Oversexed in the City: The Saga of “Baby Face” (1933)

Transcript

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Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta

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And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

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We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age.

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We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

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And, of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

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As does your self-delusion.

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Welcome to Going Hollywood.

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Well, Brad, do you remember what we're talking about today?

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What movie we're talking about?

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Well, I hope so.

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I don't just show up to look at your handsome face.

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Well, I was going to give you a hint.

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Can I give you a hint?

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I'll give a hint to everybody else, that's what I'll do.

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Okay, that's fine, that'll work.

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I'll give a hint to our listener Babyface.

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That's not much of a hint.

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That's the name of the movie.

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I should have started somewhere.

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I didn't think that through.

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We're talking about Baby Face and not the music producer, singer, the 1933 pre-code film Baby Face today

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You also stopped listening before we lost everybody too.

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That's true.

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I always want to do that.

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I probably could have sang the whole song, because I think it's in public domain by now, but anyway, so that's yes, so that's what we're talking about today, Brad, I got to ask you because I know you never had you even heard of Babyface before.

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I said we need to do Babyface.

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No, I had no clue about this movie.

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As far as I can recall, I don't think I ever heard of this film.

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I certainly knew nothing about the film.

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So we maybe should let give people a little bit background.

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What we did was we said I the film.

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So we maybe should let give people a little bit background.

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What we did was we said I was going to give Brad a film, a suggestion to watch, to record, and he's going to give me one.

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So you'll have to wait to find out what the movie is that Brad wanted me to watch.

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Now here's the interesting thing about Babyface, and I think we need a little bit of background on what we mean when we say pre-code, because I've said it a couple times in this podcast oh, it's pre-code, it's pre-code.

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And people are like, well, what is it?

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Some people might not know what that means.

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Yeah, I think we could use more detail.

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Okay, so basically what pre-code is is an era in the American film industry that occurred pretty much between the widespread adoption of sound in like the late you know, 27, 28, 29, and the enforcement of the motion picture production code, censorship, guidelines.

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So what we're talking about when we say pre-code is a time period of about four years when Hollywood films were really crazy, insane.

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I mean, when people think of black and white film, when people think of old Hollywood films, you know mostly black and white films, I think.

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I think they think of innocent films, I think they're wholesome, certainly sexless.

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I mean there is no sex, you know, kind of dull and non-threatening.

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Did you have that idea about movies, Brad?

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This is the general whole black and white films.

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They certainly were tame as a rule, other than the innuendo here and there.

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Yes, naive, yeah, yeah definitely innuendo here and there.

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Yes, naive, yeah, yeah, definitely.

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Non-violent, sexless, certainly.

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Well, that ain't Baby Face, I'll tell you right now.

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So the thing about these pre-code films it is so astounding is that none of them are like this.

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They are some of the wildest, craziest films you'll ever see and they're in black and white.

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So so I think it's kind of like it's a little jarring to us when we see it and in Baby, and I thought a lot about how I was going to describe Baby Face when we talked about doing it and I realized that I didn't want to do any euphemisms, I didn't want to do any kind of like innuendo, because that doesn't the movie doesn't.

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There's no innuendo in this movie.

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There is no subtle suggestions in this movie.

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So this movie deserves an absolute, out there, honest description of what it's about.

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So if anybody has sensitive ears, they should close them right now.

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Cover them, because what Baby Gace is about is Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who literally fucks her way to the top.

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Am I wrong about this description, Brad?

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No, and when you told me this was a pre-code film and everything, I thought, okay, there's going to be a lot of innuendo here.

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There is no innuendo at all.

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It is totally in your face, Victoria Barkley from Big Valley.

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I am shocked how you earned your money.

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Yeah, there's no shadings, there's no shading.

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So I didn't want to be like cutesy about.

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Oh, she slept away at the top because there's no sleeping.

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That goes on in this movie either.

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I mean, it's quite blatant what she's doing to get ahead and she plans it.

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She plans her ascent this way.

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We may not have seen on the screen, but she had to be sleeping sometime, because this woman would have been exhausted.

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Well, that's true, she was very active.

