Carroll
Baker in Private Lessons. You older guys may remember
this, but here's a quick refresher for all. Baker was a sexy
mainstream star in the period 1956-1965. Her Lolitaesque
character in Baby Doll, in 1956 opposite Eli Wallach, stirred
up all kinds of controversy among the moral crusaders. She
managed to get roles in some big films like Cheyenne Autumn,
How the West Was Won, Giant, and (surprisingly) The Greatest
Story Ever Told, a New Testament film in which she played
Veronica. That's the one where Max von Sydow, a lanky, blonde,
blue-eyed Swede played Jesus. Chuck Heston chewed the scenery
as John the Baptist in that film, and Pat Boone also appeared!
No, not as the Virgin Mary. Some other virgin. The actual
Virgin Mary was another example of laughable casting - Dorothy
McGuire. Everybody who was anybody in Hollywood appeared in
that film: Claude Rains, Donald Pleasance, Sidney Poitier, Sal
Mineo, Roddy McDowell, Martin Landau, Angela Lansbury, Jose
Ferrer, John Wayne, Shelley Winters, Ed Wynn, Telly Savalas,
Robert Blake, and
many more. A famous poet, Carl Sandburg, worked on the
script at one point! Back to the point. In the final year
of that period, the same year she made the Jesus flim, Baker
was one of two American actresses to play Jean Harlow in
movies entitled "Harlow." Yeah, it was confusing, particularly
since both actresses were named Carol. (Technically - Carol
and Carroll.) This one was released only a month after
the other. Baker, a beautiful woman but a weak actress, was
savaged by the critics, who pointed out that the story line
was almost completely false, and that everything seemed to
take place in 1965 rather than in the 1930s. The other Harlow
film, starring Carol Lynley, fared no better. Both films are
both rated 5.3 at IMDb. Somebody should get the necessary
rights to issue them both on DVD in a special edition boxed
set with commentaries. They are bad movies, but there are
great stories to be told! After Harlow, Baker disappeared
into the European film scene for a decade, and did not return
to Hollywood until she was old enough to play the mothers of
the characters she used to play. For example, you may remember
her as the mother of Mariel Hemingway in Star 80. Private
Lessons is from the later part of her European phase, so she
was already 44 years old, but definitely looked like a red-hot
MILF. The nudity is subtle, but there is some. Two other
women from Private Lessons:
Femi Benussi,
Leonora Fani.
Kelly McCarty
in Faithless
Anja Nejarri
in Alarm for Cobra 11
Marina Glazer in Roma
Heidi
Thomas and Cheryl Kay in Crack House |