Baby Face (1933)

Barbara Stanwyck: Lily Powers

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Nick Powers : You little tramp, you!

  Lily Powers : Yeah, I'm a tramp, and who's to blame? My Father. A swell start you gave me. Ever since I was fourteen, what's it been? Nothing but men! Dirty rotten men! And you're lower than any of them. I'll hate you as long as I live!

• Nick Powers : [Chico accidently drops some glasses on the floor]  Now, look what you went and done. You're fired! You lazy, thievin', little son-of-a...

  Lily Powers : Hey! Easy with the whip.

  Nick Powers : You keep outta this!

  [to Chico] 

  Nick Powers : Go on, get outta my house!

  Lily Powers : If Chico goes, I go.

  Nick Powers : What?

  Lily Powers : You heard me.

  Nick Powers : Don't you talk to me that way. I'm your father!

  Lily Powers : That's my tough luck.

• Chico : He's a big politician, ain't he?

  Lily Powers : He's a big sumpthin'... and it ain't a politician!

  Chico : Ha-ha-ha! Honey, you makes me tickle.

• Cragg : You're a coward. I mean it! You let life defeat you. You don't fight back.

  Lily Powers : What chance has a woman got?

  Cragg : More chance than man. A woman, young, beautiful, like you, can get anything she wants in the world. Because you have Power over men! But you must use men! Not let them use you. You must be a master! Not a slave. Look, here, Nietzsche says, "All life, no matter how we idealize it, is nothing more nor less than exploitation." That's what I'm telling you! Exploit yourself! Go to some big city where you will find opportunities. Use men! Be strong! Defiant! Use men! To get the t'ings you want.

  Lily Powers : [contemplative pause]  Yeah.

  [puffs a cigarette] 

• Lily Powers : Oh, not here. Somebody might...

• Cragg : Did you read dat book I gave you?

  Lily Powers : Oh, I tried to, but I didn't understand it very good.

  Cragg : It's by Nietzsche! The greatest philosopher of all time!

  Lily Powers : Well, I never did get much good out of books.

  Cragg : You are a fool. You could learn a lot from dat book. But, if you are content to stay here like a dumb animal, in this miserable life, then I wash my hands from you.

• Lily Powers : Say, I like it here. How 'bout a job? Oh, now don't tell me in this great, big building there ain't some place for me?

  Pratt - Personnel Office : Have you had any experience?

  Lily Powers : Plenty.

  [Rolls eyes] 

  Lily Powers : I'd rather wait in there. I hate crowds. Don't you?

  Pratt - Personnel Office : The boss won't be back for an hour.

  Lily Powers : Well then why don't we go in and talk this over?

• Stevens : Have a drink?

  Lily Powers : No thanks. I never touch it.

  Stevens : Oh, you don't want me to drink alone?

  Lily Powers : Well, maybe just a sip.

  [Pours herself a slug of whiskey and downs it in one gulp] 

• Lily Powers : [Ed walks into Lily's bedroom]  You haul your freight outta here.

  Ed Sipple : What's a matter? You gettin' particular?

  Lily Powers : Maybe I am. Did you ever take a good look at yourself?

  Ed Sipple : Yeah, you're exclusive, *you* are! The sweetheart of the night shift. Come on, you're wastin' my time. Everybody knows about you.

  Lily Powers : Yeah, well you ain't going to!

• Courtland Trenholm : Miss Powers, no one could help but be moved by your story. It's obvious, as you say, that you were a victim of circumstance. You have our sympathy. Of course, any talk of money must be very distressing to a sensitive person. You've told us how distasteful it would be for you to accept money from a paper. I'm afraid it would be equally distasteful to accept money from the bank. Perhaps we've been somewhat crude in our suggestion. You also told us how hard you had to work. When this thing happened, were you - working very hard?

  Lily Powers : Yeah, but not at the bank.

• Courtland Trenholm : You're hard to please.

  Lily Powers : No, I'm not really. Just a little disappointed.

  Courtland Trenholm : Disappointed? In what?

  Lily Powers : You.

  Courtland Trenholm : Why?

  Lily Powers : Oh, I don't know. I was hoping you wouldn't be like everybody else. Silly of me, wasn't it?

  Courtland Trenholm : Well, I'm disappointed in myself. Because you're beginning to upset me.

• Courtland Trenholm : Don't you realize I'm in love with you?

