Thursday, October 27, 2011

The good ol' days

The next time some oldster starts talking about how there was never any of that sort of business when we were kids, you show them this clip from Baby Doll, a 1956 film that features a teenage virgin bride.



That there is Caroll Baker starring as the title character. Her middle aged husband has promised her father that he will wait for her 18th birthday (which is just days away) to consummate the marriage. In this scene, she's sucking her (ahem) thumb in a day bed that looks a hell of a lot like a crib.

Look at her mouth, people. That is pure taboo eroticism and it ain't even all that subtle.

Considering Baby Doll debuted over a half-century ago, I say this to the codgers who get all uppity-duppity about the purity of yesteryear: Uh-huh. They were doing that sort of business back then and then some. They were doing this, that, and the rest of it. They were doing all of it.

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Thanks to Kirk Jusko for turning me on to Baby Doll.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

and really this is NOTHING. just think: Caligula. the end.

twinkly sparkles said...

I only know about this flick because of a Mad Magazine my brother had when we were kids.
A regular Mad Magazine feature was their spoof of popular movies. I simply remember a cartoon drawing of a woman sucking her thumb in a crib.
Karl Malden? wow.

Brian said...

I'm having trouble with commenting.

I seriously would love to just hang out with you and watch movies.

Erin O'Brien said...

Thanks for dropping in, Brian. I apologize if the comment function is acting wiggy. Everything seems to be getting though on this end.

Kirk said...

twinkley sparks, I know of the Mad magazine satire of which you speak. It was called "Sin-Doll Ella". The premise was that since there were so many different versions of Cinderella--the Disney version, the Rogers and Hammerstein version--that maybe the leading playwright of the 1950s, Tennessee Williams--he wrote the screenplay for Baby Doll--should try his hand at it. Thus, Baker played Cinderella, and Marlon Brando played Prince Charming ("'ella! 'ella!"). One bit cracks me up to this day just thinking about it. A pig wonders out loud whether Cinderella is going to go to the ball. A second pig replies, "Hey, what you talkin' fo'? This ain't no Disney version. This is realism! Grunt, man, grunt!"

Erin, in yesterday's comment section, you showed the trailer for Baby Doll. In it, a character is described as a "big, black buck". I've seen this movie several times (I love it, and highly recommend it to those of you with an open mind), and can assure you that character plays a very minor role and does nothing that one would ascribe the word "buck" to. It seems like the makers of that trailer wanted to take a movie that was racy enough already (even by today's standards) and make it seem even racier. Who says they were so repressed in the 1950s?

One last thing. The n-word is used liberally through that film (and the trailer). They were just trying to be true to the segregationist South. Tennessee Williams was, in fact, a firm supporter of the Civil Rights movement, as was the director, Elias Kazan. They were like Mark Twain in that respect.

Anonymous said...

When I was younger, I was amazed that when someone who was alive in the 1920's would say that.

You know, the decade that made the 1960's look damned prudish.

Anonymous said...

The Benny Hill parody was even better

Nin Andrews said...

But what I want to say is I LOVE YOUR NEW PHOTO!

And yeah, funny business. Been here for evah!

Meagan said...

Yeah we it they had the decency to pretend it wasn't dagnabit. Not like today when everyone wants to go putting their secrets on the internet!