★★★½ Baby Doll

[Gino: 3.5]

Gino says: 'This is a 1956 Elia Kazan film from the screenplay by Tennessee Williams. While it perhaps was not as good as Streetcar, which I saw recently, it has a similar feel to it (steaminess, dread), and is nearly as good. It is a weird tale revolving around a desperate and unfulfilled cotton ginner (Karl Malden)'s last-ditch efforts to gain some dignity and livelihood. Hint: it goes badly for him, he becomes unhinged, and I don't blame him.

The films was apparently quickly run out of theaters by some Catholic board, a Cardinal claiming that any Catholic who sees it should be excommunicated (I guess they should have put that on the box then, because I used to be Catholic technically-speaking, and now I am not sure.) This was for reasons of scandalous sexuality. As far as I can tell the movie had one kiss in it, and a woman who walks around in a slip (that by today's standards is a dress, really). So I am guessing what happened was the titular character (played by Carroll Baker) just looked so darn hot on screen that the "authorities" just said "this can't be happening". '