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ornamental line

The Body Politic

"You have power! [. . .] Exploit yourself!"
Alfred E. Green's Baby Face (1933)


Points for Reflection

Alfred E. Green's Baby Face (1933)

  1. What do the opening, establishing shots of Erie, Pennsylvania signal about our hero’s origins?
  2. Though the film customarily employs dissolves when transitioning between scenes, it occasionally fades to black.  Why?
  3. Does the film contain any themes, situations, or images that the Hays Code, enacted a year later, would have proscribed?
  4. At what moments does Green use soft focus?
  5. What are the young sons of the men doing as their fathers enter Mr. Powers’s establishment?
  6. Why does Nick Powers peer through a door window, and undo a lock, before granting entry to his customers?
  7. What is Lily’s surname, and why does this matter?
  8. What do Lily’s first words suggest about her character?
  9. Lily’s father cites his parentage as justification for expecting respect (2:48). Do his actions build upon his words’ claim?
  10. Do any of the men who interact with Lily at her father’s establishment show her respect?
  11. Why does the camera move slowly up Lily’s body at one point?
  12. When Mr. Cragg declares that a woman has “more chance than a man” to succeed in life, what does he mean?
  13. What unquestioned assumptions lie at the foundation of Mr. Cragg’s use of the word “strong”?
  14. How do Lily and Chico manage to relocate?
  15. What role do Chico’s songs play throughout the film? Do their lyrics matter, relative to the plot action?
  16. How does New York City differ, at a glance, from Erie, Pennsylvania?
  17. Why might the script require Lily to walk down a major thoroughfare’s sidewalk immediately upon arriving in New York City?
  18. What camera movement does Green use both to introduce the Gotham Trust Company, and to signal Lily’s movements within the building over time?
  19. How does the gaze wielded by Lily compare to the gaze of the men she encounters?
  20. Does Lily’s wardrobe and appearance change with her circumstances, or remain consistent?
  21. Mr. Stevens secretary says to coworker that he’s very much in love with the girl to whom he’s engaged, Mr. Carter’s daughter, and that “He has high ideals. He’s not like other men” (27:05).  Does the plot support this claim?
  22. Does our understanding of Lily’s conscience change over time?
  23. Why might Lily claim to never drink?
  24. How does Green indicate the passage of time during Mr. Carter’s visit?
  25. Does Chico evolve throughout the tale?
  26. When is the name “Baby Face” first used, and does Lily herself call anyone “baby”?
  27. Who shows up immediately after Lily reads a bit more of Nietzsche—sent from Mr. Cragg?  Does Lily practice, in this moment, the principle she’s just read?
  28. What rests on Lily’s bed in her nicest apartment, next to the pillows?
  29. At a critical juncture in the plot (47:00), the camera pans up Lily’s body from behind, racking focus so that she herself comes into clear detail only slowly.  What impact does this technical choice have on the way we read Lily at this moment?
  30. When an event involving Lily makes its way into the papers,, Lily claims that “everyone blames me” and “no one knows the truth” (50:50).  Does the story as a whole encourage the audience to blame Lily, or exonerate her?  What is “the truth” of her experience?
  31. How does Courtland Trenholm differ from the other men in Lily’s life?
  32. Has Lily changed--in the third city she inhabits--from the person she was in the second?
  33. What does Lily mean by the observation that she was hoping Courtland wouldn’t be “like everybody else”?
  34. At one point, Lily says that “all the gentleness and kindness in [her] has been killed” (1:09:54).  Is she implying that these qualities were killed in her by hard circumstances, by herself, or by some combination of the two?
  35. What function does Green’s use of repeated superimposition serve as Lily stares at the phonograph (record player)?


Zora Neale Hurston's "Muttsy" (1926), Dover 99-112

  1. what type of establishment does Ma Turner run? Why might Hurston not detail the kinds of "intense lives" (100) lived by Ma Turner's patrons?
  2. does Pinkie Jones work hard to be beautiful?
  3. what does Pinkie appear to want from New York, and why did she leave home?
  4. why does Bluefront feel free to call Pinkie by such a demeaning nickname (104)?
  5. what does Pinkie want in a man?
  6. does Pinkie share her peers' preoccupation with romance?
  7. what about Pinkie appears to kill Muttsy's moratorium on marriage?
  8. are we to assume that Muttsy's talk of owning Pinkie (109) and making her love him (111) represents the language and approach of other men in this neighborhood, or is Muttsy unique in his particular brand of sexism?
  9. is this tale a tragedy?
  10. does Hurston appear fascinated by the world she describes in this story, disgusted, or apathetic?


One poster of film Baby Face, with title character blonde and rosy cheeked, wearing furs, predominating over small image of brown-haired man with tie
Baby Face (1933)
one sheet

 



Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu