DVD Clinic

Awfully Good #95
October 7, 2009

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Strike Back Below!

Source: DVD Clinic

By: Jason Adams

For more Awfully Good fun involving little people, check out Burial Ground and Tiptoes.

The Sinful Dwarf (1973)

Director: Vidal Raski
Stars: Torben Bille, Anne Sparrow, Tony Eades

Is there a plot?

A demented little person abducts young women and holds them prisoner in his house where he and his crazy mother turn them into heroin addicted sex slaves.

Sounds good to me!

What's the damage?

As my friends Jim Law and Johnny Moreno from The Good, The Bad and the JoBlo Movie Podcast can attest, the title THE SINFUL DWARF is itself enough to elicit hilarity. While many movies sound great and fail to live up to titular hype, unlike certain films named after oversized aquatic creatures, THE SINFUL DWARF doesn’t disappoint. And if the movie’s tagline, “What was the mysterious dwarf’s perverted secret?” isn’t enough to convince you, then you, my friend, are reading the wrong column.

The midget version of THE SHINING…masterpiece.

A rare entry in the dwarfsploitation genre, THE SINFUL DWARF is cult proof that we need more movies in this category. To describe it as half porno, half midget horror tale would be too accurate. The film bounces back and forth between the main storyline involving a young couple moving in to the Evil House of Dwarf and discovering the horrible secrets within, and the continuing subplot of random naked people doing sex. Harsh, graphic, drug induced sex. Hooray for visionary filmmakers!

Yeah, I get that reaction a lot.

Thankfully, the title character is indeed amazing and carries the movie on his tiny, cane supported shoulders. Olaf the dwarf looks like a Mini-Me version of Jack Black and is played by Torbin Bille, who was a children’s TV star in Denmark before appearing in THE SINFUL DWARF, and then went on to find success in the Danish porn-comedy industry of the 1970s. (Seriously, not joking.) Olaf’s onscreen hobbies include playing with dolls and toys, peeping tom-etry, and kidnapping girls and holding them in his attic where he turns them into crackwhores in order to support his crazy mother who’s obsessed with her past life as a dancer. It’s really like REQUIEM FOR A DREAM if you think about, except with more little people and less Wayans brothers.

A fat guy with an afro and an evil dwarf; this has the makings of a wonderful buddy cop movie.

I suppose THE SINFUL DWARF isn’t exactly “awfully good”—it tries to be artistic in a sleazy way (less drunk dancing mother, more evil dwarf) and there aren’t a lot of laughs (mostly thanks to all the rape). But it’s bizarre enough and has enough nudity and dwarf mischief to recommend to cult cinema fans.

This screenshot is dedicated to my coworker Gina, who suffers from a crippling phobia of little people. Hi Gina!

"Best" Line

The dwarf shows the new couple their room and is super creepy.

"Best" Parts

1) The dwarf and his mother catch this girl snooping around and teach her a lesson. Then the dwarf laughs evilly. I soil myself. (NSFW)

2) [SPOILER] In the end of the movie, the dwarf attacks some guy and then, with the help of an obvious stunt dummy, jumps out the window to his death. And then things get weird.

Nudity Watch

THE SINFUL DWARF doesn’t go 30 seconds without showing some kind of skin. You get a constant supply of full frontal drugged out chicks, as well as some pretty explicit sex scenes.