One of Warners' most scandalous films of the thirties, Baby Face features an early incarnation of Bad Barbara; her Lily Powers schemes and sleeps her way from the personnel department to the penthouse of a New York skyscraper, floor by floor. Among her stepping stones are George Brent, Donald Cook, and a terribly young and innocent John Wayne. "(Stanwyck's) Baby Face is clearly the female equivalent of the Scarfaces, Public Enemies, and Little Caesars of the same era. Her gams are as devastatingly exploited as any gangster's gats" (Andrew Sarris, Tom Allen). The truly trashy antics of this gal who starts out in gingham and ends up in jewels aroused the ire of Will Hays; indeed, what we see in this pre-Code gem is a measure of the effect that the Hays Office was soon to have.