Carroll Baker fans: UNITE!

Poor script choices.

I really like her. She was an unusual presence, but yeah, her films were pretty bad.

I have her memoir called Baby Doll which is excellent.

She was locked into the blond sex symbol syndrome, had a crooked husband who did not have her best interests at heart, and finally had a breakdown in the 1960's.

After not being able to work in Hollywood she went overseas and made thinly veiled soft porn movies in order to keep on working.

In the 1980's she made a comeback of sorts in American movies with a role here and there.

She still looks like herself.

The Carpetbaggers was a huge hit at the box office but the critics savaged it and within a couple of years time Carroll fell off the scope in Hollywood.

The big budget film of hers that were hits aren't technically that good...GIANT, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, THE BIG COUNTRY...and that's not even going into the lucrative [italic]trash[/italic] like THE CARPETBAGGERS.

I wonder if she was kind of dragged down by being a wife and mother / sole breadwinner, etc. Perhaps she took a lot of stuff that came along that maybe she'd have passed on if she were just looking out for herself.

But her performance in BABY DOLL is one of the best I've ever seen. Really. She deserved better, long-term, just for that.

Carroll Baker in "Orgasmo", an Italian movie in the late 1960's. It was the only type of work she could get.

Orgasmo.

In her prime.

In Andy Warhol's Bad from 1977.

Everybody gave great performances in Baby Doll. A pity we don't have movies like Baby Doll these days. We have dumb comic book crapfests.

I think the soft core porn stuff did her career in.

I think even though the work was still dreck-y, she enjoyed her time in Rome more than her earlier years in Hollywood.

At least she wasn't having to carry her loser, sychophant hubby anymore.

At least Edith Head did some cool clothes for her while they were at Paramount together.

It's something...

Yikes. Not so good when the costume designs are the best feature in a thread about an actress.

I liked her. She had a unique voice. The movie "Sylvia" is strangely terrific.

Beauty?

Yes, she was beautiful. And she had a good face for an actress, because she could look plainer if she had to.

But the basic material was beautiful, or she'd have never made it as far as she did.

Compared to a real blonde beauty like Grace Kelly, Baker came up very wanting. And let's not even compare her sex appeal to Marilyn Monroe.

And besides, BAKER COULD NOT ACT. Have none of you seen Harlow??? Did she ever even watch Jean Harlow in one of her films?

Bottom Line: She could rock a caftan

She’s not the first Oscar nominee to have the bottom fall out in her career almost immediately.

[quote]R19 Compared to a real blonde beauty like Grace Kelly, Baker came up very wanting. And let's not even compare her sex appeal to Marilyn Monroe.

Well, come on: Practically no one can stack up against Grace KELLY! But that doesn't mean no one else in the world can be said to be beautiful.

[quote]Have none of you seen Harlow???

Everything about that rushed film is absolutely wretched and tacky. No one comes out of it well.

I knew her kids in Rome when the family was living there. Blanche was poised and very pretty.

Her Italian films are so delightfully trashy. I can see why she had a fun time making them.

As for the movie HARLOW (about the late film actress Jean Harlow), both Carroll Baker and Carol Lynley were making movies about her at the same time and both came out in 1965. Baker's fared better at the box office but the reviews were not good and it pretty much spelled the end of her career in Hollywood.

What's funny is that the cheapjack Carol Lynley version is brisker than the big budget Paramount one w/ Baker.

It's not like it's GOOD, but at least it moves along fairly quickly. The other one is just a sodden mess..

Useless Trivia: Debbie Reynolds' brother William was one of the makeup artists on Paramount's version of HARLOW.

This was because Carroll and Debbie were friends, after they played sisters once.

Baker was great in Star 80.

I wonder what happened to her daughter Blanch. Blanche's biggest role was Molly Ringwald's older sister in 16 Candles

Blanche was very, very good (among a cast of acting heavyweights) in [italic]Holocaust.[/italic] Beautiful and heartbreaking. The camera really loved her face.

I think the daughter is basically retired, married. She won an Emmy Award when young, and did Broadway and regional stage work. She was also featured in the original HANDMAID'S TALE.

The last thing I saw her in was an indie film about that horrible Sylvia Likens torture/murder case. Catherine Keener did a version, too, playing the same evil mom. It's really too exploitive a topic to rationally make into an honorable film, IMO.

