I didn't set the DVR for this one last week because I've seen BABY FACE many times, and did't realize it was a new, "uncut" version.
Here's my question for those of you who have seen both the cut & uncut versions. What's added? What scenes did I miss?
I've been bummed out since I realized there was another version & I missed it.
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As Stanwyck speaks to an old scholar after her father's funeral, the old man says "use men to be successful, you've got what it takes, use men!" (sic). These lines are edited out in the released version in favour of "there's a right way and a wrong way to succeed - use the right way" (sic). Also, I believe there's a shot of Mr.Carter taking a bullet that was cut from the official version.
Let me know if anyone spots anything else.
Thanks! I also caught a trailer for the new BABY FACE on the beginning of another movie, and it showed Lily & Chico in the train, and a man (train employee? hobo?) in the same car, and Lily says something about "Let's see if we can talk this thing over."
I could just slap myself for not setting the dvr for this!
Even by today's standards the blatant sexuality in this film is rather shocking - it's handled in such a way that the viewer has no doubt what's occurring in each situation, or just out of "camera range" - the aforementioned scene on the train is a good example, and the scene where Lily is obviously twisting her little finger around something to keep from being fired after her affair with the boss has been discovered by his fiancee. What's also amazing is that Stanwyck apparently didn't balk at whatever was required of her in these scenes.
"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker
That was the weirdest cut to me...it totally turned around what that old guy was trying to do for her. In the cut version he seemed like such a good mentor. In the uncut he seems a tad evil!
share"That was the weirdest cut to me...it totally turned around what that old guy was trying to do for her. In the cut version he seemed like such a good mentor. In the uncut he seems a tad evil!"
No way! His guidance led her out of the gutter! He was right about everything!
No way! His guidance led her out of the gutter! He was right about everything!
if i might interject... Remember what the old man [mentor] was urging her to do... ??? Does the name Frederich Nietzsche mean anything to ya? The mentor advised her to follow the philosophy 0f Nietzsche. Hence the 'evil' advice he gives her. In many ways, this CLASSIC film is why Nietzsche is NOT held in high regards in my 'circles of friends'.. IE: Liberal/progressive
shareThe "uncut" version ends with Stanwyck looking at the jewelry spilled on the floor of the ambulance, and saying, "That doesn't matter anymore."
The release version had a tacked-on ending, showing the bank's board of directors. They have received a check from Lilly and her husband, to help get the bank started again, and it's revealed that they're given up everything and are now penniless, and he's working as a laborer in a Pittsburgh steel mill. The movie closes with a shot of the factories and cheap houses, from the beginning of the film.
In regard to what Lily learns or doesn't learn at the end of the movie, it is interesting to compare Baby Face to Red Headed Woman, which is in the same set as BF in volume 1 of Forbidden Hollywood.
Both movies show an amoral woman using men to get what she wants out of life, but RHW is played for comedy, while BF is drama. The most interesting thing to me is that in RHW, Jean Harlow's character does get away with everything, while Stanwyck's Lily learns a lesson. I guess they could get away with an amoral ending better in comedy than in drama even back in the pre-code days.
Baby Face is a wonderful movie. I haven't watched the release version yet, but will soon. It's interesting that, as someone on these boards stated, the original ending had Lily getting to her husband too late, that he was already dead. That would have been quite a shocking ending, even for a drama. She may get a second chance this way. I was interested in the description of the changed ending in the release version. Thanks.
...I tended to interpret the original ending as " It's not resolved whether her husband is dead , it's non-determined " .
Oh , and for the released ending - I don't recall any suggestion that spending by Lily and her husband/illegal or at least unethical behavior on their part was WHY the bank failed...It was " just " another Depression bank failure !!!!!!!!!!!
Oh , and what happens to he African-American servant/pal - after she leaves her on the boat , as it's leaving - is never resolved .
Maybe she got taken back to shore , presumably with her mistresses' stuff , on one of those speedy boats that I believe ocean liners of that period would meet/leave behind them when reaching/leaving port ???
To quote from above..
" It's not resolved whether her husband is dead , it's non-determined"
You know, I thought that as well.
I think the intent was to say he was dying.. he opened his eyes and smiled to let us know she let him ie happy in the knowledge she loved him. The loot, spilling symbolicly on the floor of the ambulance.. and "not important any more" or words to that effect...
But the medical staff in the ambulance didn't say either way... So that he lived, IS a possabilty.. Although I prefere to believe he died...
few visible scars
The release version had a tacked-on ending, showing the bank's board of directors. They have received a check from Lilly and her husband, to help get the bank started again, and it's revealed that they're given up everything and are now penniless, and he's working as a laborer in a Pittsburgh steel mill. The movie closes with a shot of the factories and cheap houses, from the beginning of the film.It may seem "tacked on" but I believe that was always the ending Warner Bros. planned and is totally fits in with other films of the period, especially at WB. The ending you suggest would give the story no real closure which would have been extremely uncommon for the period.
The uncut version also has a scene with Lily's father before he dies. They are arguing and she complains about how he turned her out at 14 years old and made her work in the bar. The father kept acting like he was doing his daughter some kind of favor in life.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Here's a list of all the changes, per the Warner Bros. editorial department, dated May 19, 1933:
http://balboamovies.com/program/stanwyck_pre_code_files/babyface_censo r_notes.pdf
It's funny to see them cutting out Nietzsche, whose name they can't even spell. Says so much in a way.
In addition to the others mentioned: when she is responsible for getting Douglas Dumbrille fired-she walks into the Ladies Rest room, leaves the door open and Douglas Dumbrille follows her in. In the cut version, you dont see that- it cuts from her saying to DD, "not here" (meaning in the office) to Donald Cook entering and castigting DD.
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