Review: Baby Doll

Set in sleazy Mississippi, middle-aged and balding Archie Lee (Karl Malden) isn’t having a good time of it. His child bride (albeit 19 years old!) nicknamed ‘Baby Doll’ (Carroll Baker) won’t let him consummate their marriage until she’s 20. It’s part of an agreement between Archie Lee and the girl’s father, made on his death bed, and one she’s not especially keen to honour anymore. He is ridiculed by the other townsfolk due to this rather humiliating situation. Meanwhile, his cotton business isn’t going so well, made even worse by the arrival of slick Sicilian Silva Vaccaro (Eli Wallach), who has a more sophisticated alternative. One night, Silva’s cotton gin burns down and he gets wind of rumours that Archie Lee might’ve been the one responsible for it. Silva responds by heading up to Archie Lee’s decaying mansion (which has recently had practically all the furniture taken away) and that’s when he meets ‘Baby Doll’ and decides to seduce her before Archie Lee has had his chance (She turns 20 in just two days). But is revenge his only motive for wanting to bed the girl? Mildred Dunnock plays the long-suffering, daffy Aunt Rose, who lives with Archie and ‘Baby Doll’.

 

Changing times have definitely dulled the once-controversial edge of this 1956 Elia Kazan (“A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Panic in the Streets”, “On the Waterfront”) film scripted by an Oscar-nominated Tennessee Williams, from his own original work (It was his debut screenplay). Seeing it after all this time has lapsed, I was surprised that this story of a supposed ‘child bride’ was in fact, a film about a 19 year-old. In Australia, an 18 year-old is considered an adult, let alone a 19 year-old (and the age of consent for sex is lower than that in both here and the US), so I have to admit to scratching my head about this one a bit. I get that it’s not the same in all countries, but as an Australian, it’s hard to get terribly worked up over a 19 year-old being pursued by a couple of fellas. I’m not condoning it or anything, simply not shocked or incensed. Despite the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency jumping all over it at the time, this isn’t “Lolita” in the slightest. Unless the fact that the title character is a thumb-sucking virgin is shocking to you, it’s much ado about nothing in that regard, at least in Australia and in 2016. I just found the idea of an adult sucking their thumb to be kinda weird and pathetic, more than anything.

 

What did, however strike me whilst watching this film is that, although I’m not particularly interested in women that young, it’s still an undeniably sexy film for its time. The swing scene between Baker and Wallach in particular is very, very suggestive. Having ‘Baby Doll’ be 19 does deflate the film’s supposed controversy a whole lot (perhaps not for Americans, I can’t say), but this sure is a sexy film in a rather sleazy way and typical Tennessee Williams (“Night of the Iguana”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”) material. It’s also a terrific-looking film in a rundown, Hicksville USA kinda way, and contains three excellent performances and interesting characters. Eli Wallach may not strike you as naturally sexy, but he absolutely steals this film in a terrific, sly performance that indeed has captivated some female viewers I’ve read. Meanwhile, Carroll Baker is such an underrated, underutilised actress. We all know that her career kinda took a wrong turn into exploitation and foreign films that she never quite recovered from, but on her day she was bloody good. This is clearly one of those days, even if she’s the most 25 year old-looking 19 year-old you’ve ever done seen. I suspect that someone younger might not have given as good a performance as Ms. Baker does, so that’s fair enough with me. A remarkably sleazy and pathetic Karl Malden disappears for a while in the mid-section, but when he reappears he acts up a storm. Choice little character part for the eccentric Mildred Dunnock too (she and Baker earned the only acting Oscar nominations, sadly), whilst Rip Torn can be seen briefly in his film debut as a young dentist. The acting really is the one thing that has retained its power here, with Eli Wallach giving an amazing debut film performance, one of the best screen debut performances you’ll ever see.

 

A good and great-looking film, but one that has dated considerably and is never as great as you’d like to be. It probably caused a stir at the time, but even then it’s likely not because of the lead character’s age. Surely not? Terrific ending still causes debate to this day, though I reckon it’s pretty clear what would be likely to happen (or not happen) next. Excellent sax score by Kenyon Hopkins (“The Hustler”) is a highlight.

 

Rating: B-