esrosedotblog

SCANDALOUS!!!

Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film was

Baby Doll (1956)

I did not see this when it came out because it was pulled within a few weeks of its release by Warner Brothers.

There was a great hue and cry.

The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it and Cardinal Spellman (a known closet fag) proclaimed that any catholic who saw it was committing a sin.

Actually, in many respects, it is rather tame Tenessee Williams fare.

Directed by Elia Kazan, it is funny and sexy and full of great southern ambience.

The funny thing is that, while Williams' world is bizarre, the reality of the town and its people (many of the minor actors are locals) grounds it all.

The faces are great. The old wrecked plantation where it takes place has the darkies and the mules and pigs and all.

Karl Malden and Eli Wallach contend for the 'hand' of Carroll Baker. Well, see, she is married to Malden but the deal was that they would not 'do it' until she reached the age of nineteen.

Wallach does or doesn't do it.

Part of his revenge on Malden for burning his cotton gin.

Well, see, now we are deep into Williams land.

I liked it a lot.

It is funny and intense and the cinematography is wonderful and the locals and locale make it stay grounded and not waft away.

Speaking of wafting, there is the great Mildred Dunnock playing Miss Rose Comfort (who someone mistakenly calls Miss Rose Coffin).

This is Williams' stock character who appears in all his work; his lobotomized sister Rose.

No stone is left unturned.

Be sure to watch the short 'talk' by Baker, Wallach, and Malden. I rarely do this but I could not resist after I took a short sample. They had me with the first lines.

This is a definite 5 out of Netflix5.

And, for those of you who are not old enough to remember how stifled the Fifties were, this will be a good one to see. What got everyones panties all twisted?

But, it was films like this that started to break through.

The truly shocking thing is that a film by two such masters as Williams and Kazan could be so easily suppressed.

Those were the Dark Ages.

Are we heading back?