BRIDGE TO THE SUN is a very good Carroll Baker film. Based on the memoirs of Gwen Terisaki, a white American woman who married a Japanese diplomat played by James Shigeta, who was very hot. Marital bliss seems to be in the future, but no because #Pearl Harbor. Because he is a Japanese national, they're deported back to Japan.

My mom loves that movie. I've never seen it, myself.

Baker is good in Giant, Bridge To The Sun, Baby Doll and Ironweed.

Here's a clip of Carroll in Star 80. It's poor quality, obviously filmed directly off the tv, but all that was available. Bob Fosse used her to great effect. Of course, it's also a reminder of how spellbinding Eric Roberts was. Probably his greatest performance. Not only was he robbed of an Oscar nom that year, I think he should have won.

“I don’t need to give you a reason. I’m her mother. THAT’S the reason.”

(She could add, “I’m telling you NOW, so I don’t have to tell you THEN!”)

I loved her as Archie Bunker in All in the Family. Of course, by then she had put on a bit of weight.

R35 That wasn't Caroll Baker. It was Glynnis O'Connor.

R30 Blanche has not retired. She's filming two movies now. There was a break from 2015 to this year.

Oh...thank you.

Yes thank you, r38. So glad she's accounted for, unlike that Sachi girl.

"The Carpetbaggers." LOVE. They don't--they can't--make 'em like that anymore.

Thanks for that photo, r10. I had forgotten just how hot Perry King was.

2 Harlow movies released in 1965: one starring Carroll Baker and the other Carol Lynley. Baker's did the best at the box office but it was savaged by the critics, she fell off the scope of Hollyood and had to go overseas and make foreign movies.

R42 Perry King again.

Perry King about to make another man comfortable.

Perry King in Bad.

On the cover of After Dark back in the day.

[quote]R41 "The Carpetbaggers." LOVE. They don't--they can't--make 'em like that anymore.

I like when the announcer says, "It is unlikely that you will experience in YOUR LIFETIME all that you will see in THE CARPETBAGGERS!"

Oh [italic] really?? [/italic] (puff, puff)

“WHERE’S MY GRANDSON!?”

Who could forget her in her most memorable role?

“WHAT DID YOU SEE!?!?”

At the 3:00 mark, this "Karen" looks kind of...trans.

Andy Warhol's Bad needs to be resorted and given a Criterion Blu Ray release now!

Carroll Baker is sensational in the film. Always loved her in Baby Doll & Star 80 as well.

I loved watching movies on tv as a gayling - especially the ones that were ‘presented’ by this camp old lovey ‘film expert’, Bill Collins (this was in Sydney, Australia, during the mid seventies through to the mid eighties) -

Seriously - he could have been a typical eldergay here on DL! - full of Hollywood gossip - all decades old! - and delivered his pronouncements and opinions with a kind of pompous excitement and certainly that I found spellbinding. It was before the internet - and his knowledge was encyclopaedic! - especially about lesser known and obscure supporting cast members. Loved all that!

Anyway - that’s all by way of a long-winded explanation to his presentation one evening of the Baker Harlow biopic. I remember him showing some stills and giving commentary about people in it, the Head costumes, etc - but the thing I remember most was the way his lip curled with distaste when he got around to carrol - and said that ‘Carroll baker was responsible for ruining more movies In the sixties than any other actress he could think of’ and just moved on...

I was riveted to the movie of course - but I was ultra-critical of Baker in it thanks to his disdain - and in everything I’ve seen her in since. Which I feel mean about now - having read everyone’s enthusiasm about her. I feel I’ve been mean and should reassess her capabilities.

But there’s still a part of me that thinks that judgey old queen might have been on the money...

If any baby gays here haven't seen HARLOW (and I don't recommend any of them do!), what's kind of jaw-dropping is it's made in this completely artificial, almost WAXY environment. It's like it was shot in a department store, with talking mannequins. There's almost something frightening about it, it's so airless.

^ I watched that clip, and, damn, you weren't lying! Plus, Carroll's wig in that scene is terrible, it looks like it was made from Barbie Doll hair

R53, I can't help but agree with you and that old queen. Baker wasn't a good actress during her brief post-"Babydoll" heyday, she was stiff and charmless and never as attractive as the characters she played were supposed to be. All the openness and seemingly unconscious sexuality of "Babydoll" vanished without a trace and without it, Hollywood had little use for her.