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Yeah, she had to get a rest sometime.

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All right, so let me give a.

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I'm going to give a brief history of the code Now.

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This is going to be brief and just an overview, because there are lots of books, lots of wonderful websites that you can research the history of the code, because it's full of lots of subcommittees and committees and administrations and it's yeah, I'm just going to give you an overview of it.

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So, first of all, I think the important thing to say is that when we say pre-code and we're talking about a film, it's kind of a misnomer, because the code itself the list of do's and don'ts and be carefuls was actually adopted by the film industry in 1930.

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It just wasn't enforced.

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So what we're talking about actually is when we say pre-code is pre enforcement of the code.

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But the code was in place.

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So these filmmakers knew they weren't following the code when they did this.

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But in order to talk about it you have to go all the way back to silent film, all the way back to the 20s.

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And it's also important to point out the code was established by Hollywood itself.

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It was not established by outsiders, because in the early 20s there were several major scandals that brought unwanted attention to Hollywood.

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There was the Fatty Arbuckle Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial.

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There was the mysterious death of director William Desmond Taylor.

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That involved two popular actresses, Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter, and there was also the drug overdose of popular leading man Wallace Reed.

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Now, these scandals, along with the increasing sexuality that was going on in films at this time after all, this was the Jazz Age.

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Okay, it wasn't just Hollywood that was going crazy, culture was going a little crazy and that would naturally bleed in to film.

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Sexuality, or this increasing sexuality in film, along with these scandals, brought a lot of unwanted attention to Hollywood and it started special interest groups to start calling for government intervention in films.

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Now, the studios did not want this.

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They did not want to get the government involved in kind of some kind of censorship, so they decided they had to do something themselves to prevent that.

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So they all got together, which is kind of amazing when you think of that.

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They all got together and formed the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, or the MPPDA.

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Are you with me so far, brad?

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Have I lost you yet?

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No, I'm still with you.

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Okay, good, you're doing well here.

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I haven't gone too deeply into the into the swamp.

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You're skimming the surface.

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You're skimming

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Okay I'm wrapping up soon.

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So, okay, real fast.

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All right, so to head this new uh mppda, they hired this innocuous uh E Newman, mad Magazine-looking guy named Will Hayes, who was actually the former Postmaster General of the US.

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And if you want a good laugh, just Google Will Hayes and you'll laugh, because he looks just like Alfred E Newman from Mad Magazine.

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But the problem was that the MPPDA, and later a subgroup called the Studio Relations Committee, didn't really have the teeth.

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A subgroup called the Studio Relations Committee didn't really have the teeth.

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It was an advisory board.

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It advised producers what to do and what not to do.

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It couldn't enforce it.

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So you know, the filmmakers just pretty much ignored it and just kept doing what they were doing before, except it got even racier.

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And then, when sound came in, these special interest groups really got nervous, because not only did they have to worry about visual things that might offend, suddenly there were words to contend with.

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So basically they said I'll take note of that.

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And then they sat down and said, fuck them.

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Yeah, exactly, they just kept, they just did what they did because there was no teeth to this there was no teeth.

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So of course, it wasn't really until 1929 that the Catholic Church got involved.

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Of course, it wasn't until the Catholic Church got involved that they began to get really nervous.

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And so, in 1930, they created the code that we always talk about, the motion picture code.

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And just I want to give you a couple examples of what was in the code.

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Okay, just so we know.

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Obviously pointed profanity, any licentious or suggestive nudity, illegal traffic and drugs, interference of sex perversion, ie homosexuality, white slavery, scenes of actual childbirth, children's sex organs.

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Well, okay, yeah, why would you anyway?

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But all right, ridicule of the clergy, because who created this code?

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The clergy?

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They didn't want to be made fun of.

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So those were just some of the rules that were in the code, but still, they created this code and nobody paid any attention to it.

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It's insane, these filmmakers, it's all PR.

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They're just saying we're doing, we're doing and we're doing it, and they turn around and do what they want to do anyway.

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So finally, in 1933, the Catholic Legion of Decency was formed and it began to rate films independently.

