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Baby Face (film)
Encyclopedia
Baby Face is a 1933 American
dramatic film
directed by Alfred E. Green, and starring Barbara Stanwyck
and George Brent
. Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck
(under the pseudonym Mark Canfield), this sexually-charged, Pre-Code Hollywood film is about an attractive young woman who uses sex to advance her social and financial status. Marketed with the salacious tag line, "She had it and made it pay", the film's open discussion of sex made it one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code Hollywood era.
) works for her father in a speakeasy
during Prohibition
in Erie, Pennsylvania
. Her life has been miserable; since the age of 14, her father (Robert Barrat
) has had her sleep with many of his customers. The only man she trusts, a cobbler who admires Friedrich Nietzsche
, tells her that she should start afresh in a new city and use men to get what she wants.
When Lily's father is killed in a still
explosion, she sheds no tears for him. She and her African American
co-worker/friend Chico (Theresa Harris
) hop on a freight train out of town, but are discovered by a railroad worker, who threatens to have them thrown in jail. She says, "Wait ... can't we talk this over?" It is strongly implied that she has sex with him during a fadeout to get him to change his mind.
In New York City
, Lily gets a job at the Gotham Trust, even though she has no office experience. The personnel man asks Lily, "Have you had any experience?", to which Lily replies, "Plenty!" She then entices him into his absent boss's office to demonstrate. Her progress, sleeping her way to the top, is shown in a recurring visual metaphor
of the movie camera panning
ever upward along the edifice of the Gotham Trust's skyscraper, accompanied by the saxophone wail of St. Louis Blues. Her second conquest is Jimmy McCoy Jr. (John Wayne
), who recommends her for promotion to her next victim, Brody (Douglass Dumbrille
).
Lily eventually ensnares Ned Stevens (Donald Cook
), a rising young executive engaged to Ann Carter (Margaret Lindsay
), the daughter of First Vice President J.R. Carter (Henry Kolker
). She schemes to have Ann walk in on the two locked in an embrace. When J.R. attempts to get Lily to leave Ned alone, she soon adds the older man to her list of admirers. J.R. installs her in a lavish apartment, with Chico along as a maid. However, when Ned finds her there with his future father-in-law, he first shoots the older man, then himself.
Courtland Trenholm (George Brent
), the playboy grandson of the company's founder, is elected bank president to deal with the resulting public scandal. He rebuffs Lily's attempt to extort $15,000 from the firm in return for withholding her diary from the press. He only offers her a job in the firm's Paris office, where she can do no harm. To maintain her appearance as a "victim of circumstance", she has little choice but to accept. Some time later, when Courtland goes to Paris on business, he is surprised and impressed to find her not only still working there, but also promoted to head of the travel bureau. He soon falls under her spell and marries her.
Although he is not responsible, Courtland is indicted when the bank fails due to mismanagement. He begs Lily to return all the gifts he showered on her, so he can finance his defense, but Lily decides to keep them and flee to Europe. However, she changes her mind when she realizes that she has finally found a man she can love. When she returns, she discovers that her husband has shot himself. On the ride to the hospital, the attendant assures her that Courtland has a good chance of survival. Courtland opens his eyes, sees Lily, and smiles at her as the movie ends.
Because the original version of the film was rejected by the New York State Censorship Board
in April 1933, the film was softened by cutting out some material (such as Lily's study of Nietzschean philosophy
as well as various sexually suggestive shots). The producers also inserted new footage and tacked on a new ending. In June 1933 the New York Censorship Board passed the revised version, which then had a successful release.
The uncensored version remained lost until 2004, when it resurfaced at a Library of Congress
film vault in Dayton, Ohio
. George Willeman is credited with the discovery. The restored version premiered at the London Film Festival
in November 2004. In 2005 it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress
National Film Registry
and also was named by Time.com as one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years
.
Altered speech
Early in the film, Lily seeks the advice of the only man she trusts, a cobbler played by Alphonse Ethier. He reads a passage from a book by the philosopher Nietzsche. The first version of the cobbler's speech that did not pass New York State Censorship was as follows:
After much discussion with screenwriter Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Breen
of the Studio Relations Committee suggested that the film could pass by making the cobbler a spokesman for morality. Breen himself rewrote the scene as follows. (The revised lines in the speech are italicized.)
