Baby Doll by [Thomas Lanier Williams, writing as] WILLIAMS, Tennessee (1911-1983) - 1957

London: Secker & Warburg, 1957. First UK Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of the script for Williams's first original screenplay. Small 8vo: 140pp, with black-and-white stills from the film. Publisher's scarlet V cloth, spine lettered in silver, illustrated dust jacket priced 12s/6d. A Very Fine copy. Crandell A17.I.c. "For a number of years Elia Kazan, the director of several of Tennessee Williams's play on Broadway as well as films, had been urging Mr. Williams to weld into an original film story two of his early one-act plays which were, roughly, concerned with the same characters and situation. And in the summer of 1955, while he was traveling in Europe, Mr. Williams wrote and dispatched to Mr. Kazan a proposed script, quite different from the two short plays. With some changes this was filmed the following winter mainly in the Mississippi rural area which had been the original setting of the two short plays." (from the Publisher's Note). The film, Baby Doll, is the story of a middle-aged man married to a girl of twenty and of his jealousy and hatred of the young Italian immigrant who steals first his business, then his wife. Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock and Karl Malden filled the principal roles. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.