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Carroll Baker

The mention of IRONWEED in the Depressing Movies thread got me thinking about Carroll Baker. For me the movie is more dull than depressing, but one of the few strong sections of the film is the reunion of Jack Nicholson's character and his estranged wife, played by Baker. She's really good in this (and not as actressy as Streep, who only shines in her "He's Me Pal" number).

Since Baker tried and failed at being a sex symbol, and wound up making a lot of bad Hollywood and then Italian giallo films, it's surprising to remember that she did have some talent. Though I must admit THE CARPETBAGGERS is fun to watch. How many here have seen her wacky 1961 film SOMETHING WILD?

Any other thoughts about Baker?

by Anonymousreply 74June 20, 2019 3:23 AM

Which was the Paul Morrissey/Warhol movie she's in: TRASH, I think? or BAD?

I haven't seen it in decades but she was fascinating to watch in it.

by Anonymousreply 1November 5, 2015 9:20 PM

It was BAD. I think it was one of her first American films after doing all those trashy Italian thrillers. I also like her as Dorothy Stratton's mother in STAR 80 and as the housekeeper in the David Fincher thriller THE GAME.

She pretty much stopped working over a decade ago.

by Anonymousreply 2November 5, 2015 9:26 PM

I always liked her; her voice and clipped delivery made her quite interesting as well as the fact that she was both this serious method actress yet did some really trashy material like Carpetbaggers, Sylvia, Harlow and those Giallo movies after her Hollywood career crashed and burned. She was badly miscast in Harlow--but the movie was such a mess that her miscasting makes it another camp romp, especially the last 20 minutes when Harlow becomes a drunken tramp.

by Anonymousreply 3November 6, 2015 12:39 AM

She was an interesting actor. Great in Baby Doll, Giant, and in Ironweed. Just like in the book, she is a moral center in the film. Almost Mother Mary like. I disagree about Streep. I think next to Silkwood, and Adaption, Ironweed ranks as one her best role. Helen is a women who has many stories as Francis. Streep gives us a great glimpse of all of them.

by Anonymousreply 4November 6, 2015 12:50 AM

Here's the trailer to Sylvia (1965):

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by Anonymousreply 5November 6, 2015 1:29 AM

Sylvia is hilarious camp. Starring gay icon George Maharis

by Anonymousreply 6November 6, 2015 1:30 AM

I'm glad someone else gives Streep some love for Adaptation. One of the best scenes I think she ever did in her life was the scene in that movie when she's in the bathroom and overhears her guests making fun of Chris Cooper's character. Despite the hambone performances she's given in some films (Iron Lady, August: Osage County), I will always love her for just that scene.

by Anonymousreply 7November 6, 2015 1:37 AM

Saucy

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by Anonymousreply 8November 6, 2015 7:02 AM

Daughter Blanche Baker was a rising star in the late 70s/early 80s but hasn't done anything of note since Sixteen Candles (playing Molly Ringwald's older sister - and she was great in that).

by Anonymousreply 9November 6, 2015 11:51 AM

Blanche Baker starred in that ill fated production of Lolita.

by Anonymousreply 10November 6, 2015 11:54 AM

The Carpetbaggers has only recently begun being shown on the cable movie stations and it's the ultimate guilty pleasure. As trashy as it is, it was still one of the top grossing films of the year when it was released.

by Anonymousreply 11November 6, 2015 11:57 AM

First and only movie where Meryl Streep plays a prostitute

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by Anonymousreply 12November 6, 2015 12:03 PM

What about me, OP? I was better than both Carroll Baker and Meryl (che brutta!) in that wretched film. I immediately followed it up with a critically acclaimed starring role in Clint Eastwood's "Bird", but after that the quality roles just dried up!

Cazzo di merda Hollywood!

by Anonymousreply 13November 6, 2015 12:14 PM

I saw 'Baba Yaga', yesterday. She played an evil lesbian witch. It was not a bad film for its genre...(an exploitation horror movie). Isabelle De Funès, (the niece of Louis de Funès!) and a very charming George Eastman also starred.

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by Anonymousreply 14April 9, 2016 10:25 AM

It's sad that Carroll Baker was raped by her first husband.

