Baby Face (1933)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Darryl F. Zanuck (story)
Gene Markey (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 July 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

She climbed the ladder of success - wrong by wrong!

Plot:

Lilly (Baby Face) sleeps her way from basement speakeasy bartender, literally floor by floor, to the top floor of a New York office building...

Plot Keywords:

Bank | Speakeasy | Nietzsche | Sexually Aggressive Woman | Melodrama

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Lily Powers
George Brent	...	Courtland Trenholm
Donald Cook	...	Ned Stevens
Alphonse Ethier	...	Adolf Cragg
Henry Kolker	...	J.P. Carter
Margaret Lindsay	...	Ann Carter
Arthur Hohl	...	Ed Sipple
John Wayne	...	Jimmy McCoy Jr.
Robert Barrat	...	Nick Powers
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Brody (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Theresa Harris	...	Chico
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Walter Brennan	...	(scenes deleted)

Runtime:

71 min | 76 min (restored version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (1933) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Ship scene features same set used in "Three on a Match" a year earlier.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: After Lily mentions to Courtland she would like to be a Mrs., there are two shots of newspapers announcing the wedding. The second shot is a close up of two paragraphs. The first paragraph misspells Courtland's name as "Courtney" and the word company as "comany."

Quotes:

Lily Powers: What could I do? He's my boss and I have to earn my own living.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Dardanella

Beautiful Schemer: The Strange Loves of Lily Powers

BABY FACE (WB, 1933), directed by Alfred E. Green, stars the very young but forceful Barbara Stanwyck in a "pre-code" drama that has garnered such a "bad" reputation that it has become a cult favorite in recent years, thanks to frequent revivals on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. A hot item it its day, the first 45 minutes of BABY FACE is hard-hitting and fast pace, with intentional or unintentional funny dialogue combined, but the remaining elements to the story, especially after the entrance of co-star George Brent, making his third screen appearance opposite Stanwyck, following two 1932 releases of SO BIG and THE PURCHASE PRICE, does the story start to simmer down and lose steam, but when it starts to pick up again during the final 15 minutes, it simply fails to recapture the essence of the initial three quarters of an hour.

The focal point is on Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck), the sassy daughter living in the slums of Pittsburgh whose abusive father, Nick (Robert Barrat) has her working as a barmaid in his speakeasy entertaining his low-life factory working friends. In order to get "protection" and no violations, Nick agrees to have Ed Semple (Arthur Hohl), a local politician with more on his mind other than getting elected, to spend some time alone with his daughter. After slapping this man silly, Semple threatens to close down Nick's place, causing Lily to get into one of her heated arguments with Poppa. The anger and hatred between these two is evident from the opening shot, and quite raw, then and now, especially with these memorable spoken lines: Powers: "I'm your father .... Lily: "That's my tough luck ..... yeah, I'm a tramp and who's to blame? My father! A swell start you gave me .... men, nothing but men, DIRTY ROTTEN MEN, AND YOU'RE LOWER THAN ANY OF THEM!" Moments later, Nick is informed by Chico (Theresa Harris), Lily's friend and helper, of an awful smell in the basement. After going to investigate, Nick is then killed by an explosion. Watching the flames, Lily stands there, showing no emotion over her father's death. At the advise of Adolph Cragg (Alphonse Either), who wants her to get ahead in life, Lily leaves her hometown on a freight train accompanied by Chico bound for New York City. While there, Lily uses what life has taught her to get ahead by obtaining employment in a large banking firm, using her feminine wiles to full advantage and rising up in the business world from file clerk to personal secretary, sleeping around with important businessmen one by one. Even though she becomes responsible for the breakup between Ned Stevens (Donald Cook) and Ann Carter, his fiancée (Margaret Lindsay), the young banking executive loses his mind after finding his future father-in-law (Henry Kolker) in Lily's Park Avenue penthouse, for which he had supplied, leading to a murder/ suicide. Lily telephones the police about the "accident" and goes on with her life. The notorious scandal finds Lily being transferred to the bank's Paris branch where she becomes infatuated with Trenholm (George Brent), the new president of the Gotham Trust Company. She captures his attention and becomes his wife, living the life of luxury with money, jewels and expensive clothing supplied to her by him. But it doesn't end here. Things start to get really involved again when Trenholm faces financial ruin and is in desperate need of money to get himself started again. Will Lily help him or will Trenholm meet the same tragic fate as her other victims?

