Baby Face (1933)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

hyped garbage

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This film was very different than the other films being made during the 30s. It was all about sex and a woman who was used to using her body to work her way to the top. The adventures of this woman trying to find a way in life by using questionable methods makes this movie worth watching, highly recommended.

There are several things that make this salacious pre-Code film worth watching, starting with Barbara Stanwyck, of course, who with her eyes and sexy come-on's seduces man after man to get ahead, literally f'ing her way to the top. There are some fantastic scenes from the beginning, where she fends off the advances of one man at her father's bar by pouring coffee on his hand, and explodes with anger at her father for essentially pimping her out since the age of 14. It's when he perishes in a fire that she has to fend for herself in the world. I'm not a big fan of John Wayne, but for those who are, you'll see him in an early role as one of her men along the way, and it was great to see Theresa Harris, who plays her maid. Lastly, I liked the elements of Nietzschean philosophy that at least form a basis for, and perhaps attempt to justify, Stanwyck using sex to get what she needs and wants out of men.On the other hand, the film is quite cynical and pretty linear in its plot. Stanwyck simply screws man after man – starting with a railroad worker who catches her hitching a ride to New York, and ending with an executive in a skyscraper. The film is brazen about this, and at one point she has sex in the ladies room, so if you're looking for elements of romance, this is not your film. How interesting is it that these "gold digger" themes are so common in films of this period, with men "victimized", when the far more prevalent situation in offices is sexual harassment, the inverse. While Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses of the period, and it was exciting to see her in this steamy role, with those "take me" eyes and slow lead-ins to kisses, it's really rather hard to like any of the characters. The ending was a lame effort to patch some of that up, and didn't work for me. There are several Barbara Stanwyck pre-code films I would recommend over this one, including Night Nurse (1931), Ladies They Talk About (1933), and The Purchase Price (1932). If you're looking for high-wattage pre-Code shock value, though, this one is hard to top.

Babyface is an excellent film. Telling the story of a woman who uses her body to move up the ranks of a big bank. This probably was controversial at the time. It has an unflinching willingness to depict sexual situations that may have been shocking at the time. Barbara Stanwick is just ravishing throughout. They use a lot of milky light that almost gives a dream like quality to the scenes. Another interesting trick they use is the visual of the outside of the building: we see higher and higher up the outside of the building as the main character climbs the corporate ladder, so to speak. The film also has some very good twists to it that keep you on your toes. Give this film a shot, it is totally worth it.

A Hollywood pre-code drama stars a deadly enthralling Stanwyck as the titular Baby Face, a nickname for Lily Powers, at the age of 26, Stanwyck is strikingly as the acme of her beauty. At the start of the film, Lily lives with his father (Barrat), who opens a speakeasy during the Prohibition in a small town, and the unadorned truth is that her father has pimped her to any men who is willing to pay ever since she was 14, the pre-code straight- from-the-shoulder account does look like a slap-in-the-face to the prudishness of the Tinseltown in retrospect. Illuminated by Cragg (Ethier), an upright old patron who is a fervent advocate of Nietzsche's philosophy, after her father's abrupt death in an accident, Lily follows the maxim "use men but not being used by them", and arrives in New York with her maid/friend Chico (Harris), exploits her gorgeous sex appeal to procure higher positions in the soaring Gotham Trust tower, there is a brilliant metaphor of her ascending juxtaposed with the literal moving-up of the floors where she works. Various men, fat or lean, young or old, uncouth or suave, ordinary do rich (a very young John Wayne is one of them) are all infatuated with her, well, this assumption might seem a bit oversimplified from men's motivations, but Stanwyck gracefully downplays the oversimplification with her felicitous flirty spirit and confidence, as if she subtly declares - it is my film and I'm the only protagonist. Accumulating wealth is Lily's sole target, yet, one of her jilted lovers, Ned (Cook), a young executive, cannot take it lightly when Lily becomes Vice President Carter's (Kolker) mistress, a loaded pistol takes two lives away, also worth mentioning is that Carter is Ned's soon-to-be father-in-law, that is how mixed-up things are, men, always men, hold things back into a mess.Eventually, destiny gives Lily another opportunity, to meet her ultimate match Trenholm (Brent), the newly elected bank president who is set to assuage the bank's public image after the Ned-Carter scandal. The eventual seduction takes place in Paris, is Trenholm different from all the other men Lily have manoeuvred, aside from he is even richer? The final struggle for her is a simple option, to choose money or the man, as woman- empowering as this film has been until the finale, the out-of-the-blue realisation after the nondescript montages of all the men she utilise to move upward fleeting over her mind, can be a major letdown. Why Trenholm is different? Audience can hardly find any clue from the story itself. However, we shouldn't make excessive demands on an early talkie made in 1933, what we are expecting? She flees away with her wealth and leaves her man dying? That will be outstanding but too dark for even today's viewers to assimilate, thus such an ending is inevitable, the only wishful thinking is that the transition could be made with a more plausible mechanism, a 71-minutes length is too brief for so many happenings. BABY FACE has received quite a strong revaluation a little while back simply because its flagrant sex policy leaning on women's favour (although she is defeated by love in the end) and the sensitive timing, but also if I may say, it may not be her most acclaimed role, but certainly is one of Stanwyck's most glamorous metamorphosis on screen, even for this reason only, film buffs cannot leave it unattended, a magnificent BluRay version of this Black-and-White oldie has been released.