  Lily Powers : No you're not.

  Courtland Trenholm : Yes, I am! I can't wait to get back to Paris to buy all the jewels and Cartiers. To take you to the motor salons - where you can pick out any car that you like. I want to give you a house in Paris and another in New York. There isn't anything in the world I wouldn't give you.

  Lily Powers : That isn't love.

• Lily Powers : Of course, if Fuzzy Wuzzy really wants to give me something, he could put a few more pennies in my bank account.

  J.P. Carter : My Dear, ask me something difficult.

• Stevens : [Lily seen putting on lipstick after her boss is reprimanded and fired for having followed her into the Ladies Rest Room]  Young woman! We have no place here for a girl of your sort. You're through, tonight.

  Lily Powers : Why, Mr. Stevens, it wasn't my fault. He followed me in there. What could I do? He's my boss and I have to earn my living. Oh, I'm so ashamed. It's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me.

  [Starts to cry] 

  Stevens : Well, I'll think it over. Report tomorrow as usual.

• Lily Powers : There's only one thing I want.

  Courtland Trenholm : Name it, and it's yours.

  Lily Powers : I'd like to have a "Mrs." on my tombstone.

• J.P. Carter : I wish you'd get rid of that fantastic colored girl.

  Lily Powers : [Sternly]  No. Chico stays.

  J.P. Carter : Alight. Alright. Alright.

• Courtland Trenholm : Are you really thinking? Or, just pretending to?

  Lily Powers : That's the nice part of being with a mastermind. You do the thinking for both of us.

• Lily Powers : Bring me that pigskin case on the bed. You know what's in this bag?

  Chico : No.

  Lily Powers : Half a million dollars. Someday I'll have the other half that goes with it.

  Chico : You sure will! You can get anything you put your mind on.

• Lily Powers : I can't do it. I have to think of myself. I've gone through a lot to get those things. My life has been bitter and hard. I'm not like other women. All the gentleness and kindness in me has been killed. All I've got are those things. Without them, I'd be nothing.

• J.P. Carter : Did somebody in your home play the piano?

  J.P. Carter , Lily Powers : Anybody that had a nickel.

• Lily Powers : Isn't this cozy. You know, sometimes your little girl gets awful lonesome here, all by herself.

• Stevens : Lily, don't do this to me. I can't stand it. Its been brutal not seeing you.

  Lily Powers : Yeah? Well, you better get used to it. Listen, I don't owe you a thing. Whatever I do is my own business. You never had but one idea about me. That's all I ever meant to you.

  Stevens : Oh, but, Lily...

  Lily Powers : You made your choice. Now, what do you want?

  Stevens : You mean - I can't - see you anymore?

  Lily Powers : [Sarcastically]  How did you guess it?

• Courtland Trenholm : Frankly, I am surprised.

  Lily Powers : Why?

  Courtland Trenholm : I didn't expect you to stick to the job.

  Lily Powers : That's why I stuck.

• Speakeasy Drunk : Come here, sweetheart.

  Lily Powers : Oh, lay off, you big ape!

• Cragg : How long are you going to stand it? Why don't you get out, before its too late?

  Lily Powers : Where would I go?

  Cragg : Out into the world. You could make something of yourself. You have Power!

  Lily Powers : [Disbelievingly]  Yeah, I'm a ball of fire, I am.

  Cragg : You don't realize your potentialities.

  Lily Powers : Come again?

• Nick Powers : Say, what do you think we're running here?

  Lily Powers : It looks to me like a zoo!

• Cragg : So, now what?

  Lily Powers : [Sarcastically]  Well, the future looks very bright. Just as I was leaving the cemetery, Ed Sipple made me a proposition. And last night the manager at the... burlesque house offered me a job in the chorus to do a strip act.

  Cragg : A strip act?

  Lily Powers : Yeah, show my shape.

  Cragg : Well, that's a business in its self.

  Lily Powers : Oh, I guess I ain't much of a business woman.

• Lily Powers : Is that a permanent?

  Office Worker : Yeah. They do it for 3.35 at Bourne's Beauty Shop.

  Lily Powers : Where's that at?

  Office Worker : 81st and Broadway.

• Lily Powers : [Answers phone]  Mr. Stevens office. No, he ain't, I mean isn't.

• Stevens : [Lily sashays into Mr. Stevens' office]  Haven't I told you never to come beyond the front of this desk.

