Writer: Vidal Raski
Director: Harlan Asquith & William Mayo
Release year: 1973
Danish title: Dvaergen
Great evil can sometimes come in very small packages….
I have waited quite a while to see this film. I do not exactly know why I wanted to see it so badly, considering I have a great distaste and fear towards dwarves, little people, midgets….whatever the hell they are called. I guess for someone who is well over 6 feet tall, it makes sense that my fears are of things that are tiny.
Ever since I heard that Severin Films was releasing The Sinful Dwarf and thus making it readily available for rental and/or purchase, I knew that I was going to like this film, no matter how much press talked about how evil and sinister this film was. Well, let me tell you: It is evil and sinister! But shouldn’t it be?
(You are now reading Shuizmz’s respectful review of the film. For a slightly more raunchy take on this tender little artfilm, you can read Vomitron’s review on page 2)
Mommy and her Dwarf
The Sinful Dwarf, directed by Vidal Raski and written by William Mayo from a story by Harlan Asquith, is the story of Olaf the Dwarf (Torben Bille) and his mother Lila Lash (Clara Keller) who run a boarding house and a white slavery ring unbeknownst to the boarders. The white slaves are given heroin to keep them docile and drugged up so they won’t resist and try to escape, always craving the heroin. The women are stripped of their clothes and left to lay on mattresses on the floor in a room in the attic of the building where they wait for men to pay to have sex and whatever else they want with the enslaved girls.
Romantic dinner
When a young couple who are hard up for money rent a room there, Olaf and his alcoholic mother Lila decide that when the time was right the beautiful Mary (Anne Sparrow), wife of Peter (Tony Eades), would make a lovely addition to their sex slaves. I found it very humorous and ironic that they bought their heroin from a toyshop owner who smuggled them in stuffed animals, which the vile little dwarf Olaf always played with, sometimes crudely engaging the toys in sexual acts for his own pleasure. The drug dealer/toys shop owner’s name was Santa Claus (Werner Hedman), or at least that is what he went by.
Santa Claus, drug-stuffed toys & Peter
The Sinful Dwarf as a whole is perverted, dark, twisted, and at times, sadistic. The film had lots of character, though. I think the director wanted you to see just how sick and depraved, pathetic even, Olaf and his mom Lila, truly were. I thought the film was well-shot, flawlessly zooming in on Olaf as he became sexually excited, spittle drooling from the corners of his lips, salivating at the thought of molesting and abusing the women he saw as, quite possibly, larger and living versions of the toys he used in such a depraved manner. To Olaf, the women were just mere objects to be enjoyed by himself and to earn him and his mother an income (having had there theater burned and ruined). Olaf’s mother seemed to be a has-been showgirl, with Olaf playing accompanying piano and Lila dancing and singing, one gets a sense that had things turned out more positive for the two, maybe they would not be kidnapping young women and whoring them out to even more decrepit men.
Olaf & his sexually active toys
One does not even feel pity for poor, old Olaf, stumbling to and fro with his tiny cane to help him balance his imperfect and miniature physique. I wanted to smash the vile little gimp into a mass of blood and crushed bones, but that just may be my prejudice towards the little people projecting out from the inner recesses of my own subconscious. I will say that I was very surprised and happy with the ending.
Janette, Lisbeth & Jane having fun
The sex-slaves were played by Jeanette Marsden, Lisbeth Olsen, and Jane Cutter. The extent of their acting went as far as mumbling, moaning, and uttering semi-coherent warblings while laying or sitting around naked through-out the whole film. The scenes involving Olaf’s customers coming to have sex with the slaves were fairly graphic and lengthy. Those scenes could not have been more humiliating or degrading for any woman to have watched or even participated as an actress in.
Hailed as “The mother of all dwarfsploitation films”, how could one disagree with this statement? Has anyone seen any other films exploiting dwarfs? Probably not. The film is probably near the top for sleaziest and anyone who enjoys this film will probably tell you its just one of their guilty pleasures. I, for one, think most pleasures are guilt-free, or should be! I highly recommend this film and if that smears my reputation a bit, whatever that may be, tough shit!
Rating: 
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Post a comment on this article - (5) Posts
Pages: 1 2
June 16th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
To Vomitron:
Let me get this straight…you 'have no particular interest' in naked chicks drugged and used for sex and torture, creepy drooling dwarves with an uncanny likeness to Jack Black, and demented old ladies performing some sort of surreal cabaret?
What is wrong with you? And what the hell are you doing on this site if that's the case?
June 16th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I have no interest in drooling miniature versions of Jack Black.
I have no interest in old cabaret hags, even if senile and drunk.
I lied about the naked girls and drugs.
August 1st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
The film was pleasant to me, but the second time there was no desire to look it.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Well said, kukuruza! This film was (un)pleasant to me too. Worth a watch for the oddly freakish thing it is. But I feel no need to ever rewatch it again.