(1933, ALFRED E. GREEN) “She had IT and made IT pay!”

BABY FACE was one of the most notorious of all the films of the Pre-Code era-- the time during the early Depression when the Hollywood studios virtually ignored the censors and offered up one sex-filled film after another.  Public morals were so offended that the industry was forced to adopt an even stricter Production Code in 1934.  Advertised with the titillating warning, “Parents: do not bring your children,” BABY FACE stars Barbara Stanwyck as an abused daughter who turns tricks out of a speakeasy in Erie, Pennsylvania, then heads to Manhattan, where she sleeps her way up the corporate ladder (with a young John Wayne, among many others). A longer (by five minutes), even racier version was recently discovered by the Library of Congress and returns to Film Forum for a special encore presentation, following its sold-out screenings in January. After the film, we'll be showing scenes from the censored version for comparison.

Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming, says of the new footage, “BABY FACE has been a mainstay at Film Forum for more than 15 years, ever since it kicked off our very first Pre-Code series. So the discovery of the new footage at the Library of Congress is especially exciting for us.”

Says Library of Congress Motion Picture Division Curator Mike Mashon, “When the New York State Board of Censors rejected the first version of BABY FACE in April 1933, Warners cut the negative and released the shortened version nationally. We're thrilled to be able to show the film in its original, even more salacious form.” Courtesy Warner Bros. and Library of Congress.

Click here to read Dave Kehr’s article on the uncut version of BABY FACE from The New York Times

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