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Sunday, Jan 16, 2022
4:30 PM (76 mins)
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BAMPFA
Baby Face
Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Margaret Lindsay,
Proof of Vaccination Required
Starting December 1, ticket holders will be required to provide proof of vaccination for entry into the Barbro Osher Theater.
This defining example of pre-Code depravity also establishes femme fatalism as both an economic and a philosophical position. “I’m a tramp and who’s to blame? My father!” Thus spake Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck), who starts as the sweetheart of the night shift at her dad’s mangy mill-town speakeasy and soon sleeps her way to the top of the Gotham Trust Company, one floor at a time. (Among her victims there is a very young John Wayne). The movie was trimmed before its release to appease horrified censors; this print, preserved from the uncut negative, contains plenty of jaw-dropping moments, but probably the most surprising are the repeated references to Nietzsche. A philosophical cobbler sends Lily Thoughts out of Season as a Christmas gift: “Crush out all sentiment.” Sly, glittering, and opaque, Stanwyck’s Lily hardly needs the advice.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Gene Markey
- Kathryn Scola
- Darryl Francis Zanuck
Print Info
- B&W
- 35mm
- 76 mins
Source
- Warner Bros. Classics