Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Cosmoeticadotcom The Terror Of Tiny Town is not a classic, nor even that good. The Shetland pony riding is rough, the singing (especially by Buck- it's dubbed) is rougher, and the 'small' jokes roughest, but the film is enjoyable. It's not a 'so bad it's good' film, but it is a cute film that never takes itself seriously, and as anyone who has read my criticism before knows, pretense is the ultimate killer. The acting is not good, and the screenplay loaded with mediocre dialogue, but, on the positive side, there are a few moments when one is sucked into the film's world; the best example being when Bat and his gang try to rob the stagecoach that brings Nancy to town. After Buck and his boys chase off the bad guys, Buck goes to stop the runaway stage (again, not exactly original), and there is some genuine serial-level excitement. Not bad for a gimmick film, and certainly something that lifts the film up beyond mere exploitation. Also, while most film fare at this level- think The Beast Of Yucca Flats or Santa Claus Conquers The Martians- are loaded with many moments a viewer says, 'That makes no sense,' from a logical standpoint. There are no such moments like that in the narrative, although there are throwaway bizarrenesses, like the appearance of the penguin, or Otto's pursuit of the duck, or why a blacksmith's horse, about to be shoed, is the only normal sized horse in the film, when others are Shetland ponies, and the odd breaks into song. That all said, it is amusing, it is guileless, it is sweet, and it is utterly unpretentious (from its opening 'intro,' to its cartoonish credits, to its almost Harold Lloydian ending). There are far better movies, and there are many worse films. The Terror Of Tiny Town, though, is a film that any fan of the medium should see, at least once, if for no other reason than its utter uniqueness in film history, especially contrasted against so many other western musicals of its day. It may not have many, but it does have charms.

jrschulz-1 This film borders on being as offensive of some John Water's earliest films. It is as politically incorrect as a production can be, stereotypes midgets, gives one the impression of a town run by five year old kids. I'm left with the impression that the small freaks escaped from the set of a Todd Browning film and decided chuck to horror films in favour of comedy. The problem is that the script is really not comedy, it is a drama; the outrageousness of a wild west town run by midgets is what makes it funny. Picture a film like For a Few Dollars More with the same script and all midgets for actors and you get the idea. This is great theatre of the absurd.

tavm Okay, so I just watched this all-Midget (sorry, Little People) Western. Now, while I laughed at some of the way their sizes were exploited like when one fell carrying some boxes that blocked his face or when a townsperson drank a giant glass of beer (I think Jerry Maren played the latter by the way), overall I don't think this deserves the moniker of one of "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" as implied in the book of that name. In fact, for the most part I was quite excited at the way the whole thing was filmed and liked many of the performances especially Billy Curtis as the Hero, Buck Lawson, and "Little Billy" Rhodes as the Villain, Bat Haines. They have a great fight scene at the climax. Yvonne Moray as the Heroine, Nancy Preston, and Nita Krabs as the Dance Hall Girl, Nita, who loves Bat are also good in their roles. And then there's Charles Becker as the Comic Relief, Otto the Cook, who has a pretty intentionally funny scene with a duck he's trying to kill as he tries to sweet talk him. The singing is wonderful, too, though hearing an obviously taller male voice coming out of Curtis' mouth was pretty strange especially in contrast to Ms. Murray's natural warbling voice after that. By the way, the only actual tall person that appears is in the beginning when an announcer steps from behind the curtain to introduce the Hero and Villain (with the requisite "boos" and "hiss"!) before the opening credits. So on that note, I'd recommend The Terror of Tiny Town to anyone who likes a good-old fashioned musical western starring talented little people.

Michael_Elliott 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.