Baby Face (1933)

A young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank - by gleefully sleeping her way to the top.

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Gene Markey (screen play), Kathryn Scola (screen play)

Stars:

Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Lily
George Brent	...	Trenholm
Donald Cook	...	Stevens
Alphonse Ethier	...	Cragg
Henry Kolker	...	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

Storyline

Lilly (Baby Face) sleeps her way from basement speakeasy bartender, literally floor by floor, to the top floor of a New York office building. Bank sub-manager Jimmy McCoy finds her a job in the bank only to be cast aside as she hooks up with the bank's president. When he complains of not seeing her she says: "I'm working so hard I have to go to bed early every night."

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Plot Keywords:

cult film | national film registry | looking out a window | black american | african american | 

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Taglines:

Barbara Stanwyck And Thirteen Men in "Baby Face"

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

17 November 1933 (France)

Also Known As:

A Mulher que Nos Perde

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$187,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

71 min 76 min (restored) 76 min (uncut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ship scene features same set used in Three on a Match (1932) a year earlier.

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Goofs

After Mr. Carter stays the night, Lily gets out of a car. There is a reflection of faces on the window of the car as it pulls away.

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Quotes

Mrs. Hemingway: Of course, if I go to Berlin, the food there is very fattening.
Lily Powers: Well, you could go to Karlsbad afterward and reduce?
Mrs. Hemingway: The very thing! Could you arrange it for me?

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Alternate Versions

The Bowdlerized release version also has a final scene tacked on, which tells how the heroine learned to be content with a more modest lifestyle. This scene is happily removed from the restored version.

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Connections

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007)

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Soundtracks

St. Louis Blues
(1914) (uncredited)
Written by W.C. Handy
Played during the opening credits
Sung a cappella by Theresa Harris several times
Played as background music often

User Reviews

Good Lessons To be Learned

No sense going over the story since enough reviewers have done that. Here's a few different slants on it from one of those "religious nuts," as one bigoted reviewer puts it so tolerantly.

1) "Baby Face" (1933) offers perhaps THE classic example ever put on film of how women can manipulate men with sex. There is a lot of truth to what Barbara Stanwyck demonstrates in this film: look cute, bat your eyelashes, offer your body for free.....and men will fall over themselves to help you out with whatever you want.

In this case, it was job advancement with the ultimate goal of money.....lots of it. At least four men in this film do provide just that, even if it ruins their lives in the process.

2) The ending - which many of the reviewers here seemed to hate - gives another great message: all the money and material goods in the world won't make a person feel fulfilled. A sad comment that so many "critics" here would rather have immoral messages, preferring sleaze over substance. No surprise, I guess.

Any way you look at it, the movie is entertaining start-to-finish and Stanwyck has some great lines, particularly in the beginning when she tells off her crude father and his unruly bar customers. At a little over 70 minutes, this film moves at a fast pace and is over before you know it.