Baby Doll

046089 / 16 / US / 1956 / Kazan, Elia / / drama

Baby Doll / Nukkevaimo. PC: Newtown Productions. P+D: Elia Kazan. SC: Tennessee Williams - based on two one-act plays of his own. DP: Boris Kaufman. M: Kenyon Hopkins. ”Shame Shame Shame”, ”Baby Please Don’t Go”. CAST: Karl Malden (Archie), Carroll Baker (Baby Doll), Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock. B&w Academy. 115’. MPAA Production Code Seal Of Approval 18129. BBFC: 16. NFTVA print with beautiful definition. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Tuesday 25 November 1997. ** Badly written, badly directed, and badly acted. But with beautiful cinematography and fine music. The play is dated, and the acting is histrionic. It is amazing to see the Actors Studio hystery resembling here the melodramatic acting style of the early years of the century. The stylization, the self-consciousness, and the nervous, mannered tics make it impossible to take these characters seriously. Then again, the composition and the definition of light are masterful. Someone should take out all the dialogue from Baby Doll and we would have a beautiful set of silent tableaux, with only music accompaniment.