The only thing I could not figure out watching Child Bride Of Short Creek is why
did Conrad Bain let Christopher Atkins go to war and return from Korea? Just
being exposed to a wider world out there would have guaranteed trouble. Trouble being someone out there who knew that what the Prophet said was not
necessarily so even if it's his own son. Or did Atkins just want to get away himself?
In any event Atkins and Bain belong to a breakaway group of Mormons who
are still polygamists. Bain is the leader and the Prophet does have perks in
the office. Like being polygamous and allowing same for some of your buds
and having the choice of the young girls being raised by this frightening group
of inbreds.
For his fourth wife Bain has chosen Diane Lane and she's someone Atkins kind
of likes. But the Prophet has spoken, even as law enforcement is starting to
look at this isolated place and its practices.
Made right on the heels of Christopher Atkins's stunning debut in The Blue
Lagoon, it's a nice ensemble cast that delivers here. Conrad Bain is far from
the Dad in Different Strokes, he's one frightening self righteous dude who
maintains his hold on the group through ignorance and isolation.
My favorite scene however is with Atkins and his mother Joan Shawlee the
Prophet's first wife. Shawlee who made a career of playing brassy comic
dames, but she's anything but that. She's playing a frightening caricature
of a woman who knows nothing else but the ways of her breakaway Mormon
world.
Interestingly enough I'm guessing because of law suits the name Latter Day
Saints (LDS) or Mormon is never used. But we know who these folks are.
This is a really good made for TV film about a frightening group of people.