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Okay, and when it did this and it told his congregation you could go to hell watching this movie.

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They also got the Protestants involved and women's groups launched protests and boycotts.

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Then they really the studios finally sat up and take notice.

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Okay, that was created in 1930 was finally enforced.

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So, that's why you can see a movie from, say, May, and it can have drugs, it can have prostitution, it can have illicit sexual activity.

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And then you can see a movie two months later, from August.

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None of it existed.

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And that is my code 101 for you.

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Your applause can start now.

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While you were talking.

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I couldn't resist.

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I had to pull up a picture of William Hayes and I don't like to make fun of the way people look.

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.

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Well, he was a Republican.

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Well, I was going to say not to get political.

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He was the chairman of the RNC from 1918 to 1921.

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That happened to pop up.

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And we'll just leave it at that

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So thank you for indulging me in that brief history.

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Now we can actually talk about the movie that we're here to talk about, which is from 1933, Baby Face.

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But one more thing I want to say.

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One more thing I want to say, but it's about Baby Face.

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So even though Babyface was made in 1933, before the code was strictly enforced Baby Face was so out there I mean, they pushed that envelope so far out that Baby Face was actually censored.

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Actually, there are two versions of Baby Face.

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There's the pre-release version and the release version, and there were cuts made in the pre-release version in order for it to play in theaters, because there were still states that were censoring films.

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So Baby Face could never have played in some of these more conservative states the way it was when it was first created.

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So there were cuts made in Babyface, but we'll go into that a little bit later, I think.

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Yeah, I did see an article from back then that Iowa banned the film.

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Yeah, yeah, I'm sure no surprise.

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You know they don't want Barbara Stanwyck doing that stuff in their theaters in Iowa.

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So, Brad, now that I've gone on and on and on about and explained to everybody what the Code is, why don't you tell us a little bit about what this film Baby Face ?

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I will say it's scandalous.

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It is so fun.

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I mean we sat there.

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It was my husband, Maurice, and I and his mom.

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We sat there and watched it and we laughed and laughed.

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And it's not supposed to be a comedy, this film.

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Knowing it was from 1933 and the scandalous way that Barbara Stanwyck acted, we just were aghast and it was hysterical.

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So Barbara Stanwyck is in this industrial town.

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It's kind of later.

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She says Erie in the film, so we're kind of presuming it was Erie Pennsylvania.

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And I love that as somebody who's from northwestern.

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Pennsylvania Go Erie oh.

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I didn't know that.

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Oh, you didn't know that.

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Yes, yes, I had no clue.

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That's why I love the fact that she's from Erie Pennsylvania.

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Well, I will tell you she had a lovely view out her window.

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She kept gazing out the window.

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They looked like they lived on the grounds of this factory.

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They were always showing this big industrial building with smokestacks and they didn't live in a very nice neighborhood.

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We'll put it that way.

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Did you love it when she would blow the dust off the plants out the window?

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Yeah, so we're really seeing where she's starting out.

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Air quality not good.

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No, not good at all.

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This is during prohibition, so her dad is running an illegal gambling drinking house in their home and it's quite a busy place and all the guys there are obviously blue-collar workers, grunting guys and grabbing at Barbara Stanwyck.

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And what's really shocking is it's not even hinted at.

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It's very clear that he has been pimping out his daughter since she was 14 years old, .

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Yes, you want to know something even more interesting than that, although I don't know how you can get.

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But yes, he's prostituting his own child, pimping her out since she's 14.

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That was a suggestion of Barbara Stanwyck.

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Oh, my goodness, isn't that amazing, because Barbara Stanwyck had a little input.

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I have a little bit about this.

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This film had a story by Mark Canfield, but Mark Canfield but Mark Canfield is a excuse, my French a nom de plume for Daryl Zanuck.

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Daryl Zanuck came up with the story.

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Daryl Zanuck was head of production at Warner Brothers at this time.

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So Barbara Stanwyck, born Ruby Stevens in 1907, in New York, had a pretty rough life, not that much different than Lily Powers, and her mother died when she was a young child.

