Baby Doll is a 1956 film which tells the story of the childlike bride of a Mississippi cotton gin owner, who becomes the pawn in a battle between her husband and his enemy. It stars Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach and Mildred Dunnock. This was Wallach's feature film debut.

The screenplay was written by Tennessee Williams and was based on his one act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. It was directed by Elia Kazan.

Baby Doll won the Golden Globe award for Best Director (Elia Kazan). It was also nominated for four other Golden Globe awards, four Academy awards and one British Academy award.

While the costume design was not nominated, the film is credited with both the name and originating the popularity of the babydoll nightgown, which derives from the costume worn by Baker's character.

The Catholic Legion of Decency succeeded in having the film withdrawn from release in most U.S. theaters because of their objections over its sexual themes. The movie was banned in many countries like Sweden, due to its allegedly exaggerated sexual content. The film was also condemned by Time, which called it the "dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited".

Baby Doll is a 1916 film featuring Oliver Hardy.

She walks & talks like a little girl. Yet, she's no little girl at all. Something is wrong with Casey Henson. Something she hides from the rest of the world. But an innocent man is about to find out her secret. A secret he might not live to tell... Written by Thomas F. Bragg

"Baby Doll" explores "Casey's" journey (verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from orphanages and foster homes) to her present emotional state of a mentally disturbed criminal who is in prison for having killed men because they reming her of her father. She claims her innocence in an interview with a local reporter claiming that another woman murdered these men. Written by Rosemary Gore

Archie Lee Meighan, middle-aged cotton gin owner, can hardly wait for the 20th birthday of his childish bride Baby Doll, when he'll be allowed to consummate the marriage...he thinks. But rival owner Silva Vaccaro suspects Archie of burning his gin down, and takes an erotic form of Sicilian vengeance. Written by Rod Crawford

Baby Doll Meighan is a pretty, vacuous Southern 'white trash' gal who at 19 still sleeps in a crib and sucks her thumb. She has been married for two years to ineffectual, bigoted Archie Lee. The couple have not yet consummated their marriage because Archie Lee promised Baby Doll's dying father that he would not touch his daughter until she said she was "ready for marriage." He is frustrated by this strain and obliged to peek at his squirmy half-dressed child-bride through a hole in her bedroom wall. Archie Lee is further humiliated ind incensed by a flashy Sicilian business rival who has recently managed to force Archie Lee's decrepit cotton gin out of business. One night in a fit of desperation and frustration, Archie Lee burns down his rival's cotton gin. The rest of the story describes the Sicilian's revenge as he blatantly pursues and seduces a distraught but sensually aroused Baby Doll, and attempts to terrorize her into revealing Archie Lee's crime. Written by alfiehitchie