- The Terror of Tiny Town
"The Terror of Tiny Town" is a 1938
film , produced byJed Buell and directed bySam Newfield , and starringBilly Curtis . It is the world's only Western with an all-midget cast. The plot is about acowboy helping out a beautiful ranch owner menaced by local thugs. Using a conventional Western story with an entire midget cast, the filmmakers were able to showcase gags such as cowboys entering the local saloon by walking under the swinging doors, and pint-sized cowboys galloping around on Shetland ponies while ropingcalves . Many of these same actors were part of a performing troupe called Jed Buell's Midgets, who also playedMunchkin s in "The Wizard of Oz", released in 1939.Cultural Influences
Clips from the film were used in the following:
*The video for theDead Kennedys fast paced cover of the theme from "Rawhide" (from the "In God We Trust, Inc " album)
*Hal Ketchum 's music video for "Small Town Saturday Night" from his album "Past The Point of Rescue".
*In the background in a scene of the film "Johnny Suede " whereBrad Pitt (in one of his first roles) enthuses to his friend over the telephone about the film.In 1986, "The Terror of Tiny Town" was featured in an episode of the "
Canned Film Festival ", a nationally-syndicatedB movie satire series starringLaraine Newman .In 1988, the
punk rock bandAdrenalin O.D. recorded a song entitled "Theme From An Imaginary Midget Western", an apparent nod to both this film and the recording "Theme From An Imaginary Western" by the band Mountain.The film is mentioned in, "The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror", a book by
Daniel Pinkwater as one of the movies shown at the Snark Theater.The film was mentioned in an episode of
M*A*S*H (TV series) byMaxwell Klinger .External links
*imdb name|id=0193260|name=Billy Curtis
*imdb title|0030845|title=The Terror of Tiny Town
* [http://www.oraclesmusic.com/Review_Movies_4_Terror_Of_Tiny_Town.php Review of Terror of Tiny Town]
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