The Art of Seduction

I have, I don't know, a feeling about the south. I feel like there is a beating heart there that I owe some allegiance to. Not in a confederate-type way, but in a very quiet and demanding way, a way that I feel Tennessee Williams captures in his over-the-top characters, within their heart-stopping dialogue. I recently watched Baby Doll again, and I can't tell you how much this film impresses me.

Carroll Baker plays the hastily married off title role, still a virgin at nineteen, after a year of marriage to Archie Lee, who has made shady promises to shower his young bride in wealth, but has not delivered. Archie Lee's cotton gin is not an efficient machine, and Archie Lee doesn't seem cut out for managerial/owner positions, as his house and business is beset with poverty stricken shades of disrepair and wood rot. Yet, this man promised a rather influential man in town that we would lavish a royal existence on Baby Doll, who is caught between the life she was raised to have, and her current state of bankruptcy.

Everything changes when Archie Lee, distraught at the prospects of never consummating his marriage with Baby Doll, due to his financial failures, burns down the cotton gin of the prosperous Sicilian business man, Silva Vacarro, a "foreigner" who has beat out all the town's local cotton gin competition, including Archie Lee. After Archie Lee's wild night of arson, he ends up the only suspect, yet the good-ol'-boy aspect of the town's government won't allow Vacarro to accuse Archie Lee outright. He must set a trap for Archie Lee in which the suspect will hang himself.

Inexperienced Baby Doll is Vacarro's chance to gain a witness who will testify that Archie Lee wasn't home the night of the fire (as Archie Lee contests), but came home later smelling heavily of smoke. Baby Doll, who seems to despise her ne'er do well husband, needs some persuading to sign a statement fingering Archie Lee. This is where the seduction of Baby Doll begins, and the most enjoyable scenes of the movie take place. Vacarro is tireless as he leads naive Baby Doll through her southern hospitality traditions and manipulates her senses in order to put her in a vulnerable mental state. He seduces her with questions, baiting her with soft, silky chiding, arousing her curiosity, and her untapped sexual desire. Vacarro never appears desperate, like the constantly floundering Archie Lee, as he dances Baby into a corner, like a scared rabbit. Caroll Baker makes these scenes unforgettable; she is so beautiful, and so sexy -- she puts Lolita to shame. She is the real reason to see this movie, and her scenes with Eli Wallach are the most provocative performances I've seen from a 1950's film.

I think the messages are more socio-political than anything else. Poverty and slavery are presented as aspects of existence that lead to sexual repression and delaying of gratification. Baby Doll speaks often of her "five complete sets of furniture" which make her feel more of a lady. Baby Doll has the idea that when she has the accessories of the middle class around her things will fall into place for her and she can make the step from childhood into adulthood. She has a vague notion that her predicament has something to do with her fourth grade education, but Vacarro quickly convinces her that this is not the only way she can "grow up." He does this by seducing her, arousing her repressed sexuality with statements that affirm her worth and value as a southern woman. We watch as Baby Doll becomes a woman, through the acquisition of a man (who then becomes her possession, as seen by Vacarro's stint in the crib) who psychologically manipulates her in almost an animalistic way -- the way you would cajole and manipulate a frightened dog. Baby Doll learns to trust, but, tragically, Vacarro is not looking for a woman, he is merely looking for her signature on a piece of paper, which will probably make him owner of all of Archie Lee's property. The film leaves us with the possibility that Vacarro may return to claim Baby Doll as part of the package, but what with his ability to deceive, we are not certain that he will make good on the promises he's made to her and Aunt Rose. Yet, even Vacarro has to admit that since Baby Doll has made the transition from laying in her crib/bed to putting her love interest in the baby's bed, and that this shift has caused a change in her countenance. She now has poise, and she can control her voice and anger at Archie Lee. Perhaps this change has a leveling effect on her and Vacarro's relationship -- now she is able to say what it is she wants. She doesn't have to "stand at the chalk board...and cry...and cry..."

There is so much more to this film, but I will have to discuss it further some other time. As I look at the stack of novels I have to read this semester (thirteen at last count), I don't know if I will have time to watch films until June. I would like to see The Reader, and Revolutionary Road, and I might be able to this first light week of class. Also, I should be finding out in the next couple of weeks whether or not I made it into the Ph.D. program at USC. Maybe, in this year of hopes and dreams coming true, I'll get a little residual good fortune! We'll see.