Baby Doll
Directed by	Elia Kazan
Produced by	Elia Kazan Tennessee Williams
Written by	Tennessee Williams
Starring	Karl Malden Carroll Baker Eli Wallach Mildred Dunnock
Music by	Kenyon Hopkins
Editing by	Gene Milford
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 18, 1956
Running time	114 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Baby Doll is a 1956 film which tells the story of the childlike bride of a Mississippi cotton gin owner, who becomes the pawn in a battle between her husband and his enemy. It stars Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach and Mildred Dunnock.^[1] This was Wallach's feature film debut.

The screenplay was written by Tennessee Williams and was based on his one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. The movie was directed by Elia Kazan. It was filmed in Benoit, Mississippi, in an antebellum home, the only one in Mississippi's Bolivar County.

Elia Kazan won the Golden Globe award for Best Director for Baby Doll. It was also nominated for four other Golden Globe awards, four Academy awards and four British Academy^[2] awards, with Eli Wallach taking the BAFTA prize for "Most Promising Newcomer to Film."

While the costume design was not nominated, the film is credited with both the name and originating the popularity of the babydoll nightgown, which derives from the costume worn by Baker's character.

The Catholic Legion of Decency succeeded in having the film withdrawn from release in most U.S. theaters because of their objections over its sexual themes. The movie was banned in many countries like Sweden, due to what was called exaggerated sexual content. The film was also condemned by Time, which called it the "dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited".^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Baby Doll at the Internet Movie Database
• Carroll Baker Baby Doll Fan Club

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baby Doll (film)

v • d • e Films directed by Elia Kazan 1940s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) • The Sea of Grass (1947) • Boomerang! (1947) • Gentleman's Agreement (1947) • Pinky (1949) 1950s Panic in the Streets (1950) • A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) • Viva Zapata! (1952) • Man on a Tightrope (1953) • On the Waterfront (1954) • East of Eden (1955) • Baby Doll (1956) • A Face in the Crowd (1957) 1960s Wild River (1960) • Splendor in the Grass (1961) • America, America (1963) • The Arrangement (1969) 1970s The Visitors (1972) • The Last Tycoon (1976)