Baby Doll

For other uses, see Baby Doll (disambiguation).

Baby Doll
theatrical release poster
Directed by	Elia Kazan
Produced by	Elia Kazan Tennessee Williams
Written by	Tennessee Williams
Starring	Karl Malden Carroll Baker Eli Wallach
Music by	Kenyon Hopkins
Cinematography	Boris Kaufman
Editing by	Gene Milford
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 18, 1956 (1956-12-18)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Baby Doll is a 1956 black comedy /drama film directed by Elia Kazan. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. It stars Karl Malden, Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach, in his feature-film debut, and features Mildred Dunnock and Rip Torn.

The film was controversial when it was released, provoking a largely successful effort to ban it, waged by the (Catholic) National Legion of Decency. Nevertheless, the film received nominations for major awards. Elia Kazan won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the film was nominated for four other Golden Globe awards, as well as four Academy awards and four BAFTA Awards awards, with Eli Wallach taking the BAFTA prize for "Most Promising Newcomer to Film."

The film is credited with originating the name and popularity of the babydoll nightgown, which derives from the costume worn by Baker's character.

Plot

In the Mississippi Delta, failing, bigoted, middle-aged cotton gin-owner Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden) has been married to pretty, empty-headed 19-year old virgin Baby Doll Meighan (Carroll Baker) for two years. Archie impatiently waits for Baby Doll's 20th birthday just a few days away when, by prior agreement with Baby Doll's dying father, the marriage can finally be consummated. In the meantime, Baby Doll still sleeps in a crib, wearing childish shorty-nightgowns and sucking her thumb, while Archie spies on her through a hole in a wall of their decrepit antebellum mansion, "Fox Tail."

Archie's competitor, Sicilian Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach), who owns a newer and more modern cotton gin, has taken away all of Archie's business, and Archie retaliates by burning down Vacarro's gin. Suspecting Archie as the arsonist, Vacarro plans his revenge: he will pursue and seduce Baby Doll and terrorize her into signing an affidavit admitting her husband's guilt.

Cast

• Karl Malden as Archie Lee Meighan
• Carroll Baker as Baby Doll Meighan
• Eli Wallach as Silva Vacarro
• Mildred Dunnock as Aunt Rose Comfort
• Lonny Chapman as Rock
• Eades Hogue as Town Marshal
• Noah Williamson as Deputy
• R.G. Armstrong as Townsman Sid (voice only, uncredited)
• Madeleine Sherwood as Nurse in Doctor's Office (uncredited)
• Rip Torn as Dentist (uncredited)

Cast notes

• Both Eli Wallach and Rip Torn made their film debuts in Baby Doll. It was Carroll Baker's second film, having previously appeared in Giant.

Production

Although the film's title card says "Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll", and the film is based on Williams' one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, in his autobiography director Elia Kazan claimed that Williams was only "half-heartedly" involved in writing the screenplay, of which Kazan himself actually wrote the majority. The film was shot in Benoit, Mississippi in the J.C. Burrus house, built in 1848, the only antebellum house in Bolivar County. Other locations were Greenville, Mississippi and New York City. According to Kazan, Williams did not stay long while the film was shooting in Benoit, because of the way people looked at him. Some locals were used for minor roles, and one, "Boll Weevil" not only acted but was the production unit's utility man as well.

The working titles for the film included the name of the play and "Mississippi Woman"; actress Carroll Baker claims that Kazan changed the title to Baby Doll as a present to her. Although Baker was Kazan's first choice for the role, Williams would have preferred to see Marilyn Monroe get the part.

Response

The film received a seal from the Motion Picture Code, but the Catholic Legion of Decency gave it a "C" ("Condemned") rating and called it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency." They succeeded in having the film withdrawn from release in most U.S. theaters because of their objections over its sexual themes. Variety noted that it was the first time in years that the Legion had condemned a major American film which had received the approval of the Code.

Other religious figures became involved in the controversy surrounding the film, including Francis J. Spellman, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, who called it "sinful" and forbade Catholics in the archdiocese to see the film and James A. Pike of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, who countered Spellman by pointing out that there was more "sensuality" in the film The Ten Commandments than there was in Baby Doll, and argued that "the church's duty is not to prevent adults from having the experience of this picture, but to give them a wholesome basis for interpretation and serious answers to questions that were asked with seriousness." Others agreed with Pike, including the Catholic Archbishop of Paris and the head of the Catholic film Institute in the U.K., while the Catholic Bishop of Albany, New York also forbade Catholics to see the film, which the American Civil Liberties Union objected to as a violation of the First Amendment.

The movie was banned in many countries, such as Sweden, due to what was called exaggerated sexual content. The film was also condemned by Time magazine, which called it the "dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited". Due in part to the attempts to have it banned or suppressed, the film was not a commercial success. Kazan reported that it never made a profit.

Awards and honors

• Academy Awards nominations (1956)
  • Best Actress – Carroll Baker
  • Best Adapted Screenplay – Tennessee Williams
  • Best Black and White Cinematography – Boris Kaufman
  • Best Supporting Actress – Mildred Dunnock

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards nominations (1957)
  • Most Promising Newcomer – Eli Wallach – winner
  • Best Film from any Source
  • Best Foreign Actor – Karl Malden
  • Best Foreign Actress – Carroll Baker

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Awards nominations (1957)
  • Best Director – Elia Kazan – winner
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Karl Malden
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Eli Wallach
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Carroll Baker
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Mildred Dunnock

• Writers Guild of America WGA Awards nominations (1957)
  • Best Written American Drama (Screen) – Tennessee Williams

References

Notes

External links

• Baby Doll at the Internet Movie Database
• Baby Doll at the TCM Movie Database
• Baby Doll at AllRovi