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by Anonymousreply 15April 9, 2016 10:29 AM

Blanche Baker apparently is a successful sculptor now. She played Shelby in the original off-off-Broadway production of Steel Magnolias...and I seem to recall that there was some dust-up there about her being promised the screen rights and then getting screwed out of them.

by Anonymousreply 16April 9, 2016 10:40 AM

Are there any lesbian rumors about Carroll Baker?

by Anonymousreply 17April 9, 2016 10:48 AM

Carroll Baker was an unusual choice for 'Baba Yaga', and in his interview on the blu ray the director of the film, Corrado Farina explains that she was a last minute replacement for his original Baba Yaga, the British actress Anne Heywood. Three days before shooting was to begin Heywood left to star in the Rod Taylor adventure film Trader Horn (1973), a move which lead to her being sued by the studio. Baker was in Italy working on the giallo thriller The Flower With Petals of Steel (1973), and had a name which would look good on the posters. Farina was disappointed that she had a face “like she had been raised on a farm on a diet of popcorn,” rather than the pinched, angular face of Baba Yaga in Crepax's drawings. Carroll was willing to do the film, and with such a tight schedule he was left with no other choice. In the end Farina was very pleased with her performance. Legendarily she appeared completely naked (a moment that was cut by censors and is missing from the restored print on this Blu-ray, but is available in the extras). This was a bold move for a mainstream Hollywood actress in 1973 and Farina insists that it was not in the script but was all her own idea.

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by Anonymousreply 18April 9, 2016 10:59 AM

DataLounge, there are many eldergays among you. You don't know anything about Carroll Baker?

by Anonymousreply 19April 9, 2016 5:00 PM

Carroll Baker was dating Jack Garfein, a key figure in the early years of the Actors Studio, when he was staging "The End as a Man," the first Actors Studio production to hit off-Broadway (and later transferring to Broadway, 1953), starring young, promising newcomer Ben Gazzara, with guest appearances by then unknowns George Peppard and James Dean. Baker would have a torrid affair with Gazzara while rehearsing "A Hatful of Rain" before marrying Garfein in 1955.

On a side note: I find it interesting how Gazzara, then the young hopeful of the Actors Studio would be surpassed in fame by his classmates James Dean, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen. Before his death, Gazzara said most people nowadays recognize him as the nasty baddie in "Road House"!

by Anonymousreply 20April 9, 2016 5:36 PM

Thank God, somebody commented. I was feeling too lonely, here.

by Anonymousreply 21April 9, 2016 5:43 PM

Blanche Baker was terrifying in The Girl Next Door (not to be confused with that stupid Elisa Cuthbert movie).

by Anonymousreply 22April 9, 2016 6:10 PM

From which movie is this scene? Sexy...

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by Anonymousreply 23April 9, 2016 6:16 PM

I found it out myself. It's from 'The Private Lesson' (1975)

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by Anonymousreply 24April 9, 2016 6:27 PM

I thought her singing career was over. She lost a lot of weight since her Juno winning heyday. I don't much care for Canadian country music though.

by Anonymousreply 25April 9, 2016 6:39 PM

The 70s seemed like a great decade to film a movie.

by Anonymousreply 26April 9, 2016 6:44 PM

Baker was ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL in The Carpetbaggers and Harlow. She was being touted by producer Joseph E. Levine as the ultimate sex symbol successor to Monroe but came nowhere close. Her acting is cardboard abysmal, no charm or sophistication or sense of fun. All very flat and dry. Her career never really survived those two big opportunities, which were terrible movies in spite of all the hoopla.

by Anonymousreply 27April 9, 2016 7:32 PM

She looks like Ann-Margret, but Ann-Margret is way hotter.

by Anonymousreply 28April 9, 2016 7:35 PM

I've always thought her 3 best films were Salome, Lassie Come Home, and Sounder.

by Anonymousreply 29April 9, 2016 7:43 PM

What about 'Baby Doll', R29?

by Anonymousreply 30April 9, 2016 7:48 PM

R29, that was Marilyn Monroe.

by Anonymousreply 31April 9, 2016 7:52 PM

You're wrong, R31, that was Mamie Van Doren... or am I thinking of Diana Dors?

by Anonymousreply 32April 9, 2016 7:53 PM

Carroll's autobiography is DISH CENTRAL about Broadway and Hollywood in the 50s and 60s, and her post-Hollywood career. She's not afraid to name names, tell stories, OUT people (like Maharis!) and spill the tea. The book was published in 1983 and effectively ended her career, since she alienated so many people still in the business.

