Analysis Of The Terror Of Tiny Town

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In 1938, Jed Buell was a movie producer who was well known for his black and white musical westerns, but all of his movies took on an odd twist. Jed Buell was known for his westerns with singing cowboys and he produced about twelve within a four year period. He was known to produce some unique and obscure movies, but he may be best known for his comical musical cult western; The Terror of Tiny Town (O 'Connor and Rollins 65). This movie is the world’s first and only know movie to feature an all dwarf cast. Every cast member, except for the man who is the announcer in the first scene of the film, is under four feet tall. The 62 minute movie has been appropriately nicknamed, “the best-worst movie ever made”, because of its’ tacky scenes and subtle jokes about the actors’ height. Despite being both an obscure and controversial film, The Terror of Tiny Town has become a classic among the small group of people who know about the movie.
As the emcee said at the beginning of the film, “I 'm told that it has everything, that is everything that a western should have” (Myton and Marks). The Terror of Tiny Town …show more content…

Many people would say that the actors were never treated with dignity and that many of the jokes in the movie were made at the actors’ expense (Crouse 213). The film is entirely politically incorrect, but that is what has made the movie ironically interesting and so popular. When the amateur cast took the job they knew what the movie would be like. The actors took their job seriously, and many of the actor went on to play roles in other movies (Simpson 208). Billy Curtis, however, generally avoided roles that undermined midgets. He was upset to see the movie posters advertising “Half-Pints in 10-Gallon Hats!” Later in his life Billy worked as an advocate for equal rights for little people. He worked against the Screen Actors Guild to allow little people full membership and full voting privileges

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