Of course she became a fine actress later in life, but there was a good reason her sixties Hollywood career fizzled out.

Dreadful in The Carpetbaggers and Harlow! You only get so many chances when you're in your prime.

It's sad that such an iconic and unique actress as Jean Harlow never had a great bio made of her life. And nobody cares anymore.

She's no match for Barbara Nichols! Nichols wasn't that pretty, but dammit she could act!

You're all animals...ANIMALS! My little Carroll (nee Karolina Piekarski) was [italic]drummed out of Hollywood[/italic] by the snotty Big Boys because she had a contract dispute with Paramount Pictures! (She later won in court.) The Boys Club then wouldn't hire her because she dared go up against her boss.

Carroll BAKER is a heroine for our TIMES!

(And SCENE)

Wow! Just watched the clip at R54 - it’s really not very good. The set is preposterous and it’s all so...stilted. There’s a few good lines that I can really picture Harlow actually delivering - but they’re lost in the general meh of it all...

Wonder though if it was Baker’s fault? I mean - I really think a lot of ‘bad acting’ in Hollywood movies is more about bad directing. Some directors are technicians and get shots and capture footage on film that can be edited together and make a film - but it’s not necessarily good or compelling and they don’t really understand actors or acting - or how to get the best and capture it on film. That was all so stilted and awkward (and distracted by the sixties haircthat looks nothing like Harlow’s do at all!). And given we know she was so great in Baby Doll and then later in her career - maybe that dud patch of movies could be attributed as much to dud directors as her efforts?

And as a previous poster said - what a pity there isn’t a really good biopic on Harlow! But must say - it’s be a hard casting ask! She was pretty unique looking. I can’t think of anyone around today that even vaguely resembles her. And she was kinda pleasantly plump - cushiony and curvy - even her face. Everyone in the biz nowadays is so skinny :(

She would have gotten more respect had she gone the serious actress route....and kept to it.

I'm not a fan yet I agree with you, r61. Baker might have had more success in Eva Marie Saint type roles.

[quote]R61 She would have gotten more respect had she gone the serious actress route....and kept to it.

That was her original plan. She had acted on Broadway, studied at the Actors Studio, and didn't want to sign a long term studio contract, anyway. (She turned down DADDY LONG LEGS, eventually made with Leslie Caron, for that reason.) After her Oscar nom, the studio thought a sexy image was the way to go, but she thwarted them by turning down TOO MUCH, TOO SOON and some Erskine Cauldwell properties...which meant Warner Bros. then retaliated and wouldn't lend her out for THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. She was also pregnant when offered THE THREE FACES OF EVE. So basically, the follow-up to her initial success, quality-wise, got kind of derailed. (Her controlling husband also made her break off discussions to do REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, which her friend James Dean wanted her to do.)

She eventually bought her way out of her contract when Warners made her do THE MIRACLE...in which she played a nun who ran off to be a wild gypsy and courtesan. She later acknowledged she'd over reacted, but she didn't like the flimsy, sexy parts Warner Bros. planned for her.

So....Baker very much wanted to be a serious actress, initially, then when her career got a second wind a decade later with THE CARPETBAGGERS, and the emphasis on sex again, she was like, "Oh jesus god, okay, [italic] Whatever, Heather, [/italic] this aint my first time at the rodeo, Do Whatever You Want, I'll show up."

THE DEFENSE RESTS!

R43 ETC

Sooooo disappointed in the lack of knowledge of my brethren on DL. The main reason for Baker's failed career was she dared to sue PARAMOUNT and producer Joseph E. Levine and got blackballed, hence her moving to Europe in the mid to late 60s. The litigious Miss Baker sued PLAYBOY too but it was the former that hurt her in Hollywood even though her lawsuit had merit. Levine, who had offices at PARAMOUNT had promised her a multi picture deal circa 1964 & didn't come through.

[quote]R64 The litigious Miss Baker sued PLAYBOY too

What was the basis for that? Did they keep running pictures in future issues...or the layout was never initially for them, at all?

