This notoriously racy pre-Code film stars a gorgeous and sexy Barbara Stanwyck as a young girl from the wrong side of the tracks who moves to the big city and uses her "feminine ways" to keep herself in furs and jewels. Within the film's first fifteen minutes, Stanwyck's father has tried to pimp her to a frequenter of his speak easy, and a shoe cobbler and friend of the family (and closest thing to a father figure she has) has delivered a speech about how she should use men to get what she wants. Taking his advice, she hops the rails with her black maid, and gets to try out her newly found technique for the first time on a railway worker who threatens to turn them over to the police. Aside from the film's general frankness about sex as a means to an end, this is perhaps the most shocking single scene in the film. Stanwyck, in extreme close up and for the first in what ends up being about 30 times over the course of the film, says "Why don't we talk this over?", the railway worker, looking grizzled and horny, looks her up and down and moves closer, the black maid smirks and takes herself off into the corner, and a pair of gloves dropped to the floor clearly indicates what's going on just outside the frame. If you're looking for jaw-dropping content on a par with other notorious pre-Code films like, say, "The Sign of the Cross" (I haven't yet seen anything quite like that movie in all my years of watching films) you may be disappointed, as this is about as racy as "Baby Face" gets. But even so, it's obvious why the enforcers of the Code freaked out and demanded that much of this film be recut.
The rest of the movie sees Stanwyck quickly making her way through the various bigwigs in a hot-shot company, and soon men are shooting themselves over her. It's all pretty silly, and if it were not for its racy reputation, it would be a pretty forgettable film, but it does offer a sleazy kind of fun.
By the way, I love this film's tagline: "She made her way up the corporate ladder, wrong by wrong!" That should give you some indication of what you're in for.
Grade: B-
The rest of the movie sees Stanwyck quickly making her way through the various bigwigs in a hot-shot company, and soon men are shooting themselves over her. It's all pretty silly, and if it were not for its racy reputation, it would be a pretty forgettable film, but it does offer a sleazy kind of fun.
By the way, I love this film's tagline: "She made her way up the corporate ladder, wrong by wrong!" That should give you some indication of what you're in for.
Grade: B-