I guess you're familiar with the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." But here's one that was made 6 years earlier, though it wasn't a big success:

A country "hick" becomes a senator for a Western state, vowing to fight against the corrupt politicians in Washington. They offer him "good things" if he will support their "rich man's laws". When he refuses bribes, they hire their high-class political prostitute to seduce him and destroy his morals. Bewitched by her charms, he at first says he'll cooperate with the corruption; but then he is overcome by shame and rejects the woman. Impressed by his goodness, she too is ashamed and tells the corrupt politicians that she's through working for them. When they try to hurt her in revenge, she is rescued by the good senator and they fall in love.

As it happens, Smith was the name of the lead actor. He never became famous, but the woman did. You've undoubtedly heard of her. Any guesses?

I moved this to games...good one thread though...

well that would make it a 1933 movie...I must put on my thinking cap for a bit...

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Oh well, I guess I'd better spill the beans now.

In 1932–33, for a series of 10-minute "short films" (comedy spoofs containing much parody and many obvious "references"), a cast of kids aged 3 to 5 were given stories to act out, playing adult characters, as children do in school plays and such. These were humorous and satirical versions of the traditional adventure/romance theme, i.e. the "hero" rescues the "lady" from some horrible situation and she marries him.

Hollywood's famous Meglin Dance Studio, where many stars (e.g. Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland) have begun their careers, provided the actors for those films. But they were only students and hadn't done any acting yet, so this was their first "tryout"; if they didn't make it, they might not get another chance. Georgie Smith, age 5, was chosen as the male lead (the "hero") and some girl, who was only 4, as the "lady." In the series, the girl was variously cast:

As a rich, high-class prostitute hired to seduce and corrupt a senator;
As a pioneer woman captured by the American Indians;
As the fiance of a man accused of complicity in a murder case;
As a prize–fighter's girlfriend kidnapped by gangsters trying to rig the fight;
As a missionary captured by cannibals in Africa;
As a French saloon dancer entertaining American soldiers in World War 1;
As a woman held prisoner and forced to perform in a nightclub;
As Marlene Dietrich in a satire on the movie industry;
And in one, apparently never released, she played Louella Parsons (!)

For the kids in the series, it was just a barrel of fun. They were uncredited and underpaid, so it was rightly seen as exploitation, and they soon stopped making them. But by then the girl's talent had become obvious, and that's why she got more film roles afterwards and quickly seized the public's attention.

It says a lot for her that she could act those parts so well at that age. In recent interviews, she has called those films "the best things she ever did," remembered Georgie fondly as her "first leading man," and said that when she "seduced" him on that occasion she was copying the acting style of Mae West.

She went on to bigger things, but we'll never know whether Georgie would have done so. When they were making the last film of the series, somebody slapped him in the studio for misbehaving, and his parents took him out of show business for good.

Here they are, Georgie Smith and what's-her-name, with producer Jack Hays when he chose them to star in the series.

I remember those, it was like early kiddie-porn...

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Not really. The films weren't about sexual matters, except for that one. Unfortunately, they dressed the boys in diapers. (The girls usually wore something more substantial.) But that was just part of the satire element involved in the use of an all-child cast. There was hardly anyone in those days who had any interest in children as sex objects. The laws were much stricter then; pornography of ANY kind was illegal and punished severely, and not much of it even existed. If anyone at the time had considered those films pornographic, they couldn't have been made at all. But nudity in children wasn't considered a sexual thing then. It occurred here and there in other old movies too; even in the "Our Gang" films occasionally, I believe.

BTW, two of the "Our Gang" players (Georgie Billings and Philip Hurlic) were in most of those films with Georgie Smith and what's-her-name. Bobby Hutchins ("Wheezer") was in at least one of them, and so was Sidney Kibrick ("Woim"). There's a boy there who may have been Tommy Bond ("Butch"), but that's unconfirmed.

Baby Burlesks, satirized recent motion pictures and politics. The series was considered controversial by some viewers because of its depiction of young children in adult situations.

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Yes, it bothered some viewers...because those viewers insisted on SEEING it as "children in adult situations." But that's illogical. If children do a school play in which two of them get married, does that mean it's a story about children getting married? No. It's a story about adults getting married. The age of the actors is irrelevant. And the same goes for murder, kidnapping, or any other "adult situation."

more info about the Baby Burlesks...interesting ...Madam Craddlebait..

Baby Burlesks

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That makes interesting..if slightly unsettling reading.

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I thought so too...

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