[8]

Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lily Powers, the poor daughter of a speakeasy owner, who takes an old philosopher’s advice to start using her feminine wiles (or ‘lily power’) to get ahead in life. After her nasty father dies in a distillery fire, Lily moves to New York City and literally sleeps her way, floor by floor, to the top of a banking company. She ends up driving a jealous wedge between two top executives vying for her affection, putting their lives and the bank itself in jeopardy. Will she continue to ruin men in her ascension to greater wealth, or will she find her way back to being a caring human being again?

Baby Face is a delightfully subversive pre-Code film featuring a quintessential Stanwyck performance. Normally, when a German philosopher encourages you to live your life according to Friedrich Nietzsche, I’d run the other way. But after seeing her prostituted out by her own father, you root for Stanwyck’s character — and if her only way out of poverty and oppression is by turning into a cold-hearted slut, so be it. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

I’m a little indifferent about the ending — it’s not as true to character as I’d have liked, but nor does it reek of a tacked-on happy ending, like so many of these kinds of films have after the Hays Code was enforced. But the film works best when Stanwyck is on the prowl, morality be damned.  Director Alfred E. Green is thankfully not without a sense of humor, portraying Lily’s rise through the ranks with a camera literally moving up the front of a building, from department sign to department sign, during a wonderful montage of sexual conquests. Look for John Wayne as one of Lily’s near lays. Theresa Harris is memorable as Lily’s one true friend, through thick and thin.