Legendary director Elia Kazan never made happy-go-lucky movies. His cinema is comprised of sheer human drama, drama that includes characters at their often artificial highest and their damaging lowest. Sometimes full of sweat and grim, the Kazan oeuvre contains some of the greatest films ever made (including A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and East of Eden) that also showcases his talent as an influential actor’s director. However, his most underrated work, 1956’s Baby Doll, represented him at his most erotic and outrageous; it was also his only comedy (which was albeit satirical and dark).
The highly controversial Southern-fried drama (Kazan’s most notorious film), adapted from the Tennesee Williams play, stars Carroll Baker as “Baby Doll’ Meighan, a sultry 19-year-old, childlike nymph who is married to Archie Lee (Karl Malden), a weasely and crude cotton gin owner, who have an agreement not to have sex until she turns twenty. Since his cotton gin is failing, he secretly demolishes the gin of rival owner Silva Vacarro (the great Eli Wallach in his film debut) who delivers tons of cotton to Archie’s door. When Silva encounters Baby Doll, things gets really twisted. He seduces her as a means for revenge, in which she doesn’t exactly turn him away. As the film progresses, so does the sexual tension between Silva and Baby Doll. Archie catches wind of the attraction, and sets out to do something about it.
At the time, the film was one of the most infamous productions and condemned by the Catholic Church, but still became a hit and earned four Oscar nominations. When you watch it now, it doesn’t seem as salacious as it was in 1956, despite the now-iconic image of Baker sleeping in a crib, sucking her thumb. But you know, prudes will be prudes. I think it’s an uproarious comedy about human desire, where the white man (Archie Lee) gets the blunt end, and the immigrant (Silva) gets the upper hand. It also has incredible cinematography by Boris Kaufman and amazing performances from the entire cast, especially Wallach, who couldn’t have been more sexy and slyly charming.
Despite the extremely limited but worthwhile special features, which include a 2006 featurette (titled See No Evil) and a sizzling trailer, the new Warner Archive Blu-ray is still satisfying and should be a great addition to any classic movie lover and film buff’s collection.
Other releases:
Mandabi (Criterion): Ousmane Semebene’s second feature has an unemployed man who receives a money order for 25,000 francs from his nephew in Paris. This unexpected event spreads among his neighbors who flock to him for loans even as he tries to cash it. This obviously leads to some new troubles that befall in front of him.
San Francisco (Warner Archive): Clark Gable, Jeannette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy star in this 1936 melodrama disaster epic about the love triangle between a bawdy saloon owner (Gable), an opera singer (MacDonald), and a priest (Tracy) during the deadly earthquake of 1906.
Film Worker (Kino): A documentary about Leon Vitali, a promising actor who gave up his career to become Stanley Kubrick’s personal assistant after co-starring in his 1975 film Barry Lyndon.
The Kid Stays in the Picture (Kino): A documentary about Robert Evans’ rise from low-rent actor to head of one of the biggest movie studios in America to legendary producer, narrated by Evans himself.
Random Acts of Violence: Actor Jay Baruchel directs this horror-thriller about a pair of comic book writers that begin to discover frightening similarities between their characters and scary real-live events.
