Baby Doll
I won’t go any further than Katz’s remark. What I argue is within my limits, being a Kazan admirer. He has indeed achieved incredible success. In the eyes of many, I see the incredible Elia Kazan, who was able to perform the impossible to create a strong character from a poor actor. First of all, I have great respect for Kazan and have had the pleasure of watching some of his films, including A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront.
The film is unusually complex and ambiguous, as can be expected of Kazan’s work. It cannot be was made without Kazan’s charm, style, and nous. I believe his potential was fully utilized in the production of this film. Baby Doll was one of them as Kazan was successful in producing some movies independently and they were all following in acclaim to pictures such as East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause.
Archie Lee Meighan who is in his mid-forties is just getting used to being married to his nineteen-year-old wife by the name Baby Doll whose actual name is Caroll Baker. This marriage was enabled by Baby Doll’s dying father as it guaranteed Baby Doll some provision, and it would not be consummated until the year in which she reached 20, the date is only just a few days away.
The husband has completely failed in fulfilling the marriage obligation, moving his spouse into a ruins that certainly is an ideal for his quit yet still active cotton ginning business. Baby Doll now spends most of her time in a crib, which seemed to be the only piece of furniture in the room meant for her other than her husband’s bed, and has resigned herself to cursing him for his impotence most of the time.
While their furniture is being taken away, Baby Doll asserts that she will check into a hotel. Archie drives off sullenly and stumbles upon a party organized by his business rival, Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach). Archie destroys Silva’s business more while the latter is getting drunk celebrating. In the morning, the destruction is seen and Silva immediately points a finger towards Archie. He runs to his property where the Italian begs him to pour him some gin to ease his pain, while Silva plays his cards close to his chest. But when Silva finally meets Baby Doll, he knows he has someone who will tell him the truth and who he can use to get back at Archie.
Although this film may bear the name Tennessee Williams on its script, Kazan stated that the writer had no passion for the picture. Blankett. The screenplay of the film is based on William’s one-act play ‘27 Wagons Full of Cotton’. As was his practice in most of his films, he turned to the Actors School in New York for the film casting. Their program’s graduates Baker, Malden, and Wallach also employed Stainslavski system in their works. So, the synthesis brings forth a set of talents that are emotionally boiling and ready to explode but who emphasize more on interactions and relationships.
In this narrative, all the characters are lifelike filthy, low-class, screaming, and vicious. This is the kind of milieu that Kazan is an expert of, sexually charged and stunning the audience. Baker blows up expectations, not letting Baby Doll be a brainless sex symbol but rather a young spoiled woman resentful to her husband and fully cognizant of the coldness of the union. Silva is precisely the opposite of what Archie is, over the top and sweaty with manic energy. The Sicilian American cotton baron is unhurried and cool, padded around the Meighan’s Antebelum mansion waiting to pounce.
The tonal shifts of Baby Doll are difficult to pin down, for it does lose tone during the second act into a crude parody. I suppose this is meant to be funny, but action in the third seems to evoke a serious meditation on some failure of an area in America which has so much wrong with it. There are quite a few moments in the story where the plot takes the interesting comic narration of the Canterbury Tales and with it they incorporate a jazz score to the film.
I wouldn’t say this is one of my more preferred works of Kazan pictures because the editing is very unpolished and there are scenes with very bad ADR. These technical imperfections really took me out of what might have been a aural work of great beauty. Rather, it is just one among many other masterpieces of this director.
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