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by Anonymousreply 33April 9, 2016 8:13 PM

I want this for free. I'm a cheap ho. Isn't there available somewhere to download it for free and put it into my Kindle?

by Anonymousreply 34April 9, 2016 8:17 PM

r33, what does she say about Maharis?

by Anonymousreply 35April 9, 2016 11:55 PM

Interesting trivia about Carroll Baker:

She worked as a magician's assistant.

She became a nightclub dancer to raise money for her tuition at the Actors Studio.

She has English and Polish ancestry.

While in Hollywood to test for Giant (1956), director Nicholas Ray met with her on James Dean's suggestion to discuss playing the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Baker's new husband Jack Garfein insisted that she return to New York once the test was shot, and negotiations were broken off.

After turning down three films in a row, Warners punished Baker by refusing to loan her out to MGM to play Maggie The Cat for 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'

Carroll auditioned for Elaine Robinson for the movie 'The Graduate', but was turned down for being "too old" for Anne Bancroft. Eventually, Katharine Ross got the part.

Carroll was contracted by Warner Brothers who planned to lend her to 20th Century Fox for the movie 'The Three Faces of Eve', but she became pregnant and the role went to Joanne Woodward, who won an Oscar for the role.

Warner Bros. put her on suspension for refusing to be in the movie 'Too Much, Too Soon', because she didn't want to play a nymphomaniac... Dorothy Malone got the part. Hehehe... however in the 70s, it was Carroll's idea to appear nude in 'Baba Yaga'. No one forced her to.

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by Anonymousreply 36April 10, 2016 5:31 PM

If she had dropped the extra "r" in her name, she would have had a better career.

by Anonymousreply 37April 10, 2016 5:44 PM

Every single item in r36 sounds like a publicist's lie.

by Anonymousreply 38April 10, 2016 9:03 PM

Carroll Baker was one of the prettier girls in the early days of the Actors Studio, and she had a hit Broadway play under her belt ("All Summer Long"), plus she was the girlfriend/wife of an acclaimed NY director, so it makes perfect sense that she would have a lot of showbiz supporters and film offers back in her heyday.

by Anonymousreply 39April 10, 2016 11:10 PM

She married Jack Garfein against Jack Warner's wishes - he wanted her to stay single so she could be promoted as an eligible young starlet, not somebody's wife, and esp. not an intellectual NY theater director. Warner said "look how Monroe screwed herself when she married Miller - do you want your career to go down the toilet too?"

by Anonymousreply 40April 11, 2016 6:41 AM

Except Garfein had none of Miller's talent or fame....or even looks. He was a true DL troll.

by Anonymousreply 41April 11, 2016 12:29 PM

I know that Harlow wasn't that great of a movie, but it really made me like Carroll Baker. The Carpetbaggers was probably even worse, but again, I loved her in it. I'm in my twenties so I don't know too much about how her career looked in real time, but I thought she was sexy and a capable actress.

by Anonymousreply 42April 11, 2016 12:34 PM

Oh, I'd say HARLOW is much worse. THE CARPETBAGGERS is pure Harrold Robbin's pulp and everyone involved knows it, so the film is much more entertaining than HARLOW which has nothing to do with the real Harlow's life (and Baker is so miscast, it's painful). It might also help that Baker is a supporting character in CARPETBAGGERS whereas her bad acting in HARLOW is front and center throughout.

Her best acting was in the late 50's and later in the 80's. I agree that she was excellent in IRONWEED.

by Anonymousreply 43April 12, 2016 6:26 PM

The ironic thing about Carroll Baker's career is that she was so much more genuinely sexy in films like "Giant" and "Baby Doll", even William Wyler's "The Big Country", when the roles themselves weren't inherently sexy. When she was supposed to be a sexy character, as in "The Carperbaggers" and especially in the embarrassing "Harlow", she just wasn't convincing. And in the process of trying to establish herself herself as a sex symbol, she may have sacrificed some artistic credibility.

It was nice to see her outstanding turns in "Star 80" and "Ironweed". And I agree that her autobiography "Baby Doll" is a fun read, as is her roman a clef, "A Roman Tale"!

by Anonymousreply 44November 2, 2016 4:48 PM

SOMETHING WILD (not be confused with the Melanie Griffith comedy) was her best work. Powerful movie that's rarely shown on Cable but I do think it's available on DVD. The movie opens with Baker getting raped on her way home from night school and we watch how she slowly spirals out of control. She's saved from suicide but a man who imprisons her. She later falls in love with him and the movie has an unsettling yet sort of happy ending. Find it. Watch it.

by Anonymousreply 45November 2, 2016 5:00 PM

Another fan of "Something Wild" here -- and R45, it's being reissued via The Criterion Collection!

by Anonymousreply 46November 2, 2016 5:29 PM

So glad to learn of the Criterion release of "Something Wild." I actually knew Garfein when getting Aaron Copland's score to that film released. A story in itself...

