The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)

Expected more

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Terror of Tiny Town, The (1938) ** (out of 4) Standard Western has become a cult favorite as all the characters are played by midgets. The film has a rival family beginning to feud after each has some cattle stolen. What neither side knows is that a third party is behind it trying to have to two families kill one another off so he can take their land. If that storyline sounds familiar that's because dozens, if not hundreds, of westerns used it for a story. That's the biggest problem here because most people are going to walk into this expecting some sort of strange film but the only strange thing about it is the cast are midget. Storywise this isn't anything John Wayne and countless others were doing at the time. The gimmick of using midgets is a double sided sword because it certainly makes the film original but at the same time the performances are rather weak and this goes against the story. The only thing that comes off as real campy is a silly cook who is constantly getting in the middle of things. His highlight, as well as the film's, is a scene where he tries to catch a duck for dinner. Sam Newfield wasn't a stranger to these low-budget movies and he actually does a fairly decent job here considering what he had to work with. There's a nice fight scene and the movie moves pretty fast for its hour running time. The main draw here is seeing the midgets ride tiny ponies and acting like normal Western stars. If that doesn't sound like strange entertainment then you'd be better off skipping this thing. At the same time, don't expect anything too far out because we've got your basic Romeo and Juliet type story.

Since adding the Encore Western Channel to my cable TV lineup I've been overdosing on that particular genre, so I thought I'd take a break to check out a four disc, twenty movie DVD package I picked up from Mill Creek Entertainment. It's called 'Cult Classics', and the title that immediately called out to me was "Terror Of Tiny Town". Wouldn't you know it, the darn thing turned out to be a midget Western. No, not a short feature, but a movie with an all midget cast! It came out the same year as another novelty Western featuring an all Black cast called "Two Gun Man From Harlem".The principle is pretty much the same here. Take your standard 'B' oater, pit your white hat hero against a dastardly villain, and populate it with nothing but midget actors. What's sort of cool in the story is the early misdirection which seems to implicate Tex Preston (Billy Platt) as a cattle rustler before it's revealed there's a third party villain working the Preston's against the Lawson's. Bat Haines (Little Billy Rhodes) is as nasty a villain as you'll find in any John Wayne, Roy Rogers or Durango Kid picture, even to the tune of keeping the local sheriff in his pocket.The hero of the piece, Buck Lawson is played by Billy Curtis in his very first film role. Obviously he caught someone's eye to recommend casting him as the mayor of Munchkin Land in 1939's "Wizard of Oz", from there going on to a rather prodigious movie career. Western fans will note the resemblance between the young Curtis in 'Tiny Town' and the sixty four year old actor who was made mayor of Lago by The Stranger in "High Plains Drifter". To his credit, Curtis did his best to stay away from roles that denigrated little people, and did a credible job here.Still, it's hard watching the picture not to crack up every now and then over inadvertently funny scenes like the midget cowboys riding on their Shetland ponies, or walking into a saloon under the swinging door. The movie opted to drift back and forth between a normal adult size world and a miniature one to achieve different effects; the scene I thought was exceptional was the one that played out with the runaway stagecoach built to little people scale. Some of the goofier scenes involved pint size singers whose voices were obviously dubbed."The Terror of Tiny Town" won't make anyone's best films list, but you know, it really shouldn't be on anyone's worst list either. Take it with a grain of salt and you'll probably be entertained. A couple questions need answering though. Why was that penguin in the middle of the movie? And if a regular cowboy fires a six-shooter, does a midget use a three-shooter?

it's surprising to me how much this movie gets ripped on saying it is an exploitation of little people. honestly, this is a classic western story; good guy in white, bad guy in black. it wasn't made as a comedy, but is it funny? yes it can be, for the novelty of it. is it a blockbuster? now, just an average 'B' western from the 30's, but definitely worth watching at least once.i enjoy this movie not because it exploits anyone, but that they did go to great detail to make a story, a drama with an all midget cast. these are the same little people that were in the "Wizard of Oz", so they got to do a classic kind of film. this unique type of movie is one that will never be copied or re-done due to peoples stereotypes, it's an original.I'm not saying it's some masterpiece, but it is definitely worth seeing once!

1st watched 2/12/2007 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Sam Newfield): Complex story, but hammy-acting and silly songs make this major attempt to bring to the screen a serious story with midgets(or should I say the "vertically-challenged") a failure. The story revolves around the bad guy in town named Bat Haines, who is fooling everybody and plotting two families against each other by stealing each other's calves and then setting it up so that each one blames the other. He even has the sheriff eating out of his hand and bully's everyone else to see things his way. If you haven't guessed yet, he is "the Terror of Tiny Town." Enter the hero, the young son of the Lawson clan, who tries to fix things and stirs up a little romeo & juliet style romance on the side with a niece in the other family. Well, as you can guess, all things work out in the end and we get to hear one of the silly songs(there are about 4 songs in the movie and all are pretty silly) to close out the movie. This actually was a grand attempt to make a Hollywood picture with only the little ones but the mediocre acting stands out, sadly.