In 1930 The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America adopted the productione code to govern the making of motion pictures. For the next 34 years it controlled what could and could not be shown in the movies. Not just language and nudity were proscribed - the movies were required to show positive messages - evil people always had to get what was coming to them and sex could only be hinted at. For this reason, I fear many people have come to believe that no one really had sex outside of marriage prior to the sexual revolution (which just happened to coincide with the end of the production code. Luckily, we still have several pre-production code movies that prove otherwise. Two of the best are featured here.
Red-Headed Woman synopsis:
Anita Loos wrote the screenplay for this tale of a blatant social climber. The film begins with a brief montage of Lillian or Lil Andrews, played by Jean Harlow, telling us just what kind of woman we are dealing with - dyed red hair and see through clothing! Determined not to live her whole life on the wrong side of the tracks, she first seduces her boss then. Then continues to manipulate him into finally leaving his wife for her. Her goal is to become part of high society. Unfortunately, despite all of her discussion of Louis Quinze chairs they are having none of her - remaining loyal to the first wife. Her answer is to try to climb higher but she has trouble up there - all of her own making.
Baby Face synopsis:
The climb to the to of Barbra Stanwyck's character, Lily (oddly enough), in Baby Face is, amazingly enough, more directly linked to her sexuality than Jean Harlow's is in Red-Headed Woman, though the basic idea is the same. Born to a bar owner and abandoned by her mother, she grows up in the bar and becomes, as she calls herself, a tramp. She decides to change things after she gets a pep-talk from a professorial customer and his interpretation of Nietzsche. He urges her to use her beauty, which he assures her gives her power over men. Soon she has moved to New York. Taken by a high rise bank building and the money that must be inside, so she proceeds to sleep her way into and to the top of that building, literally. Meanwhile, she internalizes the professor's version of Nietzsche - determined to stay cold and distant.
The primary difference between these two movies is that Baby Face is on the side of the social climber (more or less) while Red-Headed Woman is more on the side of the climbed upon. The behavior of Jean Harlow's, Lil is presented as shocking at every turn. No one wants anything to do with her, including to some extent her husband. Their union is presented as one of lust alone from the beginning.
In Baby Face on the other hand, Stanwyck's Lily is presented as cold and manipulative but her conquests are presented as being in love. She appears to get everything she seeks at each step, the only question being is what she seeks really what she wants.
Both scripts are very good making their points very succinctly. Loos was one of the great playwright/screenwriters of her day culminating in her famous book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Baby Face was written by the tea of Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola, a team so successful that Markey managed to marry Joan Bennet, Hedy Lamarr, AND Myrna Loy. Besides you have to love the mere mention of Nietzsche in a movie, let alone making his philosophy a primary plot point is amazing. The directing is also top notch with Baby Face it was Alfred E. Green a solid journeyman director under the tutelage of Darryl Zanuck - one of the most hands-on producers of that era. Red-Headed Woman's director is Jack Conway a key director at Irving Thalberg's MGM who went on to direct higher brow material with even bigger stars (though it was hard to get bigger than Harlow).
Both movies really rise and fall on the backs of their female stars, however and you couldn't ask for two better. Barbra Stanwyck was marvelous in everything she did even this early outing. Be careful not to mistake her character's coldness at the beginning with bad acting. Harlow took Hollywood by storm with her first leading role, in Hell's Angels Howard Hughes magnum opus about World War I. Her sexuality was blatant from the beginning, but her performances got better and better with each film she did as did the camera's love affair with her.
I've linked these movies not just because they are so similar but because the would make a great double feature Neither is very long, Red-Headed Woman runs 79 minutes and Baby Face is 71. Basically you could see both in the same time you could see any single current movie and you'll have plenty of time to discuss afterward. I think the sexual and class politics involved should make for a lively discussion - particularly if there are lots of couples in the audience.
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