It seems like ancient history today to think that a teenage girl who gets pregnant, especially by rape, should be disgraced for life. Yet, not so long ago that was the prevailing attitude in North America. This story is about one such girl. However, there was one 'respectable' way for a girl to avoid that fate - to marry quickly to make the baby 'legitimate.' Her father, to avoid the shame of a pregnant daughter, comes up with a plan to solve the problem. So, his daughter is faced with the choice of being a lifelong outcast or a marriage that is anything but romantic.
This movie is a five-star portrayal of a girl in those circumstances. [This is the forth film of Carol Kane's eighty or so movie appearances!] The story should provide a good basis for discussion of several issues of concern to teens and to families - how a family should treat a pregnancy resulting from rape - what society's attitude should be toward such children or so-called illegitimate children in general - marrying purely to maintain social status instead of love - a girl marrying an older man, etc. [I would say that the man she married did love her in his own way, kind of like a daughter; however, the girl needed a lot of work to develop real love for him.]
This is a hard movie to find, or it is quite expensive, but it did get the Canadian equivalent of the Best Film 'Oscar' in 1972.
[For another well-done movie, also available on Amazon.com, of a young woman in a similar situation, see the 1993 movie, 'The Ballad of Little Jo.' That is a true story of Josephine Monagan, who in 1866 traveled west after her baby was born and adopted by her married sister.. Jo chose to live as a man, and shocked the community after she died when they learned her secret.]