Something Wild, a 1961 film she and her husband Jack Garfein (who eventually became something of a legend in NYC acting teacher circles) produced is one of her most interesting films. That was Carroll going all out to show she was a serious actress and she's very good in it. Well worth checking out, very disturbing movie shot on location in NYC though last half of the film takes place in a dank basement apartment.

It would appear that way, r66........

Carroll Baker in one of her soft porn European movies. Some of the guys were pretty good looking.

Got her own star!

The big movie star/sex symbol/Hollywood pose.

With Roger Moore - -

I have come to love Baker, but some reviews of her 1960s sexpot films by Judith Crist still make me laugh.

[quote]Well, here we go again...hitting the old whorehouse trail with Carroll Baker...

[quote]As usual, Miss Baker brings a PTA prettiness and no sexuality to her role...

[quote]More bomb than bombshell.

Producer Joseph Levine gave Baker an unrelenting publicity push when he had her under contract, and you can sympathize with the critics, who were eventually like, "Okay, okay...we GET it!"

Carroll Baker in Baby Doll, her greatest film.

I posted this above, but her performance in BABY DOLL is really one of the finest I've ever seen. She has so much variety in it, and is so naural yet theatrical at the same time. And she's FUNNY!

What's funny about BABY DOLL is that it is horrible movie except for Carroll Baker. It makes no sense and everything hides some sexual meaning that is trite or unrefined. It's only selling point was that it was condemned by church groups.

Very sexy. Pure Americana, I bet Hef loved her.

I dont agree Baker couldnt act. In Giant, Eliz Taylor and Rock Hudson both admitted she was a very good actress and also James Dean was a better actor than they were and they were plotting trying to sabatoge their scenes somewhat to make themselves look better.

I also think Baker was a beauty. She was great in the carpetbaggers and in Harlow. Back then if you wanted to build a career and have longevity as a moviestar you needed to play the same roles over and over again to build a huge following. It doesnt seem Baker did that and that strategy is something that talented actors usually want to avoid.

Finally I would say part of her problem was a truly awful first husband that was in the biz and did her career no good. Poor choices in husbands is generally not great for a movie career/

I get it that she can act but in my opinion she lacks presence and charisma. She also has a frustrating quality in that she's....almost spontaneous. She's also almost beautiful. Tuesday Weld possessed qualities that Baker only suggested. And I too am no fan of BABY DOLL. 2nd or 3rd rate Tennessee Williams with Hollywood actors playing "southern" in a phony, cringe-inducing manner - as if they were doing a run-through in Manhattan at the Actor's Studio. They're playing it as if it were heavy drama when it all should have been played more breezily. The film looks drab and ugly. I've never been able to get through it - it's so obvious.

I love BABY DOLL. The acting’s divine.

When I was younger I avoided it because it looked tacky and grubby...but that’s the story’s [italic]milieux,[/italic] as it were.

[quote]r56 All the openness and seemingly unconscious sexuality of "Babydoll" vanished without a trace

Well, she was directed by Elia Kazan in that film, and it was written by Tennessee Williams.

So, that helps a lot.

Love Baby Doll. It's hilarious and was meant to be. Absolutely captures rural ennui and aimlessness. And how can one not love Sylvia, with Ann Sothern, Edmund O'Brien, Viveca Lindfors, Joanne Dru AND George Maharis.

"All the openness and seemingly unconscious sexuality of "Babydoll" vanished without a trace and without it, Hollywood had little use for her. "

That's the thing. Her career faded quickly because the studio tried to push her as a sex symbol, but she was only sexy in one film. I have no idea why she could project sex appeal in one film and not in any others, but yes, her presence was prim and uptight in most of the films she made. She'd have been better off playing well-bred ingenues than Jean Harlow, but after "Baby Doll" I guess everyone pushed her in the wrong direction.

One book I have called FLESH AND FANTASY says her "clipped delivery and PTA prettiness didn't mesh with her manufactured bombshell image."

[quote]r81 And how can one not love Sylvia, with Ann Sothern, Edmund O'Brien, Viveca Lindfors, Joanne Dru AND George Maharis.

You could have bought her Edith Head designed suit from that at auction a few years ago!

But beware! [italic]"The jacket was originally worn with a tied string bow in the front that was removed when the jacket was used in a subsequent production."