A man (Karl Malden) foolish enough to marry a teenage girl many years his junior resorts to bullying and violence.  He lives, it must be said, in humiliation, for his wife Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) does not love him and refuses to consummate the marriage until she turns 20.  Moreover, through a stratagem on the part of a business rival (Eli Wallach), Baby Doll becomes infatuated with the rival.

The 1956 Baby Doll, written by Tennessee Williams, was directed by Elia Kazan, who gladly called the film “unrealistic.”  We mostly believe in its unrealism, though, except when the story grows hyperbolic, hysterical.  That’s when we see its basic trashiness, also engendered by bits of third-rate directing by Kazan, as in the big fire sequence.  To me the film is a guilty pleasure, but nothing more.  It is only partly well acted, by Baker and Wallach.

Cropped screenshot of Carroll Baker from the film Baby Doll (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cover of Baby Doll

The disco club at the center of Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (1998) is, in a way, fading or perishing—there is ill-gotten gain there—but much in the lives of the characters is fading or perishing as well.  This is true despite all the young-professional effort, all the industriousness, going on, which certainly counts for something but will not necessarily make Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) or Tom (Robert Sean Leonard) a better person.  As always, however, Stillman believes he can afford to be optimistic.  It is the optimism of at least one kind of philosophical conservative, one who appreciates “the old world order” (Eric Hynes) and Christianity; and, yes, although the characters in Disco do not genuinely embrace Christianity, maybe an “amazing grace”—sung by Charlotte—will sooner or later embrace them.

(This, by the way, is my second review of the film.)

The Last Days of Disco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Edward G. Robinson is the chief member of a likable cast in 1955’s Illegal, a gripping crime drama until it falls apart in its last 15 minutes.  Attorney Victor Scott (Robinson) is not much of a character, really; there is little examination of him, even though the machinations that involve him are pleasurably fresh.  Jayne Mansfield has little to do, but she too is likable and looks even better than Marilyn Monroe in The Asphalt Jungle.

All the major actors here deserve a better movie.

Illegal (1955 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

FYI:  A couple of weeks ago I quoted a line in the 2012 graphic novel, Kick Ass 2 Prelude: Hit Girl, about “Obama’s record f–king deficit.”  Some people may think that, because the federal deficit has been in decline for six years, this line is out-of-date, irrelevant.  It isn’t.  The deficit is rising again.  Hit Girl might need to blame House Republicans as well as Obama, but you’d better believe there’s no irrelevance here—and won’t be any time soon.

The crime material in the second season of Jane the Virgin is getting entertaining, more so than the scenes showing efforts to get baby Mateo, offspring of Jane, to stop wailing at night and go to sleep.

I am not yet tired of Jane, but I fear I will be if nothing emotionally meaningful or really dealing with the human situation crops up, as it did when Jane and Rafael worried over a possible health problem in their unborn child.

Also, I like it when the gay stuff in the show is at a minimum, as it usually is.  Last night it was beyond the minimum, though not without a few curious niceties or details.  Still . . .   Incidentally, I wonder if 50 Cent was right that the ratings for Empire plummeted because of that show’s gay stuff.