Elia Kazan's difficult and controversial drama is one that certainly raised objections when it was released in the 1950s, but looking at it today it feels almost fresh and of the times. Carroll Baker gives a startling performance as the title role, a spoiled brat of a teenage girl who was married off before her father died but refuses to consummate her marriage until she turns twenty. Her husband is the racist, disgruntled and failed cotton businessman Archie Lee, portrayed perfectly by Karl Malden, a Kazan favorite.
What really sets off the turn of events is the arrival of Silva Vacarro, a successful cotton gin owner who has a feud to pick with Archie and arrives on his decaying property to continue his business. Being everything Archie is not, Vacarro begins going after Baby Doll and it is their scenes together that set most people off when this first came out. True, the sexual tension is as heavy as molasses, but besides that there are some truly funny scenes as when Vacarro is running throughout the house trying to convince Baby Doll it is haunted or when she is explaining why her Aunt Rose really likes to go to the hospital.
These scenes and others showcase writer Tennessee Williams' biting humor as well as Elia Kazan's talent to be able to show more than just a sexually- hungry young virgin prancing about with a dirty old husband yelling at her. These are desperate people but they have a goal and ambition to match. Of course this isn't for everybody but for those willing to take a wild and unusual trip into the south, perhaps no other film better explores it than Baby Doll.
What really sets off the turn of events is the arrival of Silva Vacarro, a successful cotton gin owner who has a feud to pick with Archie and arrives on his decaying property to continue his business. Being everything Archie is not, Vacarro begins going after Baby Doll and it is their scenes together that set most people off when this first came out. True, the sexual tension is as heavy as molasses, but besides that there are some truly funny scenes as when Vacarro is running throughout the house trying to convince Baby Doll it is haunted or when she is explaining why her Aunt Rose really likes to go to the hospital.
These scenes and others showcase writer Tennessee Williams' biting humor as well as Elia Kazan's talent to be able to show more than just a sexually- hungry young virgin prancing about with a dirty old husband yelling at her. These are desperate people but they have a goal and ambition to match. Of course this isn't for everybody but for those willing to take a wild and unusual trip into the south, perhaps no other film better explores it than Baby Doll.