...Baby Face (1933) - 6 Lines about 2 Versions

Baby Face is a rather shocking (even today) look at Lily Power's climb out of the sewer in which she was born; rather than using a ladder and manhole though she uses a bed. Barbara Stanwyck is wonderful as the femme and shows much courage to have even agreed to take the part (as does a heavily made-up John Wayne in a small yet pivotal role). Nothing is left to the imagination (in the pre-release version) when Stanwyck eyes a man up and down and closes the door to a room. The honesty is compelling, forthright and, frankly, refreshing - although the ending does seem out-of-character. The theatrical version is less of everything: shock, courage, and interest. Stanwyck's sex-capades are watered down (scenes are cut after the couple eye each other, Baby Face does not berate her father for turning her into a whore at 14) and an additional feel-real-good ending has been tacked on - all to appease the Motion Picture Code so certainly, watch the film as the filmmakers intended.

...I'm No Angel (1933)

Mae West was a one-of-a-kind jewel and I'm No Angel is her platinum setting - made thankfully before the Production Code was followed to it's full effect. Although at times the Cary Grant romance and its inevitable outcome reminded me of an extended episode of Love, American Style (forty years before the series was aired thank you very much), the film is not dated and the court room scene, with Mae doing her thing as her own lawyer, is hysterical. You'd be hard pressed to find a more unique actress and icon and a more apt film for her to display her...ahem...talents, all of them - she acts, sings, and wrote the screenplay.

...Night After Night (1932)

Gangsters, gun molls, a society girl, and a prim and proper political science professor encompass the surprisingly sweet and Runyon-esque story of the speakeasy at 55 Ninth Avenue in Night After Night. Mae West, in her film debut, sets the screen ablaze in the type of performance not previously seen by the movie-going public. Interestingly, this is one of the few films where West interacts with other actresses as a pal rather than a rival so those scenes (professor Alison Skipworth sharing a bed with West, for example), the...ah hem...relationship between George Raft and Roscoe Karns, and the quick shot of two lesbians passing a joint are the ones to watch for in this pre-code sizzler.