Baby Face (film)
Baby Face | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alfred E. Green |
Screenplay by | Gene Markey Kathryn Scola |
Story by | "Mark Canfield" (Darryl F. Zanuck)[1] |
Produced by | William LeBaron Raymond Griffith |
Starring | Barbara Stanwyck George Brent |
Cinematography | James Van Trees |
Edited by | Howard Bretherton |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 76 minutes 71 minutes (censored version)[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $187,000[2] |
Box office | $452,000[2] |
Baby Face is a 1933 American
Marketed with the salacious tagline "She had it and made it pay",
Plot
Lily Powers, an attractive young woman, works for her father, Nick, in a speakeasy in Erie, Pennsylvania, during Prohibition. Her father has been prostituting her to his customers since she was 14 years old. An influential politician threatens to have the speakeasy shut down after Lily refuses to have sex with him. Nick berates Lily for rejecting him. Lily then tells Nick she's moving out and that she'll hate him forever for forcing her to have sex with strangers. Minutes later Nick is killed in an explosion while repairing his burning still.
After her father's funeral, Lily visits Cragg, an old cobbler and the only man she trusts. She tells him she was offered a job as a stripper at a local burlesque club. Cragg disapproves and encourages her to adopt Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of exerting one's personal power over others for self interest. In Lily's case, that means using her sexuality to exploit men financially rather than allowing men to exploit her sexually.
Later she and her best friend, a young Black woman named Chico who was her co-worker at the speakeasy, illegally board a freight train to New York City but are discovered by a railroad worker. He threatens to report them to the police but Lily seduces him and the two women remain on the train.
In Manhattan, Lily seeks work at Gotham Trust, a large international bank. She seduces the personnel worker to land a clerical job. In the filing department, Lily begins an affair with Jimmy McCoy Jr., who recommends her for promotion to his boss, Brody. She easily seduces Brody, and he promotes her to the mortgage department. Later, Brody and Lily are caught having sex in the ladies' room by a rising young executive, Ned Stevens. Ned fires Brody on the spot. Lily then falsely claims that Brody forced himself on her and that she was afraid of losing her job if she resisted. Ned believes her and he gives her a position in his accounting department.
Ned is engaged to Ann Carter, the daughter of First Vice President J. P. Carter. Despite this, Lily seduces Ned as well. When Ann calls Ned's office to say she will be visiting, Lily arranges to have Ann see her embracing Ned. Ann runs crying to her father, who tells Ned to fire Lily. Ned refuses so J.P. advises Ned to take a vacation and kindly offers to handle the situation. J. P. calls Lily to his office to fire her. Lily claims she had no idea Ned was engaged and that he was her first boyfriend. Lily salvages her situation by seducing J. P. and he installs her in a lavish apartment with Chico as her maid. Ned, who is now in love with Lily, quits the bank and breaks off his engagement with Ann. He then tracks Lily down on Christmas Day but she spurns him. He later returns to her apartment to propose but finds J. P. there. He shoots J.P. to death and then shoots himself and dies.
Courtland Trenholm, the grandson of Gotham Trust's founder and a notorious playboy, is elected bank president to handle the resulting scandal. The board of directors learns Lily has agreed to sell her diary to the press for $10,000 which includes the stories of her multiple office affairs. Consequently, the board members summon her to their meeting room. She tells them she is a victim of circumstance and wants to move far away, change her name and earn an honest living. The board considers giving her $15,000 to withhold her diary. Courtland, however, sees through her ruse and instead offers her a position at the bank's
When Courtland travels to Paris on business, he is impressed to find Lily promoted to head of the travel bureau. He takes her out for dinner and later invites her to travel with him. He falls in love with her during their vacation. Lily suggests marriage and Courtland agrees. Lily then moves back to New York with her new husband.
Soon afterwards, the bank fails due to mismanagement which the board unfairly pins on Courtland. He is indicted and tells Lily he must raise money to finance his legal defense. He therefore asks her to return all the bonds, stocks and jewelry he's given her. She refuses, saying that would impoverish her. She then leaves and books passage on a ship back to Paris. However, she reconsiders while waiting for her ship to leave port.
She disembarks and searches for Courtland. She finds him in his office where he has shot himself in the abdomen but is still alive. She tearfully professes her love for him and tells him he can have all of her money. During the ambulance ride, a paramedic assures her Courtland will likely survive. Lily accidentally drops her jewelry case, spilling money and jewels on the floor. When the paramedic points this out, she tearfully tells him they do not matter anymore. Courtland opens his eyes and sees Lily.