Featured in the supporting cast include Douglass Dumbrille as Brody, another one of Lily's "love slaves,"; Nat Pendleton as Stolvich, a sleezy factory worker; Maynard Holmes as the personnel office clerk, with Edward Van Sloan, Charles Sellon and Charles Coleman appearing in smaller roles. Look fast for Toby Wing, the beautiful blonde from the "Young and Healthy" musical number of 42nd STREET (1933), in a bit as one of the secretaries. Along with Dumbrille, Kolker and Cook as the men who fall prey to a gal called Lily, the biggest surprise is finding a very young John Wayne, years prior to becoming a major box office attraction, as another one of Lily's rejected suitors. Wayne's role as an office clerk is brief but notable because this is the one and only collaboration between the "Duke" and "Stanny." Quite regrettable that these two future legends never got to reunite again in some large scale western during their peak years of the 1940s or 1950s. James Murray, the leading actor in MGM's silent masterpiece, THE CROWD (1928), whose career declined by the early 1930s, originally appeared briefly as the railroad brakeman, with existing still pictures to indicate this. His scenes, however, are non existent in this finished product.

A dress rehearsal for some of her latter tough-as-nails dramas, including THE STRANGE LOVES OF MARTHA IVERS (Paramount, 1946) and the most notable DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Paramount, 1944), Stanwyck plays her character to the hilt, a strong-willed woman with her hatred for men. When she pitts them to their own destruction, she stands motionless with her eyes detailing reactions instead of words. In spite of its title, which might give the impression of being a musical about a cute chorus girl on Broadway since "Baby Face" happens to be a notable song (by Benny Davis and Harry Akst) popular at that time, it is heard through underscoring in its opening credits and during the first half of the story before shifting local from New York City to Paris where the underscoring becomes "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame." Stanwyck's character is called "Baby Face" first by a young office worker named Jimmy McCoy (John Wayne), and by the other secretaries in the office, but the name doesn't stick to her nor to her character through the duration of the story. Stanwyck's Lily Powers doesn't really have a baby face, but a face with eyes that speak louder than words. Acting is solid and dialogue very suggestive, ("I have to go to bed early every night," or when asked, "Have you had any experience," her response is, "Plenty!"), lines that could be taken two ways, which adds to the fun in watching BABY FACE.

According to TCM host Robert Osborne, BABY FACE was responsible for the resignation of producer Darryl F. Zanuck (who collaborated on the story under the name of Mark Canfield) from Warner Brothers. Just as well, since he soon formed his own company of 20th Century-Fox. BABY FACE also became responsible for the Hays office to step in and have this immoral movie cleaned up. In spite of alterations, which is evident is spots, there's enough situations and emotions to go around. The final minutes, which might prove disappointing, doesn't take away from the contents of this production.

What makes BABY FACE so enjoyable is the explicit way it uses sex and immorality out of camera range, leaving all situations, or "naughties" to the imagination of the viewer, which works a whole lot better than the method of motion pictures today. A prime example is finding Stanwyck's character rising up the corporate latter, with her "promotion" indicated by camera range focusing outside the office window, panning from the personnel, filing, mortgage and to the accounting department windows with the use of jazzy music.

BABY FACE predates many of those "trash" soap-operas made popular in the late 1950s and through most of the 1960s. Stanwyck is quite believable in her part, and develops herself well from a bitter girl sporting second-hand clothing to furs and jewelry, but still with that spiteful bitterness. While it's hard to imagine anyone else other than Stanwyck playing Lily Powers, one would ask if there was anyone else other than Stanwyck to enact in such a role? Joan Blondell, another resident Warner Brothers stock player, immediately comes to mind. Stanwyck, a natural brunette, appears blonde to the resemblance of Blondell, especially during the more glamorized moments in the second half of the story, but Blondell, might have handled her task well if offered the assignment, but the major difference is, as good as Blondell is, or was, she couldn't have had that forcefulness and strength as Stanwyck. In fact, Stanwyck's more powerful and nasty screen characters were blonde, especially her most famous Phyllis Dietrichson from DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944).

Aside from BABY FACE being one of the favorites shown on Turner Classic Movies, it did have some exposure during the 1990s when played on Turner Network Television (TNT) and when distributed onto video cassette as part of Leonard Maltin's "Forbidden Hollywood" series. For a worthwhile introductory to "pre-code" movies, BABY FACE, along with Stanwyck's earlier NIGHT NURSE (1931), each at the length of 70 minutes, should be tops in the assembly line.