synopsis:

screenplay about a very pretty blonde girl whose nickname is "Baby Doll", a cognomen she does her best to live up to by lying in a crib-like bed and sucking her thumb, has been married at eighteen to Archie Lee Meighan, an ageing cotton planter, but refuses any physical contact with her husband until her twentieth birthday.

Archie Lee has pushed himself to his financial limits. Their house, once grand, is falling apart and their furniture is about to be repossessed. It looks as if financial disaster is theirs until the Syndicate Plantation Cotton Gin, owned by the newcomer, an Italian, Silva Vacarro is burnt down which brings the cotton for ginning to Archie Lee. Silva however has his suspicions as to the arsonist and conducts his own investigation by interviewing Baby Doll. When the seductive italian born Eli Wallach comes to the Meighan home, Baby Doll is attracted by him and things start going wrong.

on this book:

Based on Tennessee Williams' original screenplay, 'BABY DOLL' is also a movie directed by Elia Kazan in 1956. This picture earned four nominations for the 1957 Academy Awards. Cardinal Spellman denounced 'Baby Dol'l, and also the Legion of Decency railed against it, in large part for its portrayal of an unconsummated marriage. Time magazine wrote that it was "just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited". baby-doll pyjamas created a fashion.