Baby Doll - Do not desire the other woman
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Baby Doll - Do not desire the other woman |
| Original title | Baby doll |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 114 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Elia Kazan |
| script | Tennessee Williams |
| production | Elia Kazan Tennessee Williams |
| music | Kenyon Hopkins |
| camera | Boris Kaufman |
| cut | Gene Milford |
| occupation | |
| |
Baby Doll - Do not covet the other's wife is an American film drama made in 1956 by director Elia Kazan , based on the play 27 wagons full of cotton ( 27 Wagons Full of Cotton ) by Tennessee Williams .
content
The rough Archie Lee Meighan lives in the US-American south near a small town with his wife "Baby Doll" and his old, mentally confused aunt Rose Comfort. The marriage has not yet been consummated because the cotton farmer had to promise his father-in-law three years ago not to lay hands on his teenage bride, who never finished fourth grade, before her 20th birthday. This event, longed for by Lee, is to be celebrated tomorrow.
Meighan's economy is facing bankruptcy. His cotton mill stands still; he himself is fond of alcohol. He blames his failure on the immigrant Sicilian Silva Vacarro, who founded a successful planter syndicate. When the furniture he bought on installments was picked up in the afternoon, Meighan set fire to Vacarro's new processing building out of anger. However, the experienced Italian knows where to find the arsonist and visits the Meighans in their run-down country house to be certain. Vacarro eats with them and pretends to give Archie Lee the current orders. The hysterical amusement suddenly turns serious when the successful farmer starts hooking up with Baby Doll. This is driven between simplicity, ignorance and coldness on the one hand and calculation and a hidden need for tenderness on the other. Vacarro awakens the first sexual needs in the girl who is still sleeping in her old cot and sucking her thumb. It falls for the Italian and confesses that his jealous husband started the fire.
background
The film developed into one of the biggest scandal films in US cinema history. Cinemas were besieged by demonstrators, pastors called for a boycott. There were lawsuits and injunctions. Bomb threats meant that cinemas had to be evacuated, and cinema operators took the film out of their programs in a row. The Catholic Legion of Decency and New York Cardinal Spellman encouraged the film to be censored for its portrayal of sexual issues. They saw the film as "the most pernicious work and the dirtiest ripper that ever came out of Hollywood's devil's kitchen" . Kazan himself described the title character as "a mixture of marzipan and cement."
The set designer for the film was Richard Sylbert , and Rip Torn made his film debut in a small role as a dentist . Baby Doll was also the film debut for Eli Wallach . The garment was later named babydoll after the title role .
Reviews
- Bosley Crowther ( The New York Times ) described Williams' screenplay as if the ghosts of Endstation Sehnsucht had got stuck in the morass of Erskine Caldwell's famous Tobacco Road . Williams' "worthless, vicious characters" are "clinically interesting" . The actors Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock and Eli Wallach would “almost decompose” the screen under Elia Kazan's “excellent direction ” .
- Time described Baby Doll in its contemporary criticism as "arguably the dirtiest American movie that has ever been legally shown." The film deliberately sparked outrage. Elia Kazan couldn't decide whether to tell "a dark poem or just a dirty joke" . The acting performances of his veterans are "artistic" .
- “As a calculated portrayal of inferior characters, masterfully precise, but the captivating sensuality in the harmony of subject, image and dialogue leads to a negative overall impression. Not advised. ” - 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 35
- Lexicon of international films : Based on a book by Tennessee Williams, the film coldly and precisely, but not without irony, depicts the decline of a family through repressed and uncontrolled passions.
Awards
- The film was nominated for the Academy Award in 1957 in four categories : Best Actress in a Leading Role (Carroll Baker), Best Supporting Role (Mildred Dunnock), Best Cinematography (black and white), and Best Screenplay .
- Eli Wallach won a British Film Academy Award in the category Best Newcomer ( Most Promising Newcomer ) and was just as Carroll Baker and Karl Malden for a Golden Globe Award nomination.
- Elia Kazan won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, Caroll Baker the Award for Best Young Actress .
literature
- Tennessee Williams: Baby Doll. Screenplay (original title: Baby Doll , translated by Donata Elschenbroich ). Film review , Frankfurt am Main 1967, DNB 458657077 , OCLC 32880171 , (= Cinemathek , Volume 20).
- Tennessee Williams: 27 wagons full of cotton (OT: 27 wagons full of cotton ). Österreichischer Bühnenverlag Kaiser & Co., Vienna undated
- Baby Doll - Do not desire the other woman . In: Stefan Volk, Barbara Scherschlicht: Scandal Films. Cinematic excitement yesterday and today . Schüren, Marburg 2011. pp. 106-109. ISBN 978-3-89472-562-4
Web links
- Baby Doll - Do not covet the other woman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Baby Doll - Do not desire the other woman in the lexicon of international films
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Stefan Volk: Scandal films. Cinematic excitement yesterday and today . Marburg 2011, p. 108-109 .
- ↑ cf. Baby doll . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006. - ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1
- ↑ cf. Criticism in the film service 07/1957
- ↑ cf. Crowther, Bosley: Screen: Streetcar on Tobacco Road; Williams-Kazan 'Baby Doll' Is at Victoria . In: The New York Times, December 19, 1956
- ↑ cf. Review at time.com, December 24, 1956
- ↑ Baby Doll - Do not desire the other woman. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .