Baby Face (1933) recounts the
stylistic and sexually driven journey of Lily Powers (Stanwyck), an independent
woman who manipulates her way to become the wife of a top official of a major
New York bank through her sexual prowess and strong-headedness. Despite Lily’s
deceiving actions, the viewer is nevertheless drawn to the film by the
interesting subversion of gender roles, and the resilience and allure of the
central female character. Her rise to power and wealth, however, has to be
neutralized in order for viewers to receive the correct and moral message
according to those guide-lined by the Production Code of 1930. The added
boardroom ending functions to make the narrative structure of the film come
full circle and strengthen the moral value of the film under the eyes of the
Production Code, in that we do not see Lily ultimately benefit from her overt
female sexuality.
Lily’s humanity
surfaces near the end of the film as the viewer sees her abandon her material
possessions in a gesture of her true love for Trenholm (Brent). Yet her
punishment for her earlier transgressions must extend beyond this, and we come
to learn that Lily has been demoted to the same standard of life she had before
she left for New York. The viewer is left with the nagging feeling that despite
the sympathy and self-recognition that Lily garners, she must still suffer for
her amoral actions in order for the morality of the film to prevail. As Maltby
(33) asserts, “The story describes a moral landscape of mutual exploitation,
but does so within a narrative firmly constructed around the premise that such
behavior was itself immoral and not to be emulated.” In an ironic fashion, Lily
loses everything by acquiring the one thing she exploits: romance and love.
The
Production Code repeatedly stresses the role of films as a form of
entertainment and their importance in society. As an industry that is able to
reach mass audiences, writers of the Production Code believed that motion
pictures had a duty to convey the moral and “right” American standards and
believed that “no picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards
of those who see it” (1930 Hays Code 1). Baby
Face’s ending had to be changed to extend to the boardroom scene to nullify
any feelings of sympathy and justification towards Lily on behalf of the
audience, which is accomplished. Other changes to the film presented by Maltby
also function to lessen the sexuality and exploitation within the narrative.
The character of Kragg needed to be played with, as his original actions seemed
to condone female sexual manipulation, a message that the Code undoubtedly did
not want impressionable women and youth acquiring. The film was altered to
downplay Nietzsche philosophy and sexual manipulation, and consequences of
unfaithfulness, materiality, deception, and exploitation were brought to the
foreground. The film also makes it clear that Lily’s actions had to be
reciprocated by the men she targeted. Brody, McCoy, Stevens, and Carter all
suffer due to their actions, further reinforcing the idea that immoral actions
were not to go unpunished. Whether losing their jobs, being killed, or
attempting suicide, all of Lily’s suitors pay for their indiscretions and
actions against the sanctity of marriage that the Code wanted upheld. It is
clear that the Code writers were serious when it came to the narrative material
of films and the effects the actions of the characters would have on the
masses. Immoral actions were not to be tolerated and overlooked, and the punishment
experienced by all those who acted wrongly in Baby Face, from Lily to
the supporting men, sends a message that morality will ultimately overcome
deception and exploitation. The audience learns through watching the
development of the film’s characters and storyline, whether consciously or
subconsciously, that negative actions will have negative consequences.
