MovieChat Forums > Baby Face (1933) Discussion > SPOILER ALERT!!!! The ending

SPOILER ALERT!!!! The ending


I keep reading all these threads about different ending, cleaned up and dirty versions of this film. I just finished watching and honestly don't know which version I saw. No one ever actually says what the endings are.

In the version I just watched it ends w/Cortland and Lilly riding to the hospital in an ambulance. Was this the clean or dirty version? Don't see what was so "dirty" about it if it was the dirty one.

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You saw the uncut version, I wouldn't call it "dirty", the censored (cut) version I think shows Lily and Courtland back in Pittsburgh working as laborers after giving the bank all their money.

The ending in Baby Face broke the number one Hayes code rule: "No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin."









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The uncut version had the daughter working in the speakeasy where the dad greets the politician when he comes in. Good old dad takes some money from him and throws out the other men staying to late, sends the other lady to the kitchen and tells his daughter the guy will be coming in to see her.....he can help their business --instead he threatens to destroy it) After she chased him out (and he had his hand on her breast and had manhandled her, her father was very angry that she did not come through.

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There's a difference between what was considered dirty and shocking in the 30s vs what it's considered today. There were still a large amount of moral conservatives in the 30s that found pre code films and the new age society of that time (flapper girls, etc.) totally horrible and immoral. Today, that new age society is hardly new anymore and is more considered now to be, well normal. Those types of conservatives in the 30s that successfully enforced the Hays code back then are now a much smaller percentage of America and would have as much power persuading to change Hollywood's films as an ant trying to tip over a vending machine. People keep mentioning how immoral pre code Hollywood was, I'm sure that they mean by 1930s standards. Because by today's standards, none of it is that big of a deal and that there's a lot worse out there now.

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I believe the original ending had him dying and her going off to be rich and fabulous. They tried to make it more moral by having her realize at the last second she loved him and going back in time for him to get help and he survived. But then she is even less punished as she still has the money and still married to someone she loves.

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