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She actually fell out of a streetcar and hit her head Terrible Wow, poor thing.

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And her father abandoned the family not long after that.

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So thankfully, ruby's older sister took Ruby and her young brother in.

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But still, Barbara Stanwyck had to scrabble to survive.

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Now, I don't think she did what Lily Powers does in this film, but she still had to work hard.

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So she still had to rough and tumble and hardscrabble life.

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She did burlesque and she was a showgirl and she eventually climbed her way up to Broadway and onto Hollywood.

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But I just want to say that I just wanted to point out that Barbara Stanwyck actually suggested the part about her father pimping her out, because that was part of Barbara Stanwyck's persona she was a tough broad even at this point.

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That really surprises me.

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I had no idea, Tony.

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I'm stopping our conversation real quick.

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Why we're in the middle of a podcast.

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But this is about the podcast and it's very important, Okay.

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Oka Listener, whatever app you're listening on, whether it's on the computer or on the phone, reach your finger or your mouse over.

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It usually says follow.

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Some still say subscribe and click that.

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And what's going to happen when they do that, Tony?

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They're going to get notified when a new episode is available and they can listen to us again.

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You know, I don't want to miss that.

00:17:05.844 --> 00:17:07.626
No, can we get back to the episode that we were recording?

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Of course, please.

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Of course, all right, thank you.

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Don't forget to subscribe and follow.

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There you go.

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Before I continue with the movie, I want to read a quote in this bar that her father ran in their home.

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She had a friend who was a cobbler.

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He would read Nietzsche.

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And so here is a quote from Nietzsche that he reads, and this is very important to this film "All life, no matter how we idealize it, is nothing more nor less than exploitation, and she runs with this.

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She willingly exploits herself to move up the ladder.

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That's just another.

00:17:47.096 --> 00:17:57.098
One of the wild things about this movie is that you have a Nietzsche sprouting cobbler giving her life advice From will to power.

00:17:57.098 --> 00:17:59.044
By the way, god is dead.

00:17:59.044 --> 00:18:02.060
Exploit yourself, you know, master slave morality.

00:18:02.060 --> 00:18:03.064
It's just insane.

00:18:03.064 --> 00:18:04.500
She's getting advice from this guy.

00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:09.634
That's Nietzsche In 1933, it's astounding to me, astounding.

00:18:09.755 --> 00:18:16.925
And he continues to coach her from long distance Not a whole lot, but periodically pops back in the film to coach her, encouraging her.

00:18:16.925 --> 00:18:19.663
Now, I don't think he knows exactly what she's doing.

00:18:19.663 --> 00:18:25.663
She never flat out tells him what she's doing, but she is doing what he's telling her to do, based on what Nietzsche said.

00:18:31.694 --> 00:18:36.778
He says to her, he says exploit yourself, use men to get the things you want.

00:18:36.778 --> 00:18:38.439
And she does.

00:18:38.439 --> 00:18:39.818
What else could he mean by that?

00:18:39.818 --> 00:18:41.180
You know, yeah, full stop.

00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:43.662
Okay, that's what I'm going to do.

00:18:43.662 --> 00:18:47.163
So I don't, I look, I hate, I don't hate.

00:18:47.163 --> 00:18:51.605
But I don't want to be a podcast that, like, gives plot, like and this happened, and this happened.

00:18:51.605 --> 00:18:57.048
But you kind of have to in Baby Face because it's so much a part of this.

00:18:57.048 --> 00:19:01.010
Yeah, telling you what happens is just giving you an idea of how crazy this film is.

00:19:01.010 --> 00:19:04.492
So we might have to do a little plot regurgitation here.

00:19:04.833 --> 00:19:17.386
I think we have to Anyway what happens is that her father, the bootlegger slash pimp, tries to set her up with this politician, which she's not having any of because she's got all this Nietzsche in her head.

00:19:17.386 --> 00:19:19.288
She's done, she's thinking about this Nietzsche?

00:19:19.288 --> 00:19:20.609
Yeah, she's kind of done.

00:19:20.609 --> 00:19:26.375
So he leaves, everybody leaves the speakeasy and this politician is trying to make time with Barbara Sandwick.

