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Baby Doll

Southern Gothic • 1h 54m

Directed by Elia Kazan • 1956 • United States
Starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach

One of the most controversial films of the 1950s, this scorching black comedy was condemned by the National Legion of Decency and singled out as “just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited.” As in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams (adapting one of his own plays) broke new ground in depicting sexuality on-screen in this torrid tale of the love triangle that develops between a Mississippi cotton miller (Karl Malden), his nineteen-year-old virgin bride (Carroll Baker), and the romantic rival (Eli Wallach) who sets out to seduce her.

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