Baby Face

I really enjoyed watching the film Baby Face for several reasons. I liked the idea of a woman being able to gain her way into high places, though I don't necessarily agree to the means by which Lily, the main character, achieved her success. Lily's strong-willed personality I found to be appealing and admirable, she wasn't like the sterotypical woman of that time period, and she didn't let men take advantage of her. In the beginning of the film when the politician is grabbing her and trying to kiss her, she shoves him off and breaks a bottle over his head proving that she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

I saw a major irony within the film. From the beginning of the story, it is established that Lily does not want to let a man have power over her, and that she plans on using her 'womanly powers' to, instead, control men. She definitely does so throughout the entire duration of the film, up until the ending. After sleeping her way up through the ranks of men, she finally reaches the 'peak' after marrying Trenholm. At first, she decides to keep her money when Trenholm asks for it as bail, but then realizes that she is in love with him when she gets on the train to leave him. She returns to him, and utters the last line of the film, "it doesn't matter now", referring to her half of a million dollars. After controlling and scheming men throughout the entire film, she eventually succumbs to the love that Trenholm has for her, and that she has now realized of him.