00:19:26.375 --> 00:19:27.217
She's not having any of it.

00:19:27.217 --> 00:19:33.184
First she smacks him and then she casually walks away and opens a bottle and pours herself a beer.

00:19:33.184 --> 00:19:38.980
She's so nonchalant about it I think it's kind of funny.

00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:43.623
And then he comes around again and tries to get it from the back and she clubs him over the head with a bottle.

00:19:44.455 --> 00:19:46.042
And then she walks away again.

00:19:46.134 --> 00:19:48.644
She's so unemotional.

00:19:48.644 --> 00:20:04.178
It's almost funny how unemotional she is and that's why I think and I know you said it's not a comedy, but I think there's a, there's a, and we can talk about this more later.

00:20:04.178 --> 00:20:05.618
But I think there's a facet of this which is kind of like commenting.

00:20:05.618 --> 00:20:06.780
I feel like Stanwyck is commenting on some of this.

00:20:06.780 --> 00:20:08.382
I mean, she's so non-emotional, she's so nonchalant when she does these things.

00:20:08.382 --> 00:20:12.006
It's almost like she's saying I know this is ridiculous too, but anyway.

00:20:12.006 --> 00:20:17.852
So the father comes back, he's very upset because the politician is going to threaten to call the cops on him and shut down his business.

00:20:17.852 --> 00:20:29.707
And just at that moment there's a problem with his still and he runs down to fix his still and of course the still explodes and there's a fire and the father's gone.

00:20:29.707 --> 00:20:32.242
So bye-bye, child pimp.

00:20:33.497 --> 00:20:39.476
So this Lily Powers is finally free, and Tony mentioned that she is cold To me.

00:20:39.476 --> 00:20:43.507
She is Rhoda Penmark, from the Bad Seed, grown up

00:20:48.506 --> 00:20:49.248
I love that.

00:20:49.335 --> 00:20:52.525
Rhoda has grown up and taken on the world.

00:20:53.015 --> 00:20:54.662
Well, Rhoda's a little bit of a psychopath, though.

00:20:54.662 --> 00:20:59.224
Barbara Stanley doesn't kill people like Rhoda does over a pair of shoes.

00:20:59.746 --> 00:21:05.907
She doesn't kill people, but she has no emotion, and when people are killed in front of her, she doesn't bat an eye.

00:21:06.655 --> 00:21:09.875
Well, I think the man who's been prostituting her since she was a child doesn't bat an eye.

00:21:10.134 --> 00:21:11.477
That is kind of what the cobbler said.

00:21:11.477 --> 00:21:14.682
He says not just use men instead of men using you.

00:21:14.682 --> 00:21:17.067
And men have been using her most of her life.

00:21:17.346 --> 00:21:20.922
Yes, yes, use men, yes, use men to get what you want before they use you.

00:21:20.922 --> 00:21:26.748
She does say at a later point in the movie that all the gentleness and kindness has been killed in her.

00:21:26.748 --> 00:21:34.801
So there's definitely somebody who's been through great trauma and we're obviously not going to be a psychoanalytic podcaster but obviously a woman who's been through great trauma.

00:21:34.801 --> 00:21:41.559
So she's completely detached from her emotions.

00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:42.703
That's how she's able to do these things.

00:21:42.703 --> 00:21:43.567
So she goes to see the cobbler again.

00:21:43.567 --> 00:21:48.320
He reads her some more Nietzsche, Will to Power, and that's when she decides she needs to go make her way.

00:21:48.320 --> 00:21:52.135
And she will make her way by using men to get what she wants.

00:21:53.298 --> 00:21:59.096
And one thing I want to bring up that I was really impressed with is her friend the maid.

00:21:59.738 --> 00:22:01.161
Oh yes, yes, I'm glad you brought her up.

00:22:01.161 --> 00:22:03.465
Yes, Chico, Chico, yes.

00:22:03.886 --> 00:22:07.400
She is a Black woman and of course, given that era, she is a maid.

00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:10.106
I'm impressed because to me it's very advanced.

