Do you want to see ‘Baby Face’?

Baby Face (1933)

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Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 12
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 3,116

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Movie Info

Baby Face is a good example of the kind of spitfire lead female characters that appeared in the cinema of pre-code Hollywood. Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father's factory-town saloon where she learns to deal with the unwanted advances of male customers. When her father dies, she moves to New York City with her maid, Chico (Theresa Harris), to become a ruthless gold digger. First she meets office boy Jimmy McCoy (a young John Wayne in an uncharacteristically clean-cut

Unrated, 1 hr. 11 min.

Drama, Classics

Directed By: Alfred E. Green

Written By: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola

In Theaters: Jun 23, 1933 Wide

On DVD: Dec 5, 2006

MGM

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck
Lily "Baby Face" Powers
George Brent
Trenholm
Donald Cook
Stevens
Arthur Hohl
Sipple
John Wayne
Jimmy McCoy
Henry Kolker
Mr. Carter
Margaret Lindsay
Ann Carter
Douglas Dumbrille
Brody
Theresa Harris
Chico
Alphonse Ethier
Cragg
Joan Barclay
Job-Seeker
Robert H. Barrat
Nick Powers
Walter Brennan
James Bush
Bank Clerk Paris
Charles Coleman
Hodges the Butler
Charles "Heinie" Conklin
Waiter
Cecil Cunningham
Bank Clerk Paris
Frank Darien
Bank Official Paris
Arthur de Kuh
Lutza
Harry Gribbon
Doorman
Maynard Holmes
Pratt Personnel Office
Edward J. Le Saint
Reginald Mason
Bank Board of Directors
Spec O'Donnell
Office Boy
Nat Pendleton
Stolvich
Charles Sellon
Bank Board of Directors
Harry Semels
Drunk
Harry Tenbrook
Laborer
Edward Van Sloan
Jameston the Director
Renee Whitney
The Girl
Harry Wilson
Laborer
Toby Wing
Worker>
James Murray
Brakeman
John Elliott
Bank Board of Directors
Douglass Dumbrille

Critic Reviews for Baby Face

All Critics (15) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)

A fascinatingly conflicted artifact of Depression-era do-me feminism.

April 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comment

Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Top Critic

If you've never seen Stanwyck in a pre-Code film, you've never really seen Stanwyck.

February 3, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Well worth looking at.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

A typical Depression tale of upward mobility and a good vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck; you can spot John Wayne in a small part.

April 30, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

They can't take their eyes off her. You won't be able to either.

April 24, 2007 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com

| Comment

Don Willmott

Filmcritic.com

Engagingly shocking to audiences who think of old movies as quaint and innocent.

January 24, 2007 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

| Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

...go with the pre-release account. (Forbidden Hollywood)

December 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...an amazing film for any age because it is purely about sex. Not X-rated, pornographic sex, but raw, sensual, unequivocal, unmitigated sex, nevertheless.

December 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Baby Face is sort of the ultimate pre-Code film, with its repetitive form %u2014 that same come-hither look, that same goggle-eyed assent from the dude on the receiving end %u2014 almost beggaring belief.

December 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

| Comment

Bryant Frazer

Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

Racy melodrama made before the Production Code.

March 5, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Inarguably one of the greatest screen actresses of the century, Stanwyck gives one of her strongest performances here, all fire and hunger and pain.

February 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

The peppy title tune over the opening credits hardly prepares you for the sordid story that follows...

July 14, 2004 Full Review | Comment

James Sanford

Kalamazoo Gazette

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Audience Reviews for Baby Face

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I really liked this movie, but it does remind you a lot of Red-Headed Woman story wise. I really liked Stanwyck in this movie. Also I loved the ending.

November 15, 2010

AJ Verser

Super Reviewer

"baby face" was an mighty milestone to set up the stanwyckesque femme fatale image before the fatally classic "double indemnity"...generally..the vital charm of most femme fatales is their gluttonish sensuality and sex apeal...but the allure of stanwyck's femme fatale is based upon her ruthless toughnes and also her

October 1, 2007

Veronique Kwak

Super Reviewer

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