Movie: Baby Doll (Elia Kazan, 1956)
In my write-up of And God Created Women I joked that in the fight for youth culture's attention the French upstaged the Americans by presenting Brigitte Bardot as a sort of combination of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. I did not know then that Baby Doll, released in the same year, is equally explicit about the rebelliousness and sexuality of its female lead, while being a far better, funnier and (t)hornier film. On the one hand that should not be a surprise; Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams and Carroll Baker are an obvious upgrade over Roger Vadim, Raoul Lévy and Brigitte Bardot. On the other hand it goes against current preconceptions that a film made and set in rural Mississippi by people working within the Hollywood studio system is steamier and more liberated than a film made and set in St. Tropez. Baby Doll is basically a black comedy that treats rural Mississippians as ordinary people with flaws, desires and inconsistencies around which you can create a sexy and darkly funny yarn, rather than as easily digestible (political) symbols.
If you don't believe me that this is a great film, take it from the Catholic Church. It condemned the film for being a "moral danger" and for its "carnal suggestiveness" that offended traditional standards of "morality and decency." This campaign nearly sunk the film, as theaters started removing it from their slate. While the censorious instincts of the Catholic Church are wrong, its assessment of the film is correct. And you can't really blame the Church for being behind with the times. If Baby Doll were released today, it would likely be among the most controversial films of the year. It introduces the 19-year old 'Baby Doll' Meighan as she is sleeping in a crib, sucking her thumb. She is watched from a peephole in the adjacent room by her much older husband Archie Lee (Karl Malden) who is waiting for her to turn 20 (in three days) so they can finally consummate their marriage. Baby Doll may be of legal age (and Carroll Baker was 25 at the film's release), but she is presented as emotionally and educationally immature and is often shot to appear much younger (as in the aforementioned crib scene). The film directly connects this immaturity to her attractiveness, and then complicates it by making her smarter and worldlier than her husband, and in better control of her sexual desires. Even before Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach), the most successful cotton farmer in the region, comes into the picture you get the feeling that it's highly unlikely Archie Lee, who is forced to sell their entire furniture when his cotton business goes downhill, will get what he wants on Baby Doll's 20th birthday.
When Silva's cotton gin burns down, he quickly deduces who has been the culprit and makes his way to the Meighan's. There, Archie Lee tries to sell him his cotton, acting like he is doing him a favor as a good neighbor, in the process creating a situation where he has to leave his 'Sicilian' rival alone with his wife on the farm. It is immediately obvious that there is much more sexual attraction between them than between Baby Doll and her husband. Aware of this, Silva starts seducing her, first in a long menacing sequence where they circle around each other on the porch, while the camera moves closer and closer in on them until you feel that Baby Doll can't escape either the frame or Silva's grip, leaving her both deeply uncomfortable and deeply aroused. This is followed by another long sequence, this time a hilariously executed childlike game of hide and seek around the furniture-less house where it's never clear to what extent Baby Doll enjoys herself and sees this as a flirty game with a sexy Italian she is attracted to, and to what extent she is terrified. Throughout all this, Carroll Baker is presented in the most attractive way that a shot will allow. The film wants you to feel about Baby Doll in the same way that the characters in the film feel about her.
Finally, Silva manages to contrive a situation that forces Baby Doll to sign an affidavit testifying that Archie Lee did indeed burn down his cotton gin. But is that all he wants? Has he not fallen in love with Baby Doll too? The ambiguity of Silva's intentions up until the film's end leads to a couple of wonderful final lines. These should not overshadow the rest of the film's dialogue. It feels authentic, while being heavily stylised and literate. I am one of those people who very much likes it when a film's origins as a play are obvious and greatly enjoyed the archness of some of the dialogue, and how much the film is in love with its showy sentences. Elia Kazan makes sure to highlight it, always ceding the attention to the screenplay (It definitely made me want to read more stuff by Tennessee Williams) and the actors. Eli Wallach and Carroll Baker are especially great, building on each other's performances to create two incredibly charismatic and memorable characters. They have great chemistry together and never allow us to get a fully conclusive understanding of their characters' intentions, motivations and feelings, in part because they know that Baby Doll and Silva themselves are not really sure about their intentions, motivations and feelings.
While the film film's greatest pleasures are more attributable to Williams and the actors, it's hard to argue that Elia Kazan doesn't assert himself. This is very much a film made from an immigrant's point of view, gleefully making fun of 'the American, traditional way of life', while emphasising the intelligence and casual nonchalance of Silva, especially in comparison to the other characters in the film. Apart from being cuckolded by Silva in plain view (while also losing his cook to him), Karl Malden's Archie Lee is humiliated in other ways throughout the film. Whenever he makes a mistake at the farm, Kazan cuts to the black farm workers ridiculing him. In town, Chinese immigrants laugh at him for his sexless marriage. At the doctor's, the assistant with the foreign accent is scolding him for being late and at the end of the film he is incensed at the sheriff for being treated like a black man in custody. There is no scene in the film in which Archie Lee doesn't get the short end of the stick, and his steadily growing frustration and desperation is among the funniest aspects of the film. There is definitely some schadenfreude and pettiness involved in this portrayal, but Kazan is also not entirely unsympathetic to his plight, knowing that the times are changing fast. and that the safeguards that were always protecting people like him are suddenly disappearing. Archie can't adjust and ends the film with no sex, no wife, no money, no hair, no furniture, no cook, no cotton, and no black folks who will pick it for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment