Baby Doll
Baby Doll is a 1956 American black comedy and drama film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, and Eli Wallach. The film also features Mildred Dunnock and Rip Torn. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from his own one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. The plot focuses on a feud between two rival cotton gin owners in rural Mississippi; after one of the men commits arson against the other's gin, the owner retaliates by attempting to seduce the arsonist's nineteen-year-old virgin bride with the hopes of receiving an admission by her of her husband's guilt.
The film was controversial when it was released due to its implicit sexual themes, provoking a largely successful effort to ban it, waged by the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency. Nevertheless, the film received multiple nominations for major awards and performed decently at the box office. 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. The film was featured in The New York Times' Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.
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, an alcoholic, spies on her through a hole in a wall of their decrepit antebellum mansion, Fox Tail. Baby Doll's senile Aunt Rose Comfort (Mildred Dunnock) lives in the house as well.
After Archie fails to make payments to a furniture leasing company, virtually all of the furniture in the house is repossessed and Baby Doll threatens to leave. 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 that same night. Suspecting Archie as the arsonist, Vacarro plans a revenge plot and visits the farm the following day with truckloads of cotton, offering to pay Archie Lee to gin for him.
Meanwhile, Baby Doll is asked to entertain Vacarro, and the two spend the day visiting on the farm, where Vacarro explicitly inquires about Archie's whereabouts the night before and makes sexual advances toward Baby Doll. After Vacarro outright accuses Archie of burning down his gin, Baby Doll goes to confront Archie, and he slaps her in the face and leaves for town to purchase new parts for the gin.
Vacarro comforts Baby Doll, and after becoming friendly and chasing each other throughout the house, Vacarro forces her to sign an affidavit admitting to Archie's guilt. He then takes a nap in Baby Doll's crib and is invited for supper at Baby Doll's request as a storm approaches.
Archie, drunk and jealous of Baby Doll's romantic interest in Vacarro, is short-tempered at dinner, and tells Aunt Rose she needs to move out of the house; Vacarro immediately offers to let her live with him as his cook, and he and Baby Doll flirt with one another and taunt Archie. After Vacarro confronts Archie with the affidavit, Archie retrieves his shotgun and chases Vacarro outside while Baby Doll calls the police.
The police arrive, and Archie is arrested when Vacarro presents them with the affidavit. Ecstatic at his victory, Vacarro leaves the farm, abandoning Baby Doll but saying he will be back the following day with more cotton. As Archie is taken away by the police, Baby Doll and her Aunt Rose return inside the house, awaiting Vacarro's return.
Legacy
Through its overt sexual undertones and public controversy, Baby Doll helped establish actress Carroll Baker's status as a sex symbol in Hollywood.
It is also widely believed that Carroll Baker's style in the film as Baby Doll was a main inspiration for the 1990s kinderwhore fashion that was popularized by Hole vocalist/guitarist Courtney Love. The second song on Hole's debut album was also named after the film.
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root