“A young bride, left alone to the lewd passions of an evil dwarf!”
And with that tagline, a “euro-sleaze” classic was born!
Sometimes there are movies that are so wrong – I mean WRONG – in every way that they are destined for cult status….with that in mind, time to explore the mysterious disappearance of the sex kitten star of this film:
Yes, there is a film called “The Sinful Dwarf”, and it is everything the title suggests! Not only that, it starred a beautiful young Actress who would never be hear from again!
Meet Anne Sparrow!
Actress Anne Sparrow stars in “The Sinful Dwarf”, but it’s her only film performance EVER, and she has disappeared into the black hole of movie trivia! Why? Well, let’s begin with this – a trailer that only hints at the decadence on display – and started with that classic horn-driven instrumental while a 70’s “coming attractions” graphic covers the screen:
Thanks to John Deadbeat for posting this on YouTube, go check him out for more wacky stuff!
Here’s the plot of “The Sinful Dwarf”:
Anne Sparrow stars as the young wife of a Doctor who needs to rent a room for a few nights in a strange city.
Diminutive former kiddie-show host Torben Bille – who looks disturbingly like Jack Black in a trash compactor – stars as well, as a young man who takes a special interest in the female guests at his mother’s boarding house…
Poor Anne Sparrow!
For Actress Anne Sparrow, it must have been a dream come true: landing a starring role in your first feature film! But who is kidding who – just look at this description from the cover art:
“The delicious Anne Sparrow – in her first and understandably only screen role – co-stars in this towering achievement in graphic depravity, now fully restored from a 35mm print discovered hidden in a janitor’s closet at the Danish Film Institute!”
I guess being part of a film described as a “towering achievement in graphic depravity” can make you second-guess your career choice!
And yes, that’s right – this movie was not only found in a janitor’s closet in Denmark – but they chose not to throw it out!
The “Missing” Sex Kitten!
As you all know, the internet holds the answers to our entire history….it can tell you anything and everything – except what happened to Sparrow!
I have scoured the internet and haven’t found anything about Anne Sparrow – except that “The Sinful Dwarf” was her first and only movie – perhaps it was due to the fact that the Producers took the film, added some “XXX” material in it, and released an even dirtier version!
The movie makes Anne Sparrow’s performance look even more graphic than it was, but whatever the reason, Anne Sparrow’s singular movie achievement remains this – one of the craziest examples of “Euro-Sleaze” ever released!
Oh, and here is another one:
Yes, some very big stars subjected themselves to this classic slice of sleaze – including Raquel Welch as a Nun!
If you aren’t familiar with “Euro-Sleaze”, here is a story I posted about this outrageously offensive and entertaining genre of film from the 70’s!
A nice Euro-sleaze’ ‘double-feature’, John. Dwarf porn was very popular at one time too. I can recall a very short colleague who constantly received (rather cruel) gifts of ‘Speciality’ German VHS tapes. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete, a strange bit of cult cinema to be sure…”of its time” as they say! She was beautiful and simply disappeared after the film was made for reasons we can probably all understand!
“johnrieber” wrote, “This was probably a film that drove her out of the business forever.” Bearing in mind 1973 was a “liberal” year, and the nation of production was liberal Denmark, the howls of protest and outrage probably were not too loud, and this credit could have actually helped the actress get more roles, if she were inclined to further her acting career.. I have a feeling she was not too proud of the results, and her decision to retire was most likely her own doing.
As for one clue in regard to one thing that may have happened to Anne Sparrow, from the IMDb bio of Torben Bille (the actor who played the title role), “He was rumored to be married to fetching blonde Anne Sparrow (his female co-star in “The Sinful Dwarf”)” https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0082350/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
I didn’t catch that you were the one behind the site. I only went through several pages, but I can see you’ve done a very fine job. Congratulations.
I have just watched this movie (by the way, the husband was a writer hard-pressed to find employment, and not a doctor, as described… given that this film is such a classic, it is highly important to get these details straight!), and thought Anne Sparrow (aptly named; a fragile little bird) was so nicely cast.
Let’s put aside the fact that she was an absolute knockout. Naturally, in terms of her being the classic victim, a beautiful blonde stereotypically cannot be beat, and Anne really exuded an innocent essence. (For example, one of the “sex slaves” was also a good-looking blonde, but she didn’t have that vulnerability.) What’s more, Anne held her own as far as acting; she pulled off what was required of emoting quite adequately. In short, she certainly could have continued with a career, and it’s frustrating to not be able to understand why she was a one-trick pony.
