JohnHowardReid Hollywood's pre-code noir movies are generally worth a look. One of the very best, of course, is the notorious "Baby Face" (1933), now available on a 10/10 Warner DVD as part of Volume One of "Forbidden Hollywood". The only thing wrong with "Baby Face" is the cop-out conclusion. Until the very last few seconds, however, Barbara Stanwyck has the role of her life as the ultimate gold-digger who pans her way to the top. The male players are not lacking in impetus either, with solid cameos not only provided by always reliable actors like Douglass Dumbrille, Arthur Hohl and Henry Kolker, but even by the often lackluster Donald Cook, the usually over-zealous Nat Pendleton, and even the often unjustly dismissed James Murray. The fluid yet remarkably vibrant and powerful direction by often disappointingly lackluster Alfred E. Green is likewise a galvanizing surprise.

gea-79784 Baby Face was a surprise to me. Since this movie was in the section of class where we were looking at the gangster flicks. So i was expecting a movie about the famous bank robber "Baby Face nelson". Baby Face instead is about a a girl named Lily played by Barbara Stanwyk. When the movie begins Lily is a girl that is poor and is constantly berated by by men trying to get with her. Eventually after a quick lesson in the philosophy's of Friedrich Nietzsche, she decides to take advantage of the men of a very wealthy bank, by using the power of sex. She does this very well and sleeps up to the top of the corporate ladder. I was so caught off guard by this story in such an old film. This movie was able to be made because it was pre-code and they definitely took advantage of that opportunity. The movie was fantastic, the acting was very good and often funny. It tells its story and message very well. which is that all life is exploitation and men very easily give in to sexual pleasure, and will give lots of money and gift to do so. This is a classic film that I would and will watch again!

sharky_55 To see a pre-code film like this is to have bawdiness thrown into your face, and have all your pre-conceived notions of the propriety of early Hollywood upended. Baby Face was Warner Bros' attempt to one-up MGM's Red-Headed Woman from the previous year, and both films would contribute to the hastening of the Production Code. Jean Harlow flaunted her infidelity and sexuality at every turn, openly declaring her trashy beauty with see-through dresses and a sexual thrill at being struck, but Barbara Stanwyck only needed a light caress and one look to bring men to their knees. Vice Presidents, aides and bosses walked into the room all thinking to set her straight, yet she has other ideas, and sends them on their way dazed. It is one of Stanwyck's most electric roles, made of smothering closeups and dialogue not merely laced but stinking of suggestion, and it points to her scene-stealing allure no matter the colour or style of her hair. In one particularly intoxicating scene in The Lady Eve, she lies in the lap of Henry Fonda, donning that dark, half-cut dress, and turns a screen icon into putty in her hands. The wardrobe in Baby Face similarly marks her rise from the ashes. Beginning with small-town rags and a reputation for being the town prostitute (she's slept with more men at the film's opening than in Lilian's entire crusade), she emerges from the flames of a fateful fire determined to make a name for herself. Soon she has lacy dresses of all sorts, dons frilly manes and scarfs of ridiculous proportions, and at one point, seems to have fat, furry ferret wrapped around her neck and back (it's a heavy and cumbersome thing). How has she afforded these costumes? Green never shows her truly working, but in an audacious sexual metaphor, utilises a craning shot that gradually rises from the lowly filing department all the way up to executive offices. She is sleeping her way up the corporate ladder.It was wildly progressive in other ways too. Theresa Harris plays Chico, Lily's quiet, unassuming black maid, one of the last times we would see such subtlety before the mammy character took hold. Chico remains a loyal companion throughout, gaining some frilly additions to her dress as well - Lily's insistence that Chico stay by her side while others stared uncomfortably is perhaps the single streak of goodness left in her as she ascends to the top and falls from grace. Yet even before the code censorship boards were still demanding redemption for villains such as Lily Powers, if only eventually. Comeuppance wasn't enough, she had to be beaten into submission, have sentiment reintroduced into her, and so the original script's ending of Lily ending up slaving away in a steel mill was scrapped for the romantic realisation in the ambulance. Only then could it be screened to the public; a hour of debauchery and immorality, only for the conclusion to assert the overpowering values of true love and modesty. Rediscovered in 2004 and restored to its full corruptive allure, the uncut version of Baby Face allows some insight into its intended version. Gone was a man's first consuming gaze of Stanwyck, the camera moving over her long legs, and then only reluctantly up towards her face. Audience did see that same man's shockingly forward approach in propositioning her, first by stroking her on the knee, and then coming up from behind to snatch at her breasts. What they missed was the fiery Stanwyck giving as good as she got: pouring hot coffee over the guilty hand, and then later smashing a bottle over the man's head. They wouldn't see anything as daring as that from a woman for a while afterwards.

Mark M Now I am not one that is easily offended or grossed out or whatever but this is a pretty suggestive film. all in all this film is a far example of how women where perceived in the early 1900's. as the trailer for the film will tell you it focuses on a woman using her charm and good looks, among other things, to get her way in the big apple. the main point of this movie seems to be a character study on her personality. you can see her justify all her choices whether good or bad. i would not be one to say the main character is the villain of the story but i am certainly not saying she's a victim of hero. though i was never alive in the era this film was released it seems that this is really a movie of its time. definitely a must watch.