Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 13-May-07
Spoiler Rating: High

Baby Face (1933)

Anybody who thinks black-and-white movies all concern kitschy monsters, tough guys in fedoras, or girls warbling about rainbows would find "Baby Face" a real eye-opener. Released just before enforcement of the smut-censoring Hays code, this melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck is pretty darn purple. It has loads of smarmy sex (off-screen but unmistakable), crimes of passion, and a thoroughly cynical view of male/female relations. Great cinema it isn't, but it outraces most soap operas that Hollywood produces today.

In a typically fabulous performance, Stanwyck plays a jaded young woman named Lily Powers who looks to be going nowhere as the movie begins. Her S.O.B. of a father runs an illegal gin joint and expects her both to serve beer and to prostitute herself to the customers. Her only friends are a servant (Theresa Harris) and an old man who tries to expand her mind and propel her to a better life. When fate gives her a push, she heads to New York and immediately begins to conquer the first skyscraper she sees, which happens to house a bank. She takes the Human Resources clerk into an empty office to gain an interview and then sleeps her way up the corporate ladder one horny sucker at a time. (That is to say, she is always in a clerical position when not in the missionary one, but the men she works for grow in importance.)

Stanwyck's wardrobe becomes progressively dazzling as Lily makes her journey, and she finally arrives in furs when she hooks the up-and-coming Mr. Stevens (Donald Cook). Though engaged to a bank bigwig's daughter, this poor fellow flips for Lily and even refuses to give her up when the affair is discovered. Meanwhile, his future father-in-law (Henry Kolker) tries to fire her and ends up buying her a penthouse. By now she positively drips with jewels, so it appears to be mission accomplished. Unfortunately, jealous obsession rears its ugly head, which forces Lily to cut her losses and flee to France.

Until this point "Baby Face" is an entertaining bit of sleaze anchored by Stanwyck's ability to be so good when so bad. Having reached a theatrical peak, however, it slowly sinks into a lame, lesson-bound conclusion which squeezes the protagonist into an improbable change of heart. Lily rebounds from her setback by landing the biggest fish of all, the new bank president (George Brent) who is as promiscuous and cunning as she. She gets him to marry her nevertheless and returns to New York in scandalous triumph. But the thirties are troubled times for financial institutions, and soon the newlyweds face potential disaster. Lily must then decide whether to fend for herself or stand by her man. Although the movie periodically suggests that she yearns for dignity and was the victim of a shoddy upbringing, it feels like mass-market sentiment determines her choice in the end. If "Baby Face" were a meal it might be said that the decadent dessert arrives first, followed by a woefully healthy salad.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.