The IMDb’s listing for the film (if visitors can find it; by default, the site frustratingly censors anything adult oriented, which is rather unfair to the talent involved. My last post gives an indirect link) claims this was a Danish-U.S. co-production, which was interesting. Were there Americans involved? I was impressed that several of the actors spoke passable “American” English, with minor giveaways in their accents. This is an achievement. As a contrary example, there is a 2008 German monster movie, “Virus Undead,” where the actors attempted to speak “American” (in the probable expectation to broaden distribution horizons), and hardly anyone in the cast managed to be convincing.
The one who played the title role, Torben Bille, was fantastic, and I also had an appreciation for the actress who played the mother (Clara Keller, as Lila Lash), who went on to do her Marlene Dietrich impression. She was even kind enough to disrobe at one point. (As with Anne, Clara was also a one-trick pony. I foresee another article: “’The Sinful Dwarf!’ What Happened To Supporting Star Clara Keller? A Euro-Sleaze Mystery!”
JR-Sploitation! 
A nice Euro-sleaze’ ‘double-feature’, John. Dwarf porn was very popular at one time too. I can recall a very short colleague who constantly received (rather cruel) gifts of ‘Speciality’ German VHS tapes. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pete, a strange bit of cult cinema to be sure…”of its time” as they say! She was beautiful and simply disappeared after the film was made for reasons we can probably all understand!
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I’m guessing she changed her stage name completely, or stopped acting altogether. I can’t find anything about her on Google, other than that one film.
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Yes, this was probably a film that drove her out of the business forever…
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God I love Bluebeard.
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“johnrieber” wrote, “This was probably a film that drove her out of the business forever.” Bearing in mind 1973 was a “liberal” year, and the nation of production was liberal Denmark, the howls of protest and outrage probably were not too loud, and this credit could have actually helped the actress get more roles, if she were inclined to further her acting career.. I have a feeling she was not too proud of the results, and her decision to retire was most likely her own doing.
As for one clue in regard to one thing that may have happened to Anne Sparrow, from the IMDb bio of Torben Bille (the actor who played the title role), “He was rumored to be married to fetching blonde Anne Sparrow (his female co-star in “The Sinful Dwarf”)” https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0082350/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
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WOW! I didn’t see that, but what a wild turn of events that would have been! Thanks for the great note!
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Hi, John,
I didn’t catch that you were the one behind the site. I only went through several pages, but I can see you’ve done a very fine job. Congratulations.
I have just watched this movie (by the way, the husband was a writer hard-pressed to find employment, and not a doctor, as described… given that this film is such a classic, it is highly important to get these details straight!), and thought Anne Sparrow (aptly named; a fragile little bird) was so nicely cast.
Let’s put aside the fact that she was an absolute knockout. Naturally, in terms of her being the classic victim, a beautiful blonde stereotypically cannot be beat, and Anne really exuded an innocent essence. (For example, one of the “sex slaves” was also a good-looking blonde, but she didn’t have that vulnerability.) What’s more, Anne held her own as far as acting; she pulled off what was required of emoting quite adequately. In short, she certainly could have continued with a career, and it’s frustrating to not be able to understand why she was a one-trick pony.
The IMDb’s listing for the film (if visitors can find it; by default, the site frustratingly censors anything adult oriented, which is rather unfair to the talent involved. My last post gives an indirect link) claims this was a Danish-U.S. co-production, which was interesting. Were there Americans involved? I was impressed that several of the actors spoke passable “American” English, with minor giveaways in their accents. This is an achievement. As a contrary example, there is a 2008 German monster movie, “Virus Undead,” where the actors attempted to speak “American” (in the probable expectation to broaden distribution horizons), and hardly anyone in the cast managed to be convincing.
The one who played the title role, Torben Bille, was fantastic, and I also had an appreciation for the actress who played the mother (Clara Keller, as Lila Lash), who went on to do her Marlene Dietrich impression. She was even kind enough to disrobe at one point. (As with Anne, Clara was also a one-trick pony. I foresee another article: “’The Sinful Dwarf!’ What Happened To Supporting Star Clara Keller? A Euro-Sleaze Mystery!”
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