“Carroll Baker became famous sucking her thumb in 1956, portraying the willful child bride of Karl Malden in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll. She was terribly erotic doing it, the film won censorial fame and the vulgar, trashy blonde sexpot image it created for her has remained her screen persona ever since. She is actually at her best in trashy movies, gloriously revelling in her Jean Harlow-like role in The Carpetbaggers (1964) or portraying the star herself in Harlow (1965).”
/ From The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The World’s Greatest Movie Stars (1979) by Ken Wlaschin /
“She is actually at her best in trashy movies.” Is there any higher accolade for an actress? Happy birthday to the truly glorious and distinctive Carroll Baker (28 May 1931), who – amazingly – turns 95 today. At her peak, the pouty and perverse Baker was offered the role of Maggie in the 1958 adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Elizabeth Taylor was second choice and – according to Baker - would gratefully exclaim, “Carroll! You’ve given me a whole new career!”). In addition to the films Wlaschin cites above, I revere Baker’s performances in Giant (1956), Something Wild (1961), Sylvia (1965) (a favourite of John Waters’), Harlow (1965), Andy Warhol’s BAD (1977) and The World is Full of Married Men (1979). (I’ve shown Sylvia and Harlow at my Lobotomy Room film club; Baker cast a spell on everyone in attendance). After her Hollywood career flamed out by the mid-sixties, Baker relocated to Europe and triumphantly reinvented herself in fascinating Italian giallo thrillers with wild titles like Orgasmo (1969) and So Sweet … So Perverse (1969). These movies are tricky to see in the UK (at least with English subtitles or dubbing), but I’ve seen and loved Knife of Ice (aka Il Coltello di Ghiaccio) (1972) and Baba Yaga (1973). Carroll Baker should be venerated as cult cinema royalty!