  Lily Powers : Oh, but I get so lonesome out there all by myself.

  [Runs her hands through Mr. Stevens' hair] 

  Stevens : Don't do that! How do you expect me to get any work done.

  Lily Powers : Hold me close.

  [They embrace as Mr. Stevens' fiancée walks in. Mr. Stevens chases after her. Lily lights up a cigarette] 

• Chico : Ohhhhh! Is these the new furs, honey?

  Lily Powers : Not so much honey.

  Chico : Yes, ma'am.

• Lily Powers : Does my baby want brandy?

  J.P. Carter : Anything you say.

  [Lily pours some into a snifter and hands it to Mr. Carter] 

  J.P. Carter : Won't you have some?

  Lily Powers : Oh, no! I never drink.

• Lily Powers : What's this?

  Chico : Oh, that? It come while you was out. Its some books from old Mr. Cragg, back in Erie.

  Lily Powers : You run along and have a good time.

  Chico : I sliced some turkey for you. Its in the ice box.

• Lily Powers : I'm desperate. I know what the world thinks. Everyone blames me! No one knows the truth. I was all alone here, no family, no friends. I was working hard, earning my own living. And, then - and then Baby came.

  Bank Director : Baby?

  Lily Powers : That's what I always called Mr. Carter. I was a victim of circumstance.

• Lily Powers : All I want is a chance to earn an honest living.

• Courtland Trenholm : Thank you, Miss Powers. You'll like Paris. It's delightful in the Springtime.

  Lily Powers : Yeah, you think of everything, don't ya?

• Mrs. Hemingway : Of course, if I go to Berlin, the food there is very fattening.

  Lily Powers : Well, you could go to Karlsbad afterward and reduce?

  Mrs. Hemingway : The very thing! Could you arrange it for me?

• Courtland Trenholm : It would have been easy for you, to come here to Paris and have a somewhat - gayer time.

  Lily Powers : It would have been too easy.

• Lily Powers : This is as far as I go.

  Courtland Trenholm : Oh, so this is where you live.

  Lily Powers : All the charm of the old world and the old world plumbing.

• Courtland Trenholm : Then you're coming to Deauville?

  Lily Powers : Deauville's too crowded.

  Lily Powers : How about Biarritz?

  Lily Powers : Not crowded enough.

  Courtland Trenholm : I'll tell you what, would you like to motor through the chateau country?

  Lily Powers : And see all those lovely fourteenth century ceilings?

  [Shakes her head no] 

• Courtland Trenholm : Darling, how long is this going on?

  Lily Powers : Aren't you happy?

  Courtland Trenholm : These have been the three happiest days of my life. But...

  Lily Powers : But, what?

  Courtland Trenholm : Well, I don't enjoy saying good night to you, every night, outside the door of your stateroom.

• Stolvich - Laborer : [Seeing Lily waiting for a ride after work]  Going my way?

  Lily Powers : No, thanks.

  Stolvich - Laborer : Well, you don't know which is my way!

  Lily Powers : Anyhow, I'm not going your way.

  Stolvich - Laborer : [Disappointed]  Well. Good night.

  [Leaves] 

• Lily Powers : That's all there is to it. If you fire me, we're through. It isn't the job, I don't mind that. But, it just goes to show me how much you care.

  Stevens : Well, you know how much I...

  Lily Powers : How much you what?

  [Moves in close] 

  Lily Powers : Are you letting me go?

  [Kiss] 

• Cragg : What's going to become of you? Its up to you to decide. If you stay in this town, you are lost.

  Lily Powers : Where would I go? Paris? I got four bucks.

• Lily Powers : Oh, hello Jimmy.

  Jimmy McCoy Jr. : Listen, Baby face, how 'bout havin' dinner tonight? I've got two tickets for Vanities.

• J.P. Carter : Will you tell me where you live?

  Lily Powers : My telephone number is Skylight 3-3215.

• Lily Powers : Wait a minute, you're kinda mixed up, aren't you? I thought you left town?

  Stevens : Well, what else could I do? I was in a...

  Lily Powers : Jam? Well, I won't let you get in another. See what I mean?

• Lily Powers : Its the sweetest New Year's present I ever got.

  J.P. Carter : Sit down. I like to look at you.

• Lily Powers : [Sarcastically]  So, you want to marry me, huh? Isn't that beautiful. Get outta here, or I'll...