Word: kazan
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...most effective; that is, efforts to censor a particular film before it is released. And the economic power of these groups is sufficient to force many producers to comply. Robert Aldrich, an independent director-producer, claims that the producer has "no recourse" when the Legion demands cuts. Kazan also was irate in a letter to the New York Times complaining of 28 separate cuts he had been forced to make in Streetcar Named Desire to get the Legion's approval. And no producer is willing to alienate the large percentage of the population which the Legion claims to represent...
...wake a number of problems. For one thing, though the play has not been staged right here before, it has received a good many recent productions, and comparison thus becomes inevitable. For another, it has become pretty thoroughly identified with the ultra-naturalistic school of acting developed by Elia Kazan and the Actors' Studio in New York, one graduate of which is the play's original star, Marlon Brando. The reasons for this identification are more than a historical accident--Williams had the school's work in mind when he wrote his drama...
TIME'S Dec. 24 review of Baby Doll is sickening. When you say an admitted stream of carnal suggestiveness is fit for your readers' attention because it is expertly served up, you insult your reader's moral integrity by implying that he has none. Elia Kazan may have had puritanic motives, but look at the lewd billboard and newspaper ballyhoo that sings the seductive praises of Baby Doll. Who's kidding whom...
...while remaining well within the bounds of what is acceptable on the modern screen or stage. The real trouble with the film lies in Williams' failure to make his people anything more than corrupt. They have more medical than dramatic interest--or at least they did until Elia Kazan got to work on them...
...Kazan's most important contribution to the film, apart from getting remarkable performances from his actors, was to turn Williams' sweaty study of degeneracy into a comedy. Always searching for humor among the dirt, Kazan has his principals--Carroll Baker, as Baby Doll, Karl Malden, as Meighan, and Eli Wallach, as Vacarro--explore the comic sides of their characters. His direction is brilliant and the three performers, who give unanimously superb performances, prove once and for all that Kazan's rather nervous brand of naturalistic acting is quite suitable for comedy. The director's interpretation unquestionably improves the script, even...