87% (2) Baby Doll 114 min, Approved, [Drama] [Elia Kazan] [29 Dec 1956]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 75%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 9 nominations.
Actors: Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock
Writer: Tennessee Williams (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Italian Country: USA
Plot: Living in Tiger Tail County, Mississippi, middle aged Archie Lee Meighan and nineteen year old "Baby Doll" Meighan née McCargo have been married for close to two years. Their marriage is not based on love, but each getting what they want from the other. Their marriage agreement has them consummating their marriage on her twentieth birthday, which is in three days, the act to which Baby Doll is not really looking forward. But she does taunt him and other men with her overt "baby doll" sexuality, the baby doll aspect which she fosters by sleeping in their house's nursery in a crib. Baby Doll's now deceased father allowed the marriage on the stipulation that Archie Lee provide Baby Doll financial security as displayed by the most resplendent house in the south. They currently live in a dilapidated mansion with her Aunt Rose Comfort, and although Archie Lee is making some renovations on it, he no longer has the financial means to make it what Baby Doll wants as his cotton ginning competitor, the recently arrived Sicilian Silva Vacarro who runs the cotton plantation syndicate, has effectively put him and many others in the area out of business. The Meighan's fortunes may change after Vacarro's cotton gin burns down in a case of arson. Vacarro is certain Archie Lee is the arsonist. After meeting the Meighans and learning more about their marriage, Vacarro believes the way to get what he wants is through Baby Doll. This action begins the three way battle of wills between Vacarro, Archie Lee and Baby Doll.
Rotten Tomatoes: Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton was the basis for this steamy sex seriocomedy. Karl Malden stars as the doltish owner of a Southern cotton gin. He is married to luscious teenager Carroll Baker, who steadfastly refuses to sleep with her husband until she reaches the age of 20. Her nickname is "Baby Doll", a cognomen she does her best to live up to by lying in a crib-like bed and sucking her thumb. Enter crafty Sicilian Eli Wallach (who, like supporting actor Rip Torn, makes his film debut herein), who covets both Malden's wife and business. Malden's jealously sets fire to Wallach's business, compelling Wallach to try to claim Baby Doll as "compensation." Heavily admonished for its supposed filthiness in 1956 (it was condemned by the Legion of Decency, which did more harm to the Legion than to the film), Baby Doll seems a model of decorum today--so much so that it is regularly shown on the straight-laced American Movie Classics cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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81% (3) The Trouble with Harry 99 min, PG, [Comedy, Mystery] [Alfred Hitchcock] [03 Oct 1955]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 90%, Metacritic: 74%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 4 nominations.
Actors: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Dunnock, Mildred Natwick, Shirley MacLaine, Shirley MacLaine
Writer: John Michael Hayes (screenplay), Jack Trevor Story (based on the novel by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: There is a dead well-dressed man in a meadow clearing in the hills above a small Vermont town. Captain Albert Wiles, who stumbles across the body and finds by the man's identification that his name is Harry Worp, believes he accidentally shot Harry dead while he was hunting rabbits. Captain Wiles wants to hide the body as he feels it is an easier way to deal with the situation than tell the authorities. While Captain Wiles is in the adjacent forest, he sees other people stumble across Harry, most of whom don't seem to know him or care or notice that he's dead. One person who does see Captain Wiles there is spinster Ivy Gravely, who vows to keep the Captain's secret about Harry. Captain Wiles also Secretly sees a young single mother, Jennifer Rogers, who is the one person who does seem to know Harry and seems happy that he's dead. Later, another person who stumbles across both Harry and Captain Wiles is struggling artist Sam Marlowe, to who Captain Wiles tells the entire story of what he has seen thus far. Over the course of the day, several revelations come to light that question if Captain Wiles actually killed Harry. Sam, Mrs. Rogers, Captain Wiles and Miss Gravely's individual and collective actions in the matter of Harry take into account friendship, self-preservation, the path of least resistance, love and a lot of realizations about what their past actions will mean. Their work may all be for naught if Deputy Sheriff Calvin Wiggs, the closest thing to law enforcement in their town, finds out about Harry.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, Jerry Mathers stumbles upon Harry's corpse in the woods. Mathers alerts his mother Shirley MacLaine, who recognizes Harry as her ex-husband. Later on, retired sea captain Edmund Gwenn comes across the moribund Harry. Both MacLaine and Gwenn have reason to believe that they're responsible for Harry's demise.
