Film 39: 12 Angry Men (1957)

Netflix Summary: Knowing full well that a guilty verdict means death, a jury of 12 men (including Jack Warden and Jack Klugman) must decide the fate of an 18-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing his father. But only one juror (Henry Fonda) wants to take the time to coolly deliberate the case. Sidney Lumet (Network) made his directorial debut with this Oscar-nominated drama that illuminates all the petty impediments on the path to justice.

From Wikipedia: The film was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing of Adapted Screenplay. It lost to the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai in all three categories.

Film Viewing Due Date: 8/10

Baby Doll Review

Juror #3 says: Well, that was a creepy movie. In a way I wish David Lynch had gotten a chance to take a stab at this screenplay first. I would have enjoyed a more surrealist view of this script I think. Where to begin... well, Baby Doll was originally a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, who then extended the plot into a feature screenplay. The story revolves around a middle-aged man who receives permission from the father of a young woman to marry her, under one condition - he must wait until she is 20 years old to have sex with her. A short time before the woman's 20th birthday we find out the married couple has fallen on hard financial times and its causing a rift between the two. The man will do anything to reach his goal of "having the woman" and commits a crime in order to gain financially and thus keep the young woman happy enough to fulfill her promise. The creepy part of the film isn't necessarily the age discrepancy between the married couple, instead it's in the child-like nature of the woman, who is first seen sucking her thumb as she sleeps in a crib in a nursery of an old house. On one hand the story can be seen as a coming of age for "Baby Doll" as the young woman is affectionately referred to. But in the end you get the feeling that she came of age a long time ago but psychologically prefers to revert back to a more simple state. There is clearly a message here about gender roles and the way men treated women in this period but I'm not sure I completely got it. Overall the movie stuck with me though, and I attribute much of that to the solid acting. My biggest disappointment was that this was basically a stageplay being filmed and reminded me of some of the films we saw in the early forties, not something consistent with the evolution of filmmaking we had scene recently in the fifties. Overall I rate it 3/5 stars on Netflix. I applaud the effort to stretch the boundaries of societal acceptance but somehow it didn't fully work for me.

girl by locker says: Wow…and people thought the love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr was steamy in From Here to Eternity. In comparison to Baby Doll, From Here to Eternity was child’s play. Baby Doll is a story of a decomposing south at the end of the cotton heyday and a lovers triangle. In one corner we have Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) who is a young, married virgin who agrees to consummate her marriage when she turns 20 years old. In the other two corners, we have her husband Archie Lee (Karl Madden) a failing businessman struggling to keep his wife happy and Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach) a Sicilian foreigner and current king of cotton in this sleepy southern town.

When Mr. Vacarro’s cotton gin ends burns down in a fire, there is one suspect (Archie Lee) and Vacarro heads to his gin in order to get proof. While Archie Lee spends the day trying to gin out the cotton, Mr. Vacarro seduces his wife Baby Doll. I am talking 30 solid minutes of raw, sexual attraction that must have shocked the viewers of the day. In fact, the Catholic Church banned the movie and probably excommunicated any of its parishioners that saw it.

The reality of the fact is, by today’s standards the movie is relatively mild – no nudity, not swearing, no visual acts of sex. However, I always find the suggestion of sex and romance much more revealing and the scenes between Mr. Vacarro and Baby Dollwere pretty stellar. In the end, you don’t know for sure whether or not they actually did the deed, but I think they did. Baby Doll goes from wearing white to black by the end of the movie and Mr. Vacarro comments on how he sees her different.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. Solid acting, solid script, solid directing – and much steamier than Burt and Deborah love scene.

Film 38: Baby Doll (1956)

Netflix Summary: Written by Tennessee Williams, this black comedy tells the story of cotton gin owner Archie (Karl Malden) and his sexy teenage wife (Carroll Baker), who won't consummate the marriage until she turns 20. When Archie battles a rival (Eli Wallach), he could lose his business -- and his bride. Baker earned an Oscar nod, and director Elia Kazan won a Golden Globe for his steamy and, at the time of its release, controversial film.

From Wikipedia: The movie was banned in many countries, such as Sweden, due to what was called exaggerated sexual content. The film was also condemned by Time magazine, which called it the "dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited". Due in part to the attempts to have it banned or suppressed, the film was not a commercial success. Kazan reported that it never made a profit.
Film Viewing Due Date: 7/28

Rebel Without a Cause Review

girl by locker says: With a movie like Rebel Without a Cause, you really hope you’re not going to be disappointed. It is such a classic movie and one of the few James Dean movies made so you want it to be great, and I can assuredly say that I loved the movie. It had a different feel to movies we had seen prior to this one – different theme and more sophisticated script.
The major themes of the movie are the relationships between adults and their teenage children and the underbelly of 1950’s suburbia. Maybe the golden era of American life wasn’t quite as golden as people wanted it to be.
Jim Stark (James Dean) is the movie version of Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye and he is filled with classic emotions familiar to teens - confusion, angst, alienation, and rebellion. He has zero respect for his father, and there is an interesting scene in which Dean’s father tries to have a man-to-man talk with his son while wearing an apron obviously meant for a woman to wear, thus providing a view into 1950’s gender roles.
In keeping with the underbelly of 1950’s suburbia, we have Judy (Natalie Wood) who has a strange incestuous relationship with her father she desperately tries to please and Plato (Sal Mineo) with an obvious sexual attraction to Jim. Plato has been abandoned by his parents and looks to Jim as his father and friend but it is evident that he is in love with him as well. I have read that Nicholas Ray (the director) has denied the sexual attraction between Jim and Plato, but with modern eyes, I can’t see how that is possible.
Because, as I mentioned earlier, this movie had a different feeling from others in our cinema study, I give it 4 out of 5 on Netflix. I deduct points because the actors were prone to over-acting except for when it was necessary – like when Buzz goes over a cliff and dies. No one seems upset at all and everyone just runs away. Overall, this is definitely a must see for anyone interested in movies.

Juror #3 says: The first time I saw Rebel Without a Cause it was on the big screen at a local theater in NYC. I had never seen a James Dean film and remember my perception being that he was going to be a smooth, calm and cool character that every man would aspire to be.  Instead we see a vulnerable, angry and confused teenager that I would have no interest in being.  I walked out of the theater thinking how amazing it was to capture THE moment a teenager loses his innocence in a worldly way, and I loved what the film had done. Watching the movie for a second time was no less thrilling. To capture the teenage angst and confusion in a way that transcends time is a goal often sought and seldom achieved in art. If I wanted to be nit-picky I could focus on some flaws in the production, some poor directing and even a few lines of dialogue that seemed almost too generic to be real. But what makes Rebel Without a Cause an undisputed classic is the emotion it captures, and the feeling it portrays. Everything James Dean does in this role perfectly exemplifies the “puzzle with too many pieces” part of growing up. From his sad eyes to his insecure giggle, James Dean reminded me what highschool FELT like. There isn’t much more to say about Rebel Without a Cause except this: If you are looking for a film that anyone who was ever a teenager can relate to, this is the one. For that reason alone I rate it 5/5 stars on Netflix.