Baby Face 1933

     Darryl F. Zanuck wrote this story using the pseudonym Mark Canfield.  Lilly was a basement speakeasy bartender for her father during the depression.  She determines she’s getting out of this job and away from her father.  There is a fire in the still and it’s her chance to leave.  She goes with her co-worker Chico and they travel on a boxcar to New York.  She starts to use her beauty and her wiles to get a job in a bank.  She begins to work her way up in jobs and men floor by floor.  As she moves up, her lifestyle moves up too with more wealth and power. What has she got to lose?  

     This film is in black and white.  I really liked the clothing, hairstyles and the cars.  Stanwyk is a sexy bad-girl and she doesn’t care who she steps on to get to the top.  She’s been at the bottom and she’s not looking back.  She has ambition, a brain and a body to match!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

71 min, Drama directed by Alfred E. Green with Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Alphonse Ethier, Henry Kolker, Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hohl, John Wayne, Robert Barat, Douglass Dumbrille, Theresa Harris.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 100% critic 81% audience, Letterboxd 3.7* out of 5*, Three Movie Buffs average 3 ½* out of 4*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 52 reviews, Emanuel Levy B+.

Special Note:  Filmed in Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, Burbank, California.  It is Warner Brother’s response to MGM’s Red-Headed Woman.  Originally, this film was banned in several US cities due to its sexual innuendos.  Also, the New York State Board of Censors rejected it in the spring of 1933.  Warner Brothers made a number of cuts and changes.  In 2004 a negative copy of the original film was located at the Library of Congress.  This version premiered at the London Film Festival in November 2004, more than 70 years after it was filmed.  The scenes with Lilly on a ship were from the same set used in the film Three on a Match 1932 from one year earlier.  This is the first on-screen credit for Theeresa Harris in the role of Chico, Lil’s friend and maid.  John Wayne is in this film at the age of 25 and he’s easy to miss.