The new lines were dubbed onto an over-the-shoulder shot of the cobbler. This was one of several changes that allowed the film to pass the New York State Censorship Board.
answer to MGM's Red-Headed Woman
(1932), another Pre-Code Hollywood film starring Jean Harlow
with a similar theme. Production head Darryl F. Zanuck
wrote the treatment
for this film and sold it to Warner Bros. for a dollar. The Great Depression
was having a devastating effect on the film industry at the time, and many studio personnel were voluntarily taking salary cuts to help. Zanuck did not need the money because he was drawing a weekly salary of $3,500. Zanuck would later leave Warner Bros. and become the legendary head of 20th Century Fox
.
Aside from its depiction of a female sexual predator, the film is notable for the "comradely" relationship Lily has with her African-American female friend/employee, Chico. A publicity still from this film aptly shows Barbara Stanwyck posing next to a step ladder.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dramatic film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Alfred E. Green, and starring Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
and George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
. Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
(under the pseudonym Mark Canfield), this sexually-charged, Pre-Code Hollywood film is about an attractive young woman who uses sex to advance her social and financial status. Marketed with the salacious tag line, "She had it and made it pay", the film's open discussion of sex made it one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code Hollywood era.
Plot
Lily Powers (Barbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
) works for her father in a speakeasy
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
in Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
. Her life has been miserable; since the age of 14, her father (Robert Barrat
Robert Barrat
Robert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
) has had her sleep with many of his customers. The only man she trusts, a cobbler who admires Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, tells her that she should start afresh in a new city and use men to get what she wants.
When Lily's father is killed in a still
Still
A still is a permanent apparatus used to distill miscible or immiscible liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor...
explosion, she sheds no tears for him. She and her African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
co-worker/friend Chico (Theresa Harris
Theresa Harris
Theresa Harris was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Harris was born on New Year's Eve, 1906 in Houston, Texas to Isaiah and Mable Harris, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana.In 1929, she came out to Hollywood and lent her singing voice to the...
) hop on a freight train out of town, but are discovered by a railroad worker, who threatens to have them thrown in jail. She says, "Wait ... can't we talk this over?" It is strongly implied that she has sex with him during a fadeout to get him to change his mind.
In New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Lily gets a job at the Gotham Trust, even though she has no office experience. The personnel man asks Lily, "Have you had any experience?", to which Lily replies, "Plenty!" She then entices him into his absent boss's office to demonstrate. Her progress, sleeping her way to the top, is shown in a recurring visual metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
of the movie camera panning
Panning (camera)
In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
ever upward along the edifice of the Gotham Trust's skyscraper, accompanied by the saxophone wail of St. Louis Blues. Her second conquest is Jimmy McCoy Jr. (John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
), who recommends her for promotion to her next victim, Brody (Douglass Dumbrille
Douglass Dumbrille
Douglass Dumbrille was a Canadian actor and one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood.-Life and career:...
).
Lily eventually ensnares Ned Stevens (Donald Cook
Donald Cook (actor)
Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...
), a rising young executive engaged to Ann Carter (Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive...
), the daughter of First Vice President J.R. Carter (Henry Kolker
Henry Kolker
Henry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
). She schemes to have Ann walk in on the two locked in an embrace. When J.R. attempts to get Lily to leave Ned alone, she soon adds the older man to her list of admirers. J.R. installs her in a lavish apartment, with Chico along as a maid. However, when Ned finds her there with his future father-in-law, he first shoots the older man, then himself.
Courtland Trenholm (George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
), the playboy grandson of the company's founder, is elected bank president to deal with the resulting public scandal. He rebuffs Lily's attempt to extort $15,000 from the firm in return for withholding her diary from the press. He only offers her a job in the firm's Paris office, where she can do no harm. To maintain her appearance as a "victim of circumstance", she has little choice but to accept. Some time later, when Courtland goes to Paris on business, he is surprised and impressed to find her not only still working there, but also promoted to head of the travel bureau. He soon falls under her spell and marries her.
Although he is not responsible, Courtland is indicted when the bank fails due to mismanagement. He begs Lily to return all the gifts he showered on her, so he can finance his defense, but Lily decides to keep them and flee to Europe. However, she changes her mind when she realizes that she has finally found a man she can love. When she returns, she discovers that her husband has shot himself. On the ride to the hospital, the attendant assures her that Courtland has a good chance of survival. Courtland opens his eyes, sees Lily, and smiles at her as the movie ends.
