Baby Doll

Composite Score: 84.97

Starring: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock, Lonny Chapman, Eades Hogue, and Noah Williamson

Director: Elia Kazan

Writer: Tennessee Williams

Genres: Comedy, Drama

MPAA Rating: Approved

Box Office: $2.30 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Baby Doll is the film adaptation from Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams of Williams’s one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. The film follows Archie Lee Meighan and his wife, 19-year-old Baby Doll, as they work to outwit each other – Archie to gain her approval by her 20th birthday so that they can finally consummate their marriage and Baby Doll to spoil that hope and to make him ever more jealous so that maybe he can prove himself to be a man worthy of her hand in marriage. It stars Karl Malden as Meighan and Carroll Baker as Baby Doll, joined by Eli Wallach as the Italian businessman partially responsible for Meighan’s less-than-successful state – Silva Vacarro – and Mildred Dunnock as the Meighan’s live-in maid/supportive old relative Aunt Rose Comfort. It received Oscar nominations for its screenplay, cinematography, and for the performances of both Baker and Dunnock. Its inspection of marital relationships, love, adolescence, and familial ties has made it another classic from Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                 I think most people are aware of Tennessee Williams’s complex relationship with female characters in his stories, and that comes through yet again in Baby Doll, leaving the audience somewhat offput by his treatment of his titular character. On the one hand, she is a strong woman, in control of her own sexuality and experiencing some fairly powerful character development. Unfortunately, she also happens to serve as the primary motivation for the actions of Archie Meighan and as the primary object of manipulation and general gaslighting for Silva, leaving her as an objectified and often incapable and naïve character. I do want to credit Williams for villainizing the treatment of Baby Doll (and also her aunt) by the men in the film, but the conclusion for the two women leaves them very much in the hands of the men who have treated them poorly with little prospect to set out toward true independence. The story goes in some interesting directions in its exploration of femininity and female agency, but I think the ending and ultimate result for our heroine leaves something to be desired.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Williams’s script, flawed though it may be in its treatment of his female protagonist and her aunt and their relationships with the two leading men, does offer audiences an interesting examination of the gender roles and sexual ethic of the South in the 1950s. The tension constantly at play in the relationship between Baby Doll and both Archie and Silva offers a well-acted portrayal of some of that clearly on display. Her disdain for Archie because of his inability to provide (and his age) says a lot about some of the more flawed views on marriage (at least among the “gentry”) from the era and the region, in particular. Archie’s obsession with his much younger wife’s sexuality offers a critique of the role that the men played in the proliferation of those problematic systems as well. The awakening she feels in her interactions with Silva offer a glimpse at an alternative but one just as flawed because those feelings are based on manipulation and Silva’s selfish ambition, not purely genuine romance. It offers audiences a cynicism about relationships and marriage that comes through in the performances of these characters as well. Each, including Dunnock’s Aunt Rose, offer a different response to Williams’s perceived state of affairs. For Baby Doll, the best way to handle it is to maintain distance from men, using sexuality to manipulate the weak ones to her will, while remaining as seemingly helpless as possible to keep drawing them in. Silva’s response is similar, but blunter, rejecting the value of romantic relationships at all in favor of transactional interactions that benefit one or both parties. Aunt Rose chooses to soldier on, hoping that the shift in norms will eventually right itself, all while becoming more and more distant from actual reality. But Archie’s response is the weakest of all, choosing to lash out (presupposing modern incels) and groom because he can’t see a woman as anything but an object for his desires or a servant to do his bidding.

                With its fascinating exploration of gender and sexuality in the 1950s American South and a quartet of solid acting performances at its head, Baby Doll earns a place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Its complex treatment of its female characters might not sit right with every audience, but I’m not totally convinced that it’s supposed to. This film is currently available to rent on most streaming platforms for those of you looking to dive into the film’s discourse.