The plot description of this movie is wild: a young woman, desperate to escape the abusive trauma of her childhood, takes some advice from Nietzsche (?) and moves to the city, sexually exploiting men as she literally sleeps her way to the top of a major bank, causing a murder, a suicide, a broken engagement, and an attempted suicide in the process. This movie is DARK, but it’s FUN: therein lies the beauty of pre-Code films. (Speaking of beauty, Barbara Stanwyck is a revelation in this movie.) Perhaps the fun comes from the incongruity caused by my own distance to the time period: watching some of the content you get pre-Code feels inherently transgressive, like you’re watching something that shouldn’t have been made. Because pre-Code is such a short time period, most of my experience watching older movies involves the sanitized Hollywood productions that would come to dominate film until the 60s. But watching something like Baby Face you see themes that are dark and disturbing, yes, but they’re fundamentally interesting in a way that you won’t see again for a while.

_Baby Face_ is the original 'sleeping her way to the top' movie... Barbara Stanwyck stars as the barmaid who is told by a codger customer that Nietzsche wants her to use her body to dominate men. It doesn't get better than that, but it still stays pretty good as walking erections (including a young John Wayne!) give the up and coming platinum blonde a stiff push to get her on top. This pre-code film goes a little hard even by today's standards, and works because it walks a thin line without going too far. Everyone gets a happy ending, but I would've been happier if it had been more sinful.