Controversy
Sexual contentBecause the original version of the film was rejected by the New York State Censorship Board
New York State Censorship Board
The Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Education Department, also known variously as the New York State Censorship Board, New York Censor Board, and New York Board of Censors, was an organ of film censorship in the Pre-Code era....
in April 1933, the film was softened by cutting out some material (such as Lily's study of Nietzschean philosophy
Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche developed his philosophy during the late 19th century amid growing criticism of G. W. F. Hegel's philosophic system.Nietzsche owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung and admitted that Schopenhauer was...
as well as various sexually suggestive shots). The producers also inserted new footage and tacked on a new ending. In June 1933 the New York Censorship Board passed the revised version, which then had a successful release.
The uncensored version remained lost until 2004, when it resurfaced at a Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
film vault in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
. George Willeman is credited with the discovery. The restored version premiered at the London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
in November 2004. In 2005 it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
and also was named by Time.com as one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years
All-Time 100 Greatest Movies
"ALL-TIME" 100 Movies is a compilation by Time magazine featuring and celebrating 100 of the best films released between March 3, 1923 and early 2005...
.
Altered speech
Early in the film, Lily seeks the advice of the only man she trusts, a cobbler played by Alphonse Ethier. He reads a passage from a book by the philosopher Nietzsche. The first version of the cobbler's speech that did not pass New York State Censorship was as follows:
After much discussion with screenwriter Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen is an American soap opera actor.He played contract parts on both Guiding Light and Loving before being offered his most front-burner role to date: that of Lisa’s long-lost son, Scott Eldridge, on As the World Turns...
of the Studio Relations Committee suggested that the film could pass by making the cobbler a spokesman for morality. Breen himself rewrote the scene as follows. (The revised lines in the speech are italicized.)
The new lines were dubbed onto an over-the-shoulder shot of the cobbler. This was one of several changes that allowed the film to pass the New York State Censorship Board.
Production notes
This film was Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
answer to MGM's Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
(1932), another Pre-Code Hollywood film starring Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
with a similar theme. Production head Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
wrote the treatment
Film treatment
A film treatment is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline , and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits...
for this film and sold it to Warner Bros. for a dollar. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
was having a devastating effect on the film industry at the time, and many studio personnel were voluntarily taking salary cuts to help. Zanuck did not need the money because he was drawing a weekly salary of $3,500. Zanuck would later leave Warner Bros. and become the legendary head of 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
Aside from its depiction of a female sexual predator, the film is notable for the "comradely" relationship Lily has with her African-American female friend/employee, Chico. A publicity still from this film aptly shows Barbara Stanwyck posing next to a step ladder.
Cast
- Barbara StanwyckBarbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
as Lily Powers - George BrentGeorge BrentGeorge Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
as Courtland Trenholm - Donald CookDonald Cook (actor)Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...
as Ned Stevens - Alphonse Ethier as Adolf Cragg, a cobbler
- Henry KolkerHenry KolkerHenry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
as J.P. Carter - Margaret LindsayMargaret LindsayMargaret Lindsay was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive...
as Ann Carter - Arthur HohlArthur HohlArthur Hohl was a stage and motion-picture character actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began appearing in films in the early 1920s...
as Ed Sipple - John WayneJohn WayneMarion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
as Jimmy McCoy Jr., one of Lily's early bank conquests. - Robert BarratRobert BarratRobert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
as Nick Powers, Lily's father - Douglass DumbrilleDouglass DumbrilleDouglass Dumbrille was a Canadian actor and one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood.-Life and career:...
as Brody (as Douglas Dumbrille) - Theresa HarrisTheresa HarrisTheresa Harris was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Harris was born on New Year's Eve, 1906 in Houston, Texas to Isaiah and Mable Harris, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana.In 1929, she came out to Hollywood and lent her singing voice to the...
as Chico, Lily's maid/friend
External links
- Review by Chris Dashiell from July 2000 (pre-restoration)
- Blog entry from Filmradar.com, May 20, 2005
- Article by Kendahl Cruver, Senses of Cinema, September 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