Playwright Tennessee Williams knew quite a few things about the South, and in his 1956 movie Baby Doll he explores several of them: prejudice, desperation, and barely-repressed sexuality. The movie stirred up quite a controversy when released, and it's easy today to see why -- but it's still very effective, mainly due to a stellar cast and great director.Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) was married to cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden) when she was 17 -- and with his promise to her father that he wouldn't sleep with her until she turned 20. At the start of the movie, Baby Doll is two days away from her 20th birthday, and it shows on both of them. He acts like a leering pervert, while she plays the nymphette. (The movie opens with her sleeping in a baby's crib and sucking her thumb, while he cuts a hole in the wall to spy on her.) Archie Lee promised to put her in the best house in the valley, but their home is a crumbling mansion surrounded by junk -- with almost all the furniture repossessed. She continually complains about what her late daddy would do if he could see her and talks about leaving Archie Lee to find work -- but she never finished school and can't do anything. Meanwhile, Archie Lee is laughed at by the townspeople in Mississippi, seeing a middle-aged man with such a young wife. And Baby Doll's senile Aunt Rose Comfort (Mildred Dunnock) wanders around aimlessly.