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55% (2) Something Wild 113 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Jack Garfein] [01 Jan 1962]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, Rotten Tomatoes: 43%, External Reviews
Actors: Carroll Baker, Jean Stapleton, Mildred Dunnock, Ralph Meeker
Writer: Jack Garfein (screenplay), Alex Karmel (screenplay), Alex Karmel (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Mary Ann Robinson, a young woman living in The Bronx, New York, with her neurotic, overbearing mother and kindly but ineffectual stepfather, is raped while walking home one night. Keeping the attack to herself, Mary Ann runs away, seeking to lose herself in Manhattan by renting a seedy flat and taking a job in a dime store. Overwhelmed by people's hostility and her own despair, Mary Ann tries to jump off the Manhattan Bridge, only to be stopped by Mike, a garage mechanic who takes her back to his modest basement apartment nearby. At first appreciative of Mike's kindness, Mary Ann becomes terrified when he refuses to let her leave. Is Mike really Mary Ann's rescuer - or is he another rapist?
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, a young woman walks home through a deserted Brooklyn park one night and is brutally raped. This dark, strange drama chronicles the ways in which the traumatized young woman tries to cope.
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74% (1) Death of a Salesman 115 min, [Drama] [Laslo Benedek] [09 May 1952]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors: Cameron Mitchell, Fredric March, Kevin McCarthy, Mildred Dunnock
Writer: Arthur Miller (play), Stanley Roberts
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: An over-the-hill salesman faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family.
Rotten Tomatoes: Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play +Death of a Salesman is brought to the screen by producer Stanley Kramer. The salesman of the title is Willy Loman (Fredric March), who has spent his entire life pursuing success, only to find himself a middle-aged failure. The shock of this realization causes Willy's mind to wander between the past and the present, as he muses on lost opportunities, shattered dreams, and his turbulent relationship with his oldest son, Biff (Kevin McCarthy). Willy ultimately loses all contact with reality, which results in fate's final blow. Lee J. Cobb, who'd played Willy on Broadway, had been blacklisted by Hollywood because of his alleged "leftie" politics, thus was denied the opportunity to star in the film version, but Mildred Dunnock was permitted to brilliantly recreate her stage role as Willy's long-suffering wife, Linda ("Attention! Attention must be paid to this man"). A second filmization of +Death of a Salesman was produced for television in 1985, with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman.
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58% (1) The Jazz Singer 107 min, [Drama, Music, Romance] [Michael Curtiz] [14 Feb 1953]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 58%, External Reviews
Actors: Danny Thomas, Eduard Franz, Mildred Dunnock, Peggy Lee
Writer: Frank Davis (screenplay), Leonard Stern (screenplay), Lewis Meltzer (screenplay), Samson Raphaelson (based on the play by)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Jerry dreams to become a famous jazz singer. But in order to accomplish that, he must defy his father, a Jewish Cantor, who is opposed to such dream as a future for his son.
Rotten Tomatoes: This second screen adaptation of the Samson Rafaelson play The Jazz Singer is better than the first, though not as historically important (the early Jazz Singer, it will be recalled, sparked the "talkie revolution" way back in 1927). Danny Thomas assumes the old Al Jolson role as the cantor's son-turned-cabaret entertainer. As Jerry Golding (Thomas) scales the heights of show business, he breaks the heart of his father (Eduard Franz), who'd hoped that Jerry would follow in his footsteps. Sorrowfully, Cantor Golding reads the Kaddish service, indicating that, so far as he is concerned, his son is dead. A tearful reconciliation (and a more upbeat denouement than was found in the original film) occurs when Jerry dutifully returns to sing the "Kol Nidre" in his ailing father's absence. Peggy Lee co-stars as Judy Lane, a musical comedy entertainer who falls in love with Jerry, while Mildred Dunnock and Alex Gerry do what they can with the stereotyped roles of Jerry's mother and uncle, respectively. This 1952 Jazz Singer has its faults, but it is vastly superior to the empty-headed 1980 Neil Diamond/Laurence Olivier remake.
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