announcer steps in and makes more bad midget jokes. Then we get to the movie proper.

The premise is actually not bad: The villain (Bat Haines) is rustling cattle from both the Lawson ranch and the Preston ranch, all the while acting like a friend to Preston (the Lawsons, as the good guys, don't like Bat much). Bat plans to pit the Prestons and the Lawsons against each other, start a range war, and take over the land of both ranchers and populate it with stolen cattle. Nancy Preston, niece of Tex Preston, enters the story and falls in love with our hero, Buck Lawson, beginning a Romeo-and-Juliet angle. So we do indeed get an exciting adventure story and a love story.

Plenty of cliched dialogue is included, along with a few musical numbers. There are a few obvious gags, but most of the movie is played straight, which is its main saving grace; if they had tried to be really funny with the limited acting skills available, this would have been a very painful movie to watch.

I can now better appreciate the expert riders in most westerns; along with limited acting abilities, the men in this movie were obviously amateurs on horseback, and the ponies used were obviously not well trained: During several of the chase scenes, every time someone shot at his opponents, the pony he was on would almost stumble and begin to shake its head vigorously; it didn't like the loud noise and smoke of the gunshots.

This is a fun flick. It's short (no midget jokes, please--the announcer made enough to last me for a while), but it tells a story reasonably well and gave me some more insight into 1930s America. I noticed that many of Jed Buell's midgets were German (their accents gave them away). I don't know if that really means anything; it was just interesting.

[BoyScoutKevin]

A typical B-western with a typical B-western plot. What makes this one stand out from all the other B-westerns, is the fact that it is entirely acted by little people. Of course, on the other hand, it is not unwatchable. Nor is it as bad as the Medved Brothers make it out to be.

[Andrew]

I have definitely seen worse westerns, so I can agree that it could be called "typical."  Well, except for the blessed appearance of so many midgets.  

The fact that they rode Shetland Ponies may have been quite practical, but it sure added to the film.

[Ozzymandias]

Didn't one of the German or Sweedish directors make a movie about either little gangsters or little bikers?

[Derf]

You may be thinking of Werner Herzog's Even Dwarves Started Small, one which I wouldn't mind seeing but haven't yet.

[Scott H.]

Haha, oh Werner Herzog. What a silly life you have lived.....

and slightly psychotic.

If you see any of his movies, watch Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes, or Aguirre, The Wrath of God. I love to see me some crazy Klaus Kinski. Madman of the monkeys.

Oh, even better, go watch Fitzcarraldo (1982). Kinski once again is crazy, but this time he's an opera lover who wants to go to the jungle and build an opera house there. His plan, take an enormous paddle boat down a jungle river, make some money off of the rubber tree market, and then build an opera house in the middle of the jungle. Everything that happens in the movie happened in real life. When the riverboat is seen floating out of control down rapids, Herzog actually told them to let it go and to film it. Getting the riverboat over the mountains was accomplished using a primitive series of pulleys. Herzog wanted everything to be as realistic as possible and he was nuts about it, even if it meant performing outrageous stunts like taking a boat over a mountain. Klaus Kinski eventually got so emotional over making the movie (more emotional than he already is), that he threatened to leave the set half way through filming. Herzog pointed a rifle at him and said by the time he got around the bend of the river, he would have eight bullets in him. Kinski cried out to the nearest police...... but that was one hundred miles out of the jungle. So, the rumor goes that from then on, Kinski was directed by Herzog from behind the camera with a gun pointed at him the whole time. What a bunch of nuts!!


Herzog also ate his own shoe to complete a bet in LA.


Scott H.

[Scott H.]

To show you I'm not lying, and that Herzog really does eat his shoe, here:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0081746/

[Scott]

Been wanting to see THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN for a long time now. Had a chance about 1 year ago to pick up a double movie DVD for about $5, but missed the opportunity.

Saw the AGUIRRE,  WRATH OF GOD about 10-15 years ago and thought it was ok, but I would like to see this one again. I only remember the Kinski's character going crazy on a jungle river.