BABY FACE at the 2004 London Film Festival
Long thought lost, the original version of the 1933 Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Baby Face will be screened at the London Film Festival in November.
The Warner Bros. picture was initially released in all its sauciness, but had to be withdrawn shortly thereafter because of vociferous protests against its purported immorality: a woman uses her body, her sensuality, and her determination to ascend the corporate ladder during the Depression — and succeeds admirably.
Bowing to pressure, Warners reedited Baby Face and even redubbed much of the dialogue of one character, who was transformed from the power behind the young woman’s sexual awareness into the film’s moralizing voice.
Directed by unfairly neglected Alfred E. Green, Baby Face, which also stars George Brent (a young John Wayne — above, with Barbara Stanwyck — makes a brief appearance), will be shown on November 3.
The original version was recently found at the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center in Dayton, Ohio.
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Tags: Alfred E. Green, Baby Face, Barbara Stanwyck, Censorship, Classic Movies, George Brent, London Film Festival, Pre-Code Hollywood, Production Code, Sex
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