Seriously, the baby catches on fire in the plot of this film? Please. The script writers must have been desperate for an idea. And if it's obviously a vinyl doll, even those who want to take it seriously must be hard pressed. The whole film sounds like an attempt to exploit the success of *A Summer Place.*
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I remember this scene! I saw it as a young boy, and even then I yelled out, "Hey, that's a doll!", as someone rushes to it with a blanket to wrap it in and hide it from the camera. LOL!
Cheers!
Sooooo....would you have preferred it to be a real baby???!!!
"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
No, I would have preferred better special effects or even off camera completely. That was ridiculous!
Cheers!
Sweetheart...I guess for the time this film was made, they didn't have the
technology/craft/skills to produce special effect babies that would look real.
I'm sure if that movie was made today; the outcome in the realism might have
been more a lot more believable.
"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
These days, they'd be able to use one of the "rebirthing" baby dolls that look incredibly realistic. I saw this movie at a film festival (during the "Bad Movies We Love" celebration) with Connie Stevens in attendance, and the entire audience broke up during the film, including the burning doll scene. To her credit, Connie was a good enough sport to admit a lot of the movie was hokey but that she enjoyed making it (and at that time, no one laughed at a burning doll!).
shareI gotta see this now! I love it when the facade of film breaks down like that!
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
I just saw the scene!
LOL - I love it!
I thought maybe it was just a short, short shot - but it's pretty extended.
The doll head sticking out of the blanket when Troy Donahue rushes past the camera!
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
After having already caught the baby playing with that cigarette lighter, you would think that Dorothy McGuire's character (Mrs. Leah Slade) would have locked the d@mned lighter away in a desk drawer or somewhere else, away from the curious infant.
Besides, I disliked seeing Dorothy McGuire puffing away in this film; the usually elegant and refined Ms. McGuire looked like a forty-something Jane Fonda in "Klute" with the seemingly ubiquitous "coffin-nails" in her mouth.
I recommend the song "Baby's On Fire" by Brian Eno.
shareIt was so sloppily done, and it wasn't a matter of special effects being primitive at the time, they could have at least found a doll that looked somewhat like the baby. That baby was hilarious too. In profile he reminded me of Jackie Gleason when he was crying. There is also a very noticeable boom shadow in an early scene with Lloyd Nolan and Dorothy McGuire. It swings in from the upper left of the screen and stays there. I must say though that I think this film offers Donahue's best performance. He has a dramatic scene with Connie Stevens in his loft that is very convincing.
shareTroy and Con Con.
sharethe place must've reeked of burning plastic from the baby doll flambé. and how convenient, only the "baby" was engulfed in flames. i guess this was before the days of fire-retardant pajamas.
shareSomeone said in an earlier post that the screen writers were desperate if they put a baby on fire in the movie. Remember, though, that Susan Slade was a book so any blame for a corny scene would go to novelist.
Was everyone really surprised though that the baby caught on fire? When the child was playing with the lighter earlier and Dorothy McGuire took away I thought "Oh, geez. I bet there is going to be a burning baby later in this movie."
I just saw the movie for the first time on TCM. The baby scene was so campy, but I loved it. The burning doll was so funny. Troy, and Connie were having a serious coversation, and then the burning baby/doll scene happened. You could even see that the doll had yellow synthetic hair.
I was annoyed that Dorothy McGuire left the lighter where the baby could get to it. She knew that he had been playing with it, and to a baby it looked like a shiny toy. I even wonder if they even bothered to baby proof the house. My grandfather was a serious smoker, and he never left his lighters lying around. He had it on him, or it was in a drawer.
The baby that played Rogie was super cute by the way. He had such a sweet little personality. A very happy little baby.
"Well-behaved women seldom make history."-Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Absolutely the CUTEST baby. When she was singing to him, the look of wonderment on his chubby little face... Somewhere there's a casting assistant who deserves major kudos.
shareI think the obviously fake baby works in a strange way. If that scene had been too realistic, it would have been unwatchable. However, seeing that the "baby" is actually a doll defuses the more horrific elements of the scene.
shareHow else could they get the entire cast (minus poor Lloyd Nolan!) into the hospital waiting room where Susan could finally stand up for herself? I am so into the movie by this point that I barely notice the doll. Hokey? Perhaps. But it's an incredibly absorbing teenage melodrama, probably Connie Stevens' best work in films.
shareI had the same thought, claude. Even with an obviously fake baby, I found the scene disturbing.
"What I got don't need pearls." -- Linda Darnell (1923-65)
The real baby had a curly top knot and the fake baby had straight corn colored hair.
But listen, I was 12 when I saw this movie and I LOVED Troy Donahue. And I liked Connie too. So I guarantee you back then I did not really notice the doll.
I am sure my mother did tho.
Also Connie's hair! OMG. Those hairstyles were so bad. But in looking at my husband's yearbook back in 58 59, I actually saw those hairstyles on girls.
He is 8 yrs older than I am, so he can laugh at the late 60s hairstyles in my year book.
But I am positive back in 1961 I did not think she had a hokey hairstyle. But I do remember thinking her mother was WAY too old to have a baby. But the mom was probably only 37-38!!
I thought her hairstyles were quite unflattering for the most part. Not terrible, but I've seen better in films of this period.
The novel, "The Sin Of Susan Slade" by Doris Hume is long out of print and quite expensive on Amazon.com, especially if you're not a US resident. That's too bad, because I really want to read it and compare it to the film.
The novel, "The Sin Of Susan Slade" by Doris Hume is long out of print and quite expensive on Amazon.com, especially if you're not a US resident. That's too bad, because I really want to read it and compare it to the film.
and the grandmother spanks the baby for playing with a lighter that was left within the baby's reach??? left within his reach twice??? the granny should be slapped around for that one
shareYeah..just finished watching the movie on TCM. That scene always makes me shake my head. I saw this movie when it first came out in 1961. The plot was so 1960s. Imagine pretending to be the baby's sister in today's world. Nowaways, you have reality shows like Pregnant at 16. Boy...have times changed!
shareand the grandmother spanks the baby for playing with a lighter that was left within the baby's reach??? left within his reach twice??? the granny should be slapped around for that one
I posted about Dorothy McGuire really hitting this baby in real life on another thread. I think it's disgusting, and I think they could have filmed it with the camera off the baby's face and using a recording of a baby crying to cover the scene instead of actually abusing this poor baby. That scene made me sick. Just another example of how in the past people didn't value children as much as they do today.
share"Just another example of how in the past people didn't value children as much as they do today".
Yeah like to the point where present day parents have their kids practically bubble wrapped but allow them to eat all things with artificiality and preservatives.
The Surgeon General's report linking smoking to lung cancer was released in 1964. Studies of the dangers of secondhand smoke were published much later; the term "secondhand smoke" didn't enter the vernacular until the 1970s or 1980s. Before 1964, smoking was allowed almost everywhere: restaurants, airplanes, even hospitals. Cigarette companies used doctors in ads PROMOTING smoking, and few doctors advised women to not smoke, even when pregnant or nursing.
The audience for this movie would have thought nothing of McGuire's cigarette consumption, even around the baby.
Seriously, the baby catches on fire in the plot of this film? Please. The script writers must have been desperate for an idea. And if it's obviously a vinyl doll, even those who want to take it seriously must be hard pressed. The whole film sounds like an attempt to exploit the success of *A Summer Place.*
The sloppy parenting was evident waaay before the lighter scene...what about in Guatemala where they had candles burning all around the sheer mosquito netting by the baby's bassinet?
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