Baby Face (film)
Baby Face is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Alfred E. Green for Warner Bros., starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers, and featuring George Brent. Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck (under the pseudonym Mark Canfield), Baby Face portrays an attractive young woman who uses sex to advance her social and financial status. Twenty-five-year-old John Wayne appears briefly as one of Powers's lovers.
| Baby Face | |
|---|---|
theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Alfred E. Green |
| Screenplay by | Gene Markey Kathryn Scola |
| Story by | "Mark Canfield" (Darryl F. Zanuck) |
| Produced by | William LeBaron Raymond Griffith |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck George Brent |
| Cinematography | James Van Trees |
| Edited by | Howard Bretherton |
Production company | Warner Bros. |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 76 minutes 71 minutes (censored version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $187,000 |
| Box office | $452,000 |
Marketed with the salacious tagline "She had it and made it pay", the film's open discussion of sex made it one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code Hollywood era and helped bring the era to a close as enforcement of the code became stricter beginning in 1934. Mark A. Vieira, author of Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood has said, "Baby Face was certainly one of the top 10 films that caused the Production Code to be enforced." In 2005, Baby Face was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.