Watch Baby Doll For Free

That was an excellent one.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A leering, absurd comedy-drama set in good ole' Mississippi in the mid-1950's, "Baby Doll" is full of the hardscrabble rural raunch that Tennessee Williams always managed to grow his best crops in. A sultry Carol Baker plays the child-bride of blustery ever-distracted blow-hard Karl Malden, who's business rival (expertly played by Eli Wallach in his film debut) turns up the heat after he suspects Malden of torching his cotton mill.Wallach's character is bent on receiving satisfaction, regardless of what form it takes. The acting is, at times, enjoyably over-the-top, and the entire cast is undeniably watchable. Baker and Wallach ignite more than their share of mutual sexual tension, to the point where one would gain some understanding as to why this film was so famously condemned when it was first released over a half-century ago. Although less smutty by today's standards, it positively sweats!

BABY DOLL is not a popular choice but in my opinion it is the best thing Tennessee Wiliams ever wrote. It's his loosest successful dramatization; his hair is down, yet it is the most symbolically lucid of his parables conveying the tragic predicament of the New South. If STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE's subtext was Stanley Kowalski raping the former genteel order in the form of Blance Dubois, here the sexual conceit is wittier and the question of where it is ultimately headed far more ambiguous. Film has a surprising resemblance to Bunuel's VIRIDIANA, but Williams' despairing anatomy lesson is less withholding than the proud Spanaird's; it's also funnier.Kazan's direction is typically loud and unsubtle (loudness for Kazan always equaled vitality), still, the approach in this rare instance is less pat than usual primarily because, though what Malden and Wallach do is pretty much expected, Carroll Baker's performance is a stunner - what "the Method" always preaches but seldom delivers: a fresh, consistently spontaneous response to the dramatic shifts in the story. Nice to see 'Gadge' not smothering everything with his oppressively obvious personality; instead, playing things out, actually curious where at least one of his characters might take him.Small-scale; far from perfect (in fact, large chunks of it play like the Carol Burnett-Vicki Lawrence "Mama's Family Show", but also purposefully shocking, outrageous and surprisingly good.Rating: 7.5Was this review helpful to you?

I first saw this film in the late 1960's at one of the great lower Manhattan revival art houses. They were a great place to get an education in cinema, usually showing a double feature for about $2. I must have been about 16 and I thought this film was about the sexiest I had ever seen. I immediately fell in love with Carroll Baker.Seeing it again more than 40 years later, it has lost some of its eroticism, but now I can appreciate Ms. Baker's terrific performance. (I was really surprised when I looked up her age and found that she was really 25 at the time and not 19 as she looks in the movie). In fact, all the main actors, Eli Wallach, Karl Malden and Mildred Dunnock are all wonderful in it.In the 1930's, there were a bunch of screwball comedies usually involving a wealthy man or his son falling in love with a young woman and interacting with her family of offbeat characters (e.g. "You can't take it with you."). Here Williams takes the formula but integrates it into his usual Southern environment and adds healthy douses of talk about sex and seduction. Only the wealthy man (Silva Varcarro) hasn't fallen in love with the young woman, he is just trying to seduce Baby Doll to get revenge for her husband (Archie Lee) setting fire to his cotton gin.The fact that Vacarro is Italian and an outsider in the good old boy community means that he can't get justice through the normal legal channels. He has to seek his revenge through the seduction of Archie Lee's young wife.Archie Lee is both disgusting and pitiable as a Southern aristocrat trying to prove his superiority and breeding, while his financed furniture is being repossessed, his gin mill machinery is broken down, and his wife refuses to let him consummate her marriage. If the film were remade today, I think that in order to enhance the satire and stay true to the spirit of the piece, instead of an Italian suitor, the role would have to be played by a black man. Of course, in 1956, the racists in the South still had enough power to prevent any such movie from even being considered.It is a little ironic that the Klan didn't protest the movie and shut it down because of its wicked satire on Southern well-bred gentlemen and virgin South bells, that was left to Cardinal Spellman and his gang of sexually repressed hypocrites in New York.

"Baby Doll", when it was released in 1956, was obviously going to be a very controversial film. While the country was in the lazy, comfortable days of the mid-1950's, along comes Elia Kazan with a story about a smoldering sexpot wife who is seduced by a Sicilian, who is a competitor of her husband. It is said that upon the film's release, many groups wanted the film pulled from theatres because it was so controversial. By 1956 standards, you can see why. The only problem is, that the movie is not very good.The acting for the most part is over the top. I think that is because the screenplay, by Tennessee Williams is too talkative when it doesn't need to be, has three basically unlikeable lead characters, and doesn't really have much of anything to say. The actors, all from Kazan's beloved Acting Studio do all that they can to try to infuse some meaning into the dialogue. Karl Malden especially gives an "over the top" performance."Baby Doll" takes place in the south, and yet there is no hint of any racial issues mentioned. The one great asset this film has going for it, is that it is filled with many local citizens as extras. Their is a great story in each of their faces, that would be more interesting than this movie.The film has a great many sound quality problems, as well, and a lot of scenes where you can see the actor is talking, but there is no sound to accompany the actions.4 out of 10