Baby Doll (1956)_____________________
"Strange, sad, and sexy, but only occasionally thoughtful in its organic absurdity....Baker's performance, however, is a quiet triumph."
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The combination of playwright Tennessee Williams and director Elia Kazan gave 1950's Hollywood something that had rarely been felt or experienced by any kind of public, movie-going or not. A public that had been accustomed to straight-laced conformity and tight moral codes of conduct, one that had been repressed from seeing the world they live in on screen and all of its unpolished ugliness. Baby Doll isn't the first of its kind, for sure, but it carries on a carefully constructed kind of world where eccentricity melds with the hurting humanity of those which make it up. Williams' trademark story elements are all set in place, but where this story takes its twist is rooted in its essential weirdness; though now opened up beyond the confinements of a stage (the film was written directly for the screen) and into a wider cinematic realm of bizzare-ness.
When it's summertime, and hot and sweaty in Tennesse Williams' glorious paradise, you know you're in for a treat, and here we find a child-woman stuck with an old repressed grump of a husband while he rants and raves about it. Simple enough? He wants her, she doesn't want him -- in fact, she's not sure what she wants. And I believe it is this compelling mystery that, for the most part, anchors Baby Doll from the get-go, and holds a stark point of interest throughout. Though there's still this strange sense that floats along with the sexy, erotic air which Williams and his director so charismatically infuse into the film, like a kind of overblown absurdity including adult sized cribs, rocking horses, a game of hide and seek, direct innuendos, and the vivid eccentricities of dialouge and characterization.
On first viewing, the movie seemed too shallow for its own good, all of this "show" and style (which many have shared the same feeling), but seeing it again, I've noticed that it's those trademarks of vibrant huamnity I've mentioned before that ground the absurdity into something plausible and organic. Rarely have I seen such complexities and narrative threads woven directly into a single character, as I have with Baby Doll Meighan. She is the story arc -- it is her growth that turns the narrative, and Carroll Baker does one helluva job handling this complex character with as much simplicity as she does. She tracks Baby Doll's change with a sense of ease, spontaneity, and discovery of intellect, sexual maturity, and integrity. It's one of the most underrated performances given by actress of the time or any time, and it's what makes the character resonate with vast emotional depth.
However, I'm not fully convinced that the movie itself pulls the same kind of emotional weight/narrative hooks in its plot development or surrounding characters. Maybe it's just hitting a blind spot for me, but what Kazan gets right is unbalanced occasionally with everything else because his imagination and ideas are not as fully rounded or satisfying as he maybe thought they were. His use of clarity in his expansivness of visual space is refreshing in context of the world outside, but inside its what's going on inside that feels eventually limited and repressed. For example the one-note roles of Archie Lee, Vacarro, and Aunt Rose only act as mere devices, than humane contributions to the narrative (as Baker's Baby Doll is). It's a big reason why A Streetcar Named Desire is such a gem, with imaginative and completley human characters that are not confined by any poorly shaped notions of writing or direction.
It's sad to see that while, Elia Kazan respects and nurtures the character of Baby Doll and to have her transcend, he leaves the rest of the project eventually flat and muddled with confusion, but the mystery of what Baby Doll desires still hangs, and thanks to Carroll Baker, it feels so much more rich and emotionally satisfying to leave it that way.
Baby Doll: B- / Carroll Baker: A
