A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2020
DOLL-BABY
BABY-DOLL (1956)
dir: Elia Kazan
DOLL-BABY
Humbug #1, August 1957
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis
The backstory, established in the first half hour, is not mentioned here. Archie-Lee (Karl Malden) is married to Baby-Doll (Carroll Baker) who sleeps in a crib because she doesn't have a regular bed. He is a hothead and it is implied that his temper is due to sexual frustration. He married her as a teenager and although they have been married for years he has not popped her cherry yet. Archie promised her father when that he would not touch her until her twentieth birthday. He also promised that he would be a rich business owner which he has not delivered on. He has burned down Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach)'s cotton-gin so that he would have a monopoly on the cotton business. She hangs around their dilapidated mansion all day drinking Coca-Cola.
Silva knows it was Archie-Lee who burned down his cotton gin so as revenge he seduces Baby-Doll. He comes onto her on her swingset. The close-ups of the faces were considered very suggestive and even had the film condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency (which at one time often had an influence on whether or not films were shown).
Equally suggestive is Silva chasing Baby-Doll around the house.
The running in and out of doorways is similar to chase scenes common in cartoons.
In the movie, he also chases her into her room, and then he's seen sleeping in her crib. I think that's a metaphor for... something.
He chases her into the attic where she'll crash through the floorboards, but he'll save her if she'll sign a confession that Archie-Lee was the one who burned down his cotton-gin.
The furniture company comes to repossess what little furniture Archie-Lee has.
SIN-DOLL ELLA
by Tennessee Williamsburg
MAD #35, October 1957
w: Albert Meglin
a: Wallace Wood
Not entirely a parody of Baby-Doll, but the whole Tennessee Williams oeuvre. A little bit of A Streetcar Named Desire, a little bit of The Rose Tattoo, a little bit of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...
...combined with Cinderella.
Burl Ives' “Big Daddy” and Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski are here.
And references to The Glass Menagerie and The Rose Tattoo.
In the Mad story, the stepsisters' names are Maggie and Blanche. Blanche is Vivien Leigh, which makes sense. The movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was still a year away, so I can only guess that the Maggie here is Barbara Bel Geddes, who originated the role on Broadway. I'm not certain, though.
Also, am I going daffy, or is there a chance that the person in the first panel, holding the phone and telling Ella to get up, is Peter Lorre in disguise?
On the last page, in the first panel, the guy in the lower right clutching the straight razor is Kirk Douglas, as Van Gogh in Lust For Life from the previous year. (At least, I figure that must be him, though most of his face is obscured.) He might be here because he'd also starred in the film of The Glass Menagerie.
In the Mad story, the stepsisters' names are Maggie and Blanche. Blanche is Vivien Leigh, which makes sense. The movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was still a year away, so I can only guess that the Maggie here is Barbara Bel Geddes, who originated the role on Broadway. I'm not certain, though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, am I going daffy, or is there a chance that the person in the first panel, holding the phone and telling Ella to get up, is Peter Lorre in disguise?
On the last page, in the first panel, the guy in the lower right clutching the straight razor is Kirk Douglas, as Van Gogh in Lust For Life from the previous year. (At least, I figure that must be him, though most of his face is obscured.) He might be here because he'd also starred in the film of The Glass Menagerie.