Item #: 9831 Category: DRAMA Format: VHS MPAA Rating: R

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (186 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Fuad Ramses

Jul 1, 2001 @ 16:57:7

THE ULTIMATE WHITE TRASH MELODRAMA
There's a certain nightmarish quality to this tale of unrequited lust on a rundown cotton plantation that sets this apart from other Williams adaptaions. Karl Malden's Archie Lee Meigham constantly sweats and drinks as he watches his teenage bride charm one man after another while the whole town laughs at him to his face. He and Baby Doll's deceased daddy made an agreement that he would not consumate their marraige until her twentieth birthday, the day after tomorrow. On top of that, Meigham's run-down cotton mill has been put out of business by the syndicate mill, run by Silva Vacarro,(Eli Wallach.) When Archie Lee burns down the syndicate mill, Vacarro comes out to the Meigham place to seduce a confession out of Baby Doll. While the performances are uniformly excellent, (including a very young Rip Torn in a bit part as "Rock,") it's Carol Baker who amazes as titular child bride. She sleeps in a crib and sucks her thumb in an attempt to ward off adulthood and the awkward advances of pudgy, drunken, middle-aged Archie Lee. Her combination of likable innocence and mild insanity are hypnotic whenever she's on screen. As usual with Williams, every word of dialog has at least three meanings, two of them disreputable. And the atmosphere of Southern decadence and decay reaches a degree of surrealism that reminds me in turns of ERASERHEAD and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. BABY DOLL manages to be very funny and disturbing pretty much every minute it's on screen. Excellent!

LOLITA IT'S NOT
For those viewers like myself who have resisted watching this movie for fear of feeling like a pedophile, resist no more. Baker's Baby Doll is no teen-aged slut. Decidely a virgin at almost 20, she is sweet and innocent and probably just a little addled brained. While Baker is not as georgeous as, say, Lee Remick, she does a great job in her role-in fact very likely the best of her entire career. Karl Malden is one of those Homely Hams (along with the likes of William Bendix) who chews up and spits out his lines with such intensity that it is almost laughable at times. And who wouda thunk that Eli Wallach could have played a Sicilian so convincingly? Also, Mildred Dunnock deserves praise in her role of Aunt Rose -a portrait of Baby Doll at 70 perhaps? It is doubtful if any playwright has been so well served by the movies as Tennessee Williams. Another fascinating addition to the Williams film canon. Recommended!

<[:-} silk purse from a rat’s ear?
karl malden, eli wallach, and carroll baker create surreal caricatures too intensely bizarre and disturbing to gaze at directly, but too deep and solid to shake off. there are some strong performers in small roles, including rip torn in a bit part. the disorienting effect of the acting is potentiated by the opposing shear forces of gritty locations and scary cracker extras, both courtesy of benoit mississippi, against the fruity booty tennessee williams / kazan script, and kazan’s contemptuous direction. the farm, bayou, and county are all named “tiger tails.” [wtf?] “aunt rose comfort” screams, runs in circles, and flaps her arms whenever the telephone rings. baker keeps talking about “forniture.” williams didn’t stay long in benoit. in the words of barton palmer, “he soon left, pleading the strange behavior of the townspeople toward him.” hmm, imagine that. i’m surprised they weren’t all lynched. “baby doll” was released (1956) four years after elia kazan [may the maggot writhe in hell] rat squealed to the mccarthy pigs. as could be expected, watching it is the moral and political equivalent of being trapped in an overturned port-a-potty. i guess mark smalley named uncle pleasant’s after the character here.

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