Baker actually took on another role in a film to pay Copland's fee to compose for this film. Later on the London Symphony Orchestra commissioned Copland to write them a piece for their 60th anniversary. He took the score and re-worked it slightly into "Music for Great City." (LSO asked him to call it Symphony #4 but he declined).

by Anonymousreply 47November 2, 2016 6:01 PM

R47, there's a clip on YouTube (I think it's still there!) of Baker being interviewed at a "Something Wild" screening; she tells a story of how she had to do another film at United Artists in order to pay Copland's fee. Engaging Saul Bass to create the opening credits was also expensive.

by Anonymousreply 48November 2, 2016 6:15 PM

Aside from Baker, there are strong performances from Mildred Dunnock and Ralph Meeker. Saw it at the IFC theatre in NYC a few years back. Great movie.

by Anonymousreply 49November 4, 2016 6:28 PM

Baker did excellent work in "Somethimg Wild", a most unusual film, especially for its time.

Electrifying in "Star 80" and touching in "Ironweed". It was nice to see her in David Fincher's "The Game", even though she had little to do.

by Anonymousreply 50November 4, 2016 10:04 PM

Baker played the grandmother (John Doe's mom) on "Roswell." I thought it was something of a big deal to get her but her acting didn't justify it. She was stiff and awkward. She might just as well have done her scenes with the script in her hands.

by Anonymousreply 51November 4, 2016 10:17 PM

She was a total bitch

by Anonymousreply 52February 27, 2018 10:59 PM

Bridge to the Sun is another worthy Baker film. Plays a southern girl who marries a Japanese man on the eve of WWII and moves back to Japan before the war breaks out.

by Anonymousreply 53February 27, 2018 11:52 PM

She was a cunt who got suspended by Warner Brothers and went to Europe to make films, still breaking her contract, but she thought cheating was OK. Then the bitch spent the rest of her life wondering why no one wanted her for work, when she broke contracts, like it was her right.

by Anonymousreply 54February 28, 2018 12:09 AM

She's a lot of fun on the screen.

Baba Yaga is outrageous. Not terribly exciting, but outrageous nonetheless.

She is about the only thing that I really remember from Ironweed. I agree with the upthread comment that the movie was more dull than depressing, but she punched a hole through the dreariness.

by Anonymousreply 55February 28, 2018 1:47 AM

[quote]R15 It's sad that Carroll Baker was raped by her first husband.

Yes : ( She was a virgin, staying in a hotel he owned.

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by Anonymousreply 56February 28, 2018 2:33 AM

R53, I was going to mention Bridge to the Sun too.

by Anonymousreply 57February 28, 2018 2:36 AM

Nice PADDED BRA here, BTW!

(Well, a girl's gotta do...)

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by Anonymousreply 58February 28, 2018 2:39 AM

[quote]R54 She was a cunt who got suspended by Warner Brothers and went to Europe to make films, still breaking her contract, but she thought cheating was OK. Then the bitch spent the rest of her life wondering why no one wanted her for work, when she broke contracts, like it was her right.

Your sentence doesn't really make sense...but she didn't break her Paramount contract. The courts found in her favor.

If you think she was "a cunt" for going on suspension while at WB...all the good actors did that when the studio tried to force them into flimsy material. It's really rather a badge of honor.

If you're

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by Anonymousreply 59February 28, 2018 2:57 AM

With hot James Shigeta, who never married...

She was wonderful in Baby Doll, which is intentionally hilarious. This old fart remembers the brouhaha reporting on it when it came out. So shocking! Pretty funny that is, in view of the cocks and pussies plastered all over the place now.

