Baby Doll is a 1956 American black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach. It was produced by Kazan and Tennessee Williams, and adapted by Williams from two of his own one-act plays: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and The Unsatisfactory Supper. The plot focuses on a feud between two rival cotton gin owners in rural Mississippi.

Plot

In the Mississippi Delta, bigoted, middle-aged cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan has been married to pretty, naïve 19-year-old "Baby Doll" Meighan for nearly two years. As part of his marriage negotiation with Baby Doll's terminally ill (now-deceased) father, Archie promised to provide for her. Terms included setting her up at a restored "Tiger Tail," once the grandest house in the county but now in dilapidated condition. Long eagerly awaited by Archie, the next day is Baby Doll's 20th birthday, when according to the agreement, the marriage can finally be consummated. In the meantime, Baby Doll sleeps in a crib because the only other bedroom furniture in the house is the bed in which Archie sleeps. Archie, an alcoholic, spies on her through a hole in a wall. Baby Doll's senile Aunt Rose Comfort lives in the house as cook and housekeeper, much to Archie's chagrin.