00:22:10.106 --> 00:22:12.919
She not only is the maid, she's Barbara Stanwyck's friend.

00:22:12.919 --> 00:22:20.809
She is, she is her friend and she's treated mostly as an equal, as much as society would allow her to be an equal given that era.

00:22:20.829 --> 00:22:29.523
Yeah, yeah, at one point in fact, when Barbara Stanwyck's father, before he's killed, wants to fire Chico because she dropped some glasses, she says if Chico goes, I go.

00:22:30.006 --> 00:22:30.185
Yes.

00:22:31.998 --> 00:22:33.279
And so she has Chico on that level.

00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:44.847
So Chico is definitely her companion in her cohort and it is a very I mean there's the horrible stereotypical, lazy maid stereotypes in the very beginning.

00:22:44.847 --> 00:22:51.487
But you're right, the important thing is that Chico is her friend, her companion through life, through this entire film.

00:22:51.487 --> 00:22:52.288
She's with Chico.

00:22:52.935 --> 00:22:58.048
We'll get into detail of how she moves up the ladder, talking about Barbara Stanwyck's character.

00:22:58.048 --> 00:23:02.884
But she has Chico with her the whole time and, yes, chico is the maid the whole time.

00:23:02.884 --> 00:23:08.421
But she's dressing better, she is looking better, she is more a participant.

00:23:08.421 --> 00:23:12.145
So, given that time period, she was still that station in life.

00:23:12.145 --> 00:23:16.541
But Lily is pulling Chico up with her and that was rare at that time in the movies.

00:23:17.174 --> 00:23:20.124
Yeah, she's in with Lily for this ride.

00:23:20.124 --> 00:23:24.545
Yes, she takes Chico with her, which I agree with you, which I think is wonderful.

00:23:24.545 --> 00:23:26.941
Actually, it's a hallmark of these pre-code.

00:23:26.941 --> 00:23:49.959
These strong female friendships are in quite a few pre-code films and that's unfortunately something that we kind of lost when the code came down, where these strong female characters with these strong relationships and obviously very sexual ones, which kind of leads us to how she gets to new york, do you want to tell people a little bit about how lily powers and chico get to

00:23:51.021 --> 00:23:52.646
This York the one that really caught us off guard.

00:23:52.646 --> 00:23:59.621
After lily's father dies in the explosion of the still, she and Chico decide to go to the big city.

00:23:59.621 --> 00:24:00.403
I guess it is New York.

00:24:00.403 --> 00:24:01.914
Is it really ever said it's?

00:24:01.955 --> 00:24:02.256
New York.

00:24:02.256 --> 00:24:06.847
Well, it's called Gotham National Bank, so I mean I'm pretty sure it's New York.

00:24:06.847 --> 00:24:08.921
There's shots where it's definitely New York yeah.

00:24:09.603 --> 00:24:10.965
So it's in the Superman universe.

00:24:12.976 --> 00:24:13.998
Plus Erie New York.

00:24:13.998 --> 00:24:15.402
It's only six hours, so there you go.

00:24:15.502 --> 00:24:16.766
Yeah, there you go, You're probably right.

00:24:16.766 --> 00:24:19.359
So she and Chico.

00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:23.208
Well, she's going to go to the big city and she takes Chico along.

00:24:23.208 --> 00:24:29.067
So they get on a boxcar, an empty boxcar, and they're going to ride the rails to the big city.

00:24:29.067 --> 00:24:39.843
And the watchman, who is inspecting different cars, and he comes in and he finds Lily and Chico there, so naturally he's going to throw them off.

00:24:39.843 --> 00:24:44.544
He tells them both, he's going to throw them off, but he grabs Chico and is actually somewhat violent with her.

00:24:44.544 --> 00:25:12.616
We'll just say the way they stay on the car is Chico sings this little song she does throughout the movie and she walks over to the other end of the boxcar while Lily brings the watchman over the other end of the boxcar into the darkness and we don't see a lot, but we do see the lantern and we see the watchman's gloves be placed down and the lantern gets turned off and I think we all know what happened.

