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List Price: $68.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 10374
Released: May 2, 2006 |
| Our Price: $32.48 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Streetcar Named Desire 2 Disc SE Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition Sweet Bird of Youth Night of the Iguana Baby Doll Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Description of Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone):
An earlier Elia Kazan film, the 1949 Pinky, now seems dated because its "scandalous" subject, miscegenation, has become a social nonissue. If anything, the reputation of this legendary 1956 romp about a child bride in the Deep South has shifted the other way; the ripe image of Carol Baker as a mentally challenged nymphet who sucks her thumb as she lures grown men into her crib (an actual crib!) would probably be hounded off the screen today. When it was originally released the film won a "condemned" rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency, but it isn't as explicit as that might suggest. Current audiences are likely to be shocked not by what's actually shown, but by the mere fact that the movie is a comedy, in effect a sex farce, adapted by Tennessee Williams from a couple of his raunchier one-act plays. Karl Malden is the divine cream puff's sad-sack husband, who has agreed to keep hands off until she turns 19; Eli Wallach is a high-stepping rival in the cotton business who harbors no such scruples. --David Chute
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) Reviews:
Poor Audio recording...Used Captioning To Distinguish Words 
2009-12-16 - No, I have not suffered hearing loss! Otherwise I would have rated this movie a 5 star. The poor audio reproduction grossly distracted from enjoying the movie. Yes, if you turn the volume to high you can hear 99% of script but then audio/hissing noises become an annoyance.
The setting/cast was great. Part of the scenes were shot on an actual dilapidated antebellum plantation/home(pre-civil war) in 1956...I doubt anything was altered within the house or yard but filmed "as is"..Also, the black cotton gin workers were undoubtedly locals/authentic from the accents & clothing.
The plot was pretty deep & leaves the viewer thinking about the moral of the story. There is perhaps a thread of feminist thought? Actress Carroll Baker plays the part of a Teenage Bride which has been intellectually dumbed down. At first the viewer sees her as mentally slow (you first see her sucking her thumb in a crib) but as the movie progresses it becomes apparent she is the victim of being fixated mentally as an adolescent. In the end she shows traces of adulthood/independent thinking...Many more side plots/angles to the movie.
How could they have been so careless/sloppy reproducing this movie?
Outrageous and Entertaining 
2009-11-18 - I don't believe that this film is can be charactrized as a "Black Comedy", as some suggest, since the humor here is actually quite cruel--with an angry, weird and threatening dimension. "High Drama" is more like it, and there are clear implications for morality and ethical thought. It was regarded as quite daring and sexually tinged for its time.
Nonetheless, the "Negroes" in this film are portrayed in a dated and stereotyped way, while other ethnic slurs abound. I believe this material is of historical value rather than a deliberate attempt to denigrate others. In any case, anything by Tennessee Williams is guaranteed to be frightening, ourageous and entertaining. Recommended.
I was lucky 
2009-10-13 - I was lucky to see this at age 15, the day it opened at the Lindsey Theater in Lubbock, Texas. My date's name was Darlene and this was the only time I paid more attention to the movie than to her. The Baptists had the film taken down the next day, but my ideas about female beauty were set for many years to come. At the end we realize that Baby Doll...well I shouldn't say because it's a spoiler for some.
"BABY DOLL" IS A FAVORITE OF MINE
2009-09-21 - When this was first released, I was working in a theater that played it. It was controversial, to say the least. Really mild by today's standards. It was also condemned by the Catholic Church, which made it a "must see" film. Carroll Baker was known for her role in "GIANT." The late Karl Malden and co-star Eli Wallach are great. It is a campy film showing the deep south in early America. Very entertaining, even in black & white. I wish it was in widescreen, but it isn't. Elia Kazan (East of Eden) directed it.
tennessee williams,classic movies dvd box set
2009-09-14 - This box set is a very good collection of classic films at a very reasonable price. I highly recommed this set.