Cast
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Production
This film was
Aside from its depiction of a seductress, the film is notable for the "comradely" relationship Lily has with African-American Chico,[10] who is her co-worker in Erie, Pennsylvania, and comes with her to New York City. She later becomes Stanwyck's maid, but their relationship remains friendly, and not that of a mistress and her servant. When Lily's father tries to fire Chico, Lily tells him that if Chico goes, she goes. At one point in the film, J.P., annoyed by Chico's singing (“St. Louis Blues”—see below) says, "I wish you'd get rid of that fantastic colored girl,” to which Lily responds, with grim finality, "No. Chico stays."
Stanwyck had influence on the film's script. It was her suggestion that Lily had been forced by her father to have sex with the customers of his speakeasy.[9]
Baby Face was shot in 18 days, and cost $187,000.[1]
A publicity still from this film aptly shows Barbara Stanwyck posing next to a stepladder,[11] representing Lily's step-by-step up the ladder of success, as she seduces one man after another.
Music
An instrumental version of the 1926 hit song
Censorship
After its initial limited release, the
Another significant change was that the cobbler's enthusiasm for
A woman, young, beautiful like you, can get anything she wants in the world. Because you have power over men. But you must use men, not let them use you. You must be a master, not a slave. Look here – Nietzsche says, "All life, no matter how we idealize it, is nothing more nor less than exploitation." That's what I'm telling you. Exploit yourself. Go to some big city where you will find opportunities! Use men! Be strong! Defiant! Use men to get the things you want![5]
The altered version, with the cobbler as the voice of morality, was:
A woman, young, beautiful like you, can get anything she wants in the world. But there is a right way and a wrong way. Remember, the price of the wrong way is too great. Go to some big city where you will find opportunities! Don't let people mislead you. You must be a master, not a slave. Be clean, be strong, defiant, and you will be a success.[5]
The new lines were dubbed onto an over-the-shoulder shot of the cobbler.[5]
The New York State Censorship Board rejected the film's original version in April 1933, and Warners made the changes described above, as well as cutting some sexually suggestive shots. In June 1933, the Board passed the revised version, which then had a successful release.[6] The film was also initially rejected by the censorship board in Virginia.[1]
The uncensored version remained lost until 2004, when it resurfaced at a
Reception
Box office
According to Warner Bros., the film earned $308,000 domestically and $144,000 foreign.[2]
Critical response
Reviews contemporary with the film's release were not positive.
Modern reviews are more appreciative: Ty Burr of The Boston Globe called it "a fascinatingly conflicted artifact of Depression-era do-me feminism. Lily Powers is one of the screen's great hard girls, and "Baby Face" can't decide whether to celebrate her or string her along."[15] Mick La Salle, movie critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, said "The differences between the original and the release versions of "Baby Face" are small, and yet combined they spell the difference between a good three-star movie and a delightful four-star movie."[16]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Baby Face at the American Film Institute Catalog
- ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 13 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
- ^ “It” refers to the idea of indefinable but powerful sex appeal publicized by Elinor Glyn in her famous—and, at the time, infamous— book, It. Glyn adapted her novel for the screen, for the 1927 film of the same name starring Clara Bow, who thereafter was known as “the It girl”.
- ISBN 1-58648-231-9. p.375
- ^ a b c d e f g Sin in Soft Focus, pp.148-49
- ^ a b Kehr, Dave (January 9, 2005) "A Wanton Woman's Ways Revealed, 71 Years Later", The New York Times
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ a b Staff (December 20, 2005) "Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry" (press release) Library of Congress
- ^ a b c d Stafford, Jeff (April 29, 2003). "Baby Face (1933)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ "Baby Face (1933)". moviediva.com.
- ^ Sin in Soft Focus, p.157
- ^ Boliek, Brooks (November 4, 2019). "'Hidden film history' unearthed". Backstage.
- ^ Corliss, Richard (January 13, 2010). "Baby Face". Time.
- ^ M. H. (Hall, Mordaunt) (June 24, 1933). "A Woman's Wiles". The New York Times.
- ^ Burr, Ty (April 7, 2006). "Uncut version of 'Baby Face' is naughty but nice". The Boston Globe. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
- ^ La Salle, Mick (February 3, 2006). "'Baby Face' now better (and racier) than ever before". SF Gate. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
Bibliography
- Doherty, Thomas Patrick (1999) Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930–1934. New York: Columbia University Press; ISBN 0-231-11094-4
- Vieira, Mark A. (1999). Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-4475-8.
External links
- Baby Face essay by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster at National Film Registry
- Baby Face essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 213-215
- Baby Face at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Baby Face at IMDb
- Baby Face at AllMovie
- Baby Face at the TCM Movie Database
- Review by Chris Dashiell from July 2000 (pre-restoration)
- Blog entry from Filmradar.com, May 20, 2005
- Article by Kendahl Cruver, Senses of Cinema, October 2005
- "Revealing the Racy Original Cut of 'Babyface'", Scott Simon, January 29, 2005
- "Profile and Review: Forbidden Hollywood", Review by J.C. Loophole, The Shelf