00:25:13.439 --> 00:25:15.825
And next thing you know, they're in New York.

00:25:15.825 --> 00:25:17.028
It worked.

00:25:18.516 --> 00:25:19.178
She bought them

00:25:21.124 --> 00:25:21.726
know what's funny.

00:25:21.726 --> 00:25:25.164
The song that Chico's always singing is St Louis Woman.

00:25:25.164 --> 00:25:32.817
She sings it through the entire movie and it makes you wonder why didn't they name this film St Louis Woman, because she sings it the entire time.

00:25:33.477 --> 00:25:37.520
I was thinking the same thing, because St Louis is a very industrial town, or definitely was at that time period.

00:25:37.821 --> 00:25:39.863
Yeah, but it's definitely New York.

00:25:39.863 --> 00:25:43.066
Oh, yeah, I know that they're in New York, you know.

00:25:43.066 --> 00:25:44.086
And now, what are they going to do?

00:25:44.086 --> 00:25:48.131
They haven't eaten, and Chico actually says that.

00:25:48.131 --> 00:25:48.991
She says that she's hungry.

00:25:48.991 --> 00:25:50.756
They haven't eaten in a day.

00:25:50.756 --> 00:25:57.729
And Lily employs a Nietzsche-esque idea, an idea from Nietzsche of mind over matter says you know, don't think about it.

00:25:57.729 --> 00:26:02.708
You know, or something like that you ate yesterday and they come upon.

00:26:02.708 --> 00:26:04.279
What did they come upon Brad.

00:26:04.756 --> 00:26:05.500
They come upon a.

00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:22.769
There's a limousine or what the equivalent of a limousine was at that time period a very upscale car, and a woman comes out who's dressed to the nines and she gets in the car and I think chico says something like how did she get there?

00:26:22.769 --> 00:26:29.297
And I don't know her exact words, but Lily pretty much lets it be known she's gonna make it happen that's, that's what she wants.

00:26:29.356 --> 00:26:34.621
That's her goal, so her goal is in mind that is what she wants, and she does make it happen, yeah, so she comes upon this policeman standing in front of the gotham national bank.

00:26:34.641 --> 00:26:35.943
She looks at the gotham national bank and she does make it happen.

00:26:35.943 --> 00:26:37.749
Yeah, so she comes upon this policeman standing in front of the Gotham National Bank.

00:26:37.749 --> 00:26:41.299
She looks at the Gotham National Bank and she walks up to the policeman and gives him that look.

00:26:41.299 --> 00:26:43.045
I'm like is she going to sleep with the policeman now?

00:26:43.045 --> 00:26:47.692
She just wants to know if he can help her get a job inside the bank.

00:26:47.692 --> 00:26:49.958
I'm like, well, is he a personnel officer as well?

00:26:49.958 --> 00:26:51.800
I don't understand that logic.

00:26:51.800 --> 00:26:56.769
But he does tell her to go to the personnel office around the corner, I think on 47th.

00:26:56.769 --> 00:26:59.842
So it's New York, and so that's exactly what she does.

00:26:59.842 --> 00:27:01.366
And she goes into the personnel office

00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:08.401
spacing-y: building.

00:27:08.401 --> 00:27:13.382
this is important because that is not the last time we see the exterior of this building

00:27:14.125 --> 00:27:14.685
No, we don't.

00:27:14.685 --> 00:27:22.109
I think that's probably the second star of Bface face is the building she's working in, and we'll tell you why in a minute.

00:27:22.109 --> 00:27:24.520
So gets gets to the personnel office and she runs.

00:27:24.520 --> 00:27:27.798
She walks in the personnel office and she says something about is this where you get jobs?

00:27:27.798 --> 00:27:29.788
And some girl goes this is where you ask for jobs.

00:27:29.788 --> 00:27:32.237
So you know it's the depression, there aren't a lot of jobs.

00:27:32.237 --> 00:27:47.087
And there's this little chubby personnel agent called Mr Pratt sitting there and she spies her prey and she walks up to him and gives him the eye and says I'd really like to get a job in here.