I also enjoy the Maharis-costarring Sylvia.

by Anonymousreply 60February 28, 2018 4:36 AM

I saw Something Wild as child and it was very disturbing.

by Anonymousreply 61February 28, 2018 7:44 AM

r45 Jean Stapleton (pre-Edith Bunker days) played her floozy neighbor who tries to corrupt Baker.

by Anonymousreply 62February 28, 2018 11:22 AM

r45 DL fav Doris Roberts also had a small part as Baker's bitchy co-worker. It might have been Roberts' first film role.

by Anonymousreply 63February 28, 2018 11:23 AM

Has anyone here read her second autobio which focuses on her time living and working in Italy? That was a magnificent time in Rome when Cinecitta Studios was at its peak and many Hollywood stars were in residence.

by Anonymousreply 64February 28, 2018 12:19 PM

I loved her in Cheyenne Autumn.

by Anonymousreply 65February 28, 2018 12:34 PM

I worked with her personal papers (Garfein donated them without her knowledge!) for a research project in college. Not much dirt in her papers but it's a fascinating study of the business of being a star - fabulous and extensive press clippings, behind the scenes stills from sets, accounting records, studio contracts and correspondence, etc.

by Anonymousreply 66February 28, 2018 12:42 PM

I'd love to read vol. 2 of her memoirs, because I loved vol. 1.....What I remember distinctly from vol. 1 is that, at the very beginning, she was intelligent and ambitious and working with smart people, and she made the immortal "Baby Doll" and then--suddenly she's making "The Carpetbaggers" (one of my favorite movies) and she's a victimized bimbo being ground up by Joseph E. Levine and Hollywood. I kept thinking: "Where did that interesting person go?"

I'm glad to learn that she did interesting things in the 80s....I didn't know that. But nothing on earth could make me watch "Ironweed."

by Anonymousreply 67February 28, 2018 12:58 PM

[quote]R57 at the very beginning, she was intelligent and ambitious and working with smart people, and she made the immortal "Baby Doll" and then -- suddenly she's making "The Carpetbaggers" (one of my favorite movies) and she's a victimized bimbo being ground up by Joseph E. Levine and Hollywood. I kept thinking: "Where did that interesting person go?"

I believe this is what happened: Right off the bat she compromised her career after her screen test for GIANT by not staying in Hollywood to further discuss doing REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (which James Dean wanted her in) because her jealous fiancee demanded she return to New York. Uggh.

Then she was nominated for an Oscar for her first leading performance, but wasn't able to work again right away. as she got pregnant that year, too. When she chose to work next, she had to leave THE BIG COUNTRY early because she was pregnant again and they couldn't hide it any longer while figuring out how the unfinished script would end...and so her character just sort of disappears. (Sad lesson: motherhood can jam up a career.) Then when Warner Bros. put her in pap like BUT NOT FOR ME and THE MIRACLE...the momentum of her career was really lost.

I think after that she basically did what came along, and actually lucked into having a career resurgance with THE CARPETBAGGERS and those other trashy films...even though they weren't inherently her style. (One writer said her "clipped delivery and PTA prettiness" didn't really mesh with the whole attempted bombshell thing.) And throughout the whole thing her controlling, crazy husband didn't help matters, fouling up their home life and relations with producers.

She deserved better, because she was excellent in BABY DOLL, and could have been again in good roles if the timing had played out [bold]: (

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by Anonymousreply 68March 1, 2018 7:36 AM

R68, "her jealous fiancee" being Jack Garfein, correct? He did become her husband and directed her in SOMETHING WILD (which was seen by hardly anyone at the time).

Her acting was always uneven, but she could deliver a strong performance when well-directed. Unfortunately, after she went to Italy, she made so much crap.

At one time I thought she would have been an interesting choice for Hitchcock's MARNIE, because Hedren was certain in over her head for most of the movie.

by Anonymousreply 69March 1, 2018 1:16 PM

R69 Great idea! Baker would have been fabulous as "Marnie." Hedren had the looks but couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag, and Hedren's voice still grates on my nerves every time I hear it.

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by Anonymousreply 70March 1, 2018 1:23 PM

Before Baker was cast in Andy Warhol's BAD, Paul Morrissey and Andy had asked Vivian Vance to play the lead. Vance told them she'd love to do a film like that but couldn't because of her fans' image of her.

by Anonymousreply 71March 1, 2018 1:57 PM

Baker starred in an adaptation of an early Jackie Collins novel The World is Full of Married Men

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by Anonymousreply 72March 3, 2018 8:11 PM

R69, funny you say that, since Marnie has the wife not wanting,to be touched by her husband, and Baker's Baby Doll has a similar premise.

by Anonymousreply 73March 3, 2018 11:21 PM

she's heavy

by Anonymousreply 74June 20, 2019 3:23 AM
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