Baby Doll

1956 "She's nineteen. She makes her husband keep away -- she won't let the stranger go."
7.3| 1h54m| en
Details

Archie Lee Meighan is a failing cotton gin owner who is married to Baby Doll, a 19-year old childlike beauty whose father arranged the marriage for financial reasons. As Archie awaits the arrival of Baby Doll's 20th birthday, the day that they are supposed to consummate their marriage, he faces interference from business rival Silva Vacarro, who plots to seduce Baby Doll away from Meighan.

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Warner Bros. Pictures

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Reviews

SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen
AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
ingbru2 After watching this very amusing comedy on disk, I watched the interview with three of the actors - Eli Wallach, Carol Baker, and Karl Maulden, plus some additional footage about the controversy over the film at the time of its release in the Christmas season of 1956. Special attention was paid to the comments of Cardinal Spellman in St. Patrick's Cathedral who said that any Catholics who would watch the film would commit a sin. The Legion of Decency is also quoted in condemning the film. Warner Brothers eventually withdrew the film from circulation. By today's standards of bare skin and profanity, "Baby Doll" is tame. The irony of Cardinal Spellman's declaration is that as he uttered his condemnation priests were molesting youngsters and getting away with their sexual abuse for years. There is no sexual abuse in the film. No children are involved. Spellman was riding a wave of orthodox opposition to the liberalization of sex in films as Elvis Presley began to reshape teens' views about sexual behavior.Tennessee Williams wrote a screen play that poked fun at various aspects of Southern culture without being blatant about it. His drama focuses on two men, one of whom accuses the other of setting his new cotton gin on fire to protect his own failing ginning business. The young, naive wife of the supposed arsonist becomes the target of the outsider whose gin has been destroyed. He spends an afternoon trying to persuade her to sign a statement that her husband burned down the new ginning mill. His advances are suave but not so overtly sexual as Spellman and the League of Decency proclaimed. In fact, the film is often very funny, but its comedic nature was totally ignored by Spellman and his supporters.It may be difficult for today's audiences to comprehend the censorship that obtained during the 1950s, but it was strong and sustained by the hearings of Senator McCarthy who was hunting commies in Hollywood. Tennessee Williams also wrote screenplays for "A Streetcar Names Desire," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and "Suddenly Last Summer," all films in the 1950s with sexual themes. The last of the three involved homosexuality and an effort to cover it up by having a young woman committed to a mental institution. Yes, those were the days when women could be declared "hysterical," and committed. Unlike these three films "Baby Doll" is a comedy and a satire.Fortunately, "Baby Doll" has survived and stood the test of time and is still a very entertaining film to watch. Carol Baker's performance is superb. She won an Oscar nomination. Only a playwright like Tennessee Williams could end it with such poignant lines, reminiscent of Scarlet O'Hara. You will have to watch it to see what Carol Baker's character says in the closing moment.
bobvend A leering, absurd comedy-drama set in good ole' Mississippi in the mid-1950's, "Baby Doll" is full of the hardscrabble rural raunch that Tennessee Williams always managed to grow his best crops in. A sultry Carol Baker plays the child-bride of blustery ever-distracted blow-hard Karl Malden, who's business rival (expertly played by Eli Wallach in his film debut) turns up the heat after he suspects Malden of torching his cotton mill.Wallach's character is bent on receiving satisfaction, regardless of what form it takes. The acting is, at times, enjoyably over-the-top, and the entire cast is undeniably watchable. Baker and Wallach ignite more than their share of mutual sexual tension, to the point where one would gain some understanding as to why this film was so famously condemned when it was first released over a half-century ago. Although less smutty by today's standards, it positively sweats!
st-shot Director Elia Kazan heads South with a quartet of New York theatre actors who leave their accents behind in the highly controversial film for its day, Baby Doll. While time may have watered it down somewhat, it still contains moments of powerful sexual tension that in this era of relaxed censorship elude most film directors.Archie Lee Meighan is a few days away from consummating his two year marriage to his thumb sucking teen bride Baby Doll. Baby finds Archie repulsive for good reason but married him anyway for security and so daddy could walk her down the aisle before he died. Archie had impressed the old man by claiming he would put her in the finest house in the county but a series of setbacks to his cotton business has them living in a dilapidated antebellum mansion with coon hounds running about the interior. In an act of revenge he burns down the cotton gin of the rival Silva Vaccaro who in turn seeks to even the score through the seduction of Baby Doll.Tennessee Williams screenplay is more play than film with most of it shot inside an outside the metaphorical mansion after the first half hour. Williams and Kazan's characters are a surly lot ( Mildred Dunnock's Aunt Rose is merely confused) but vile as Archie might be Karl Malden manages to evoke some sympathy for his plight. The scenes between Wallach as Silvio and Carrol Baker's Baby crackle with erotic intensity as Kazan crushes them together in frame after frame. The day long seduction, however, begins to wear after awhile and the interplay between Benoit County locals and the pros betrays the Methods immersion a little along the way making Baby Doll in spite of its incendiary story line minor Williams and Kazan.
Stephen Alfieri "Baby Doll", when it was released in 1956, was obviously going to be a very controversial film. While the country was in the lazy, comfortable days of the mid-1950's, along comes Elia Kazan with a story about a smoldering sexpot wife who is seduced by a Sicilian, who is a competitor of her husband. It is said that upon the film's release, many groups wanted the film pulled from theatres because it was so controversial. By 1956 standards, you can see why. The only problem is, that the movie is not very good.The acting for the most part is over the top. I think that is because the screenplay, by Tennessee Williams is too talkative when it doesn't need to be, has three basically unlikeable lead characters, and doesn't really have much of anything to say. The actors, all from Kazan's beloved Acting Studio do all that they can to try to infuse some meaning into the dialogue. Karl Malden especially gives an "over the top" performance."Baby Doll" takes place in the south, and yet there is no hint of any racial issues mentioned. The one great asset this film has going for it, is that it is filled with many local citizens as extras. Their is a great story in each of their faces, that would be more interesting than this movie.The film has a great many sound quality problems, as well, and a lot of scenes where you can see the actor is talking, but there is no sound to accompany the actions.4 out of 10