00:27:47.087 --> 00:27:48.559
Well, you know what?

00:27:48.559 --> 00:28:00.006
She's already proven that her new credo in life worked with the watchman on the train in the boxcar, and it has the same kind of effect on Mr Pratt.

00:28:00.006 --> 00:28:02.462
And she says she hates crowds.

00:28:02.462 --> 00:28:08.482
It's much too crowded in the personnel office, although I didn't see anybody else in there, let's go in the back and talk about this.

00:28:09.394 --> 00:28:15.307
And this was actually to me really more suggestive than the watchman, because she walks over.

00:28:15.307 --> 00:28:17.761
Mr Pratt is in an outer office.

00:28:18.083 --> 00:28:18.263
Yes.

00:28:18.535 --> 00:28:26.784
And she walks over to this other office that's more enclosed and she opens the door and gives him this seductive look and walks into the room.

00:28:27.325 --> 00:28:27.486
Yeah.

00:28:27.796 --> 00:28:31.164
She had no real reason to go in that office, except for one motive.

00:28:31.345 --> 00:28:33.556
That look, that look that she gives that look.

00:28:33.556 --> 00:28:34.681
That's kryptonite.

00:28:34.681 --> 00:28:36.420
Yes To all men.

00:28:36.420 --> 00:28:38.140
No one could resist her.

00:28:38.140 --> 00:28:39.724
I wish it's pre-code.

00:28:39.724 --> 00:28:42.505
I wish he would have come up against a gay character

00:28:47.375 --> 00:28:50.685
anyway, but I digress, but it would have been funny.

00:28:50.685 --> 00:29:00.637
So obviously it works, because this is, and this is a hallmark of Baby, baby faces, and this is what we meant when we said the building is the second star of baby face because she's in the personnel department.

00:29:00.637 --> 00:29:16.286
And suddenly we get a shot of the exterior of the building and it says personnel department on the window and the camera pulls back and goes, it pans up to the floor above which says filing department, and the camera moves in and she's in the filing department.

00:29:16.286 --> 00:29:18.917
So number two worked.

00:29:18.917 --> 00:29:31.400
She went up the tier, she did, she moved her way up to the filing department and there's an actor in the filing department and I wonder, brad, if you recognized the actor in in that, in that scene .

00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:43.162
And considering that this guy was a conservative asshole and I'm talking about conservative he was a racist pig I was absolutely shocked to see him and I thought, well, he didn't have sex wit her.

00:29:43.162 --> 00:29:47.079
But at the end it is hinted that she did, but you don't actually see it.

00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:48.339
But he is taken by her.

00:29:48.339 --> 00:29:49.143
That is quite obvious.

00:29:49.143 --> 00:29:51.981
And we are talking about John Wayne.

00:29:51.981 --> 00:29:54.441
Yes, not Cowboy John Wayne.

00:29:54.441 --> 00:30:00.847
We're talking about John Wayne, who's kind of a secondary character as far as his job goes in the suit.

00:30:01.249 --> 00:30:03.220
Here's the interesting thing about that character, about John Wayne's character.

00:30:03.220 --> 00:30:04.285
He plays Jimmy McCoy.

00:30:04.285 --> 00:30:06.054
That's his name, you're right.

00:30:06.054 --> 00:30:07.355
You're like is that that's John?

00:30:07.415 --> 00:30:10.239
Wayne you know, and the voice is obvious.

00:30:10.239 --> 00:30:13.063
Yes, yes, once you hear the voice, you're like oh my God, that's John Wayne.

00:30:13.063 --> 00:30:20.971
And here's what's important about the John Wayne character, about Jimmy McCoy he is the first person to call her Babyface.

00:30:20.971 --> 00:30:25.124
Because, as I said before, why is this film called Babyface?

00:30:25.124 --> 00:30:28.440
It should be called St Louis Woman, but he calls her Babyface.

00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:30.226
I did not catch that.

00:30:30.226 --> 00:30:32.178
So that's the importance of John Wayne's character.

00:30:32.378 --> 00:30:45.181

Oversexed in the City: The Saga of “Baby Face” (1933)

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