LegalEagle, SchmlegalEagle
A little whimsy on the interwebz.
In an effort to show that lawyers have a sense of humour, just like us higher life forms, self-styled LegalEagle explains what laws were broken in 1971's classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Being a retard an American lawyer—and the whole world's America, right?—he addresses these questions in terms of current US law. But this is clearly bollocks, since the film was made almost fifty years ago. And, while the location isn't specified, it's certainly not set in the US.
His first observation is that Charlie, being paid for delivering newspapers at the age of around twelve, is a child labour violation in contravention of the Federal Labor Standards Act, which prohibits the employment of children under the age of fourteen in the US. He deduces Charlie's age from Mike Teevee's declaration that he is twelve, and the assumption that all the children are about the same age. Paris Themmen, who played Mike Teevee, was indeed twelve in 1971. But Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie, was fourteen.
Probably irrelevant, since it's just acting, but LegalEagle's level of deductive reasoning would embarrass even Dennis Hoey's Inspector Lestrade. I'm just glad he's not representing me in court.