Did You Ever Just Want To Be Bad?

This afternoon TBG and I watched Barbara Stanwyck sleep her way to the top in Baby Face.  I've never wanted to be a brazen hussy more than I do right now.

She started out poor and abused, found a drunken mentor who encouraged her to broaden her horizons, and took off with her maid for the big city.  She flirts with a policeman, seduces an office boy, and as the camera shows us from the outside of the bank building, she works her way higher and higher.

Her clothes and jewelry get better and better.  Her apartments get bigger and bigger.  Her maid wears furs and is really more a companion than a servant.  She breaks hearts and lives and careers along the way, but none of it stays with her.  

It's the little things that make Ms Stanwyck and the movie so special.  How her hand lingers in his before she sweeps it away.  How she perches on his desk.  How she turns down fabulous offers with a smile and a smirk.  

Men become obsessed with her, can't live without her, wine and dine and dance with her, and she's above it all.  Her mentor sent her a Nietzsche quote reminding her to follow her own path without sentimentality, and she abandons the man who truly loves her to keep her jewels and bonds and cash.

She struggles while wearing ermine and diamonds and silks, drinking champagne and smoking French cigarettes.  She lounges on love seats with a sensuousness that is tangible all the way here on the couch.  Her hair is a marvel of mousse and curling irons.

The plot moves on to the obvious, pre-code redemption, but it's only marginally believable.  The greedy, selfish, social climbing, heartless girl shines through until the end.

Having spent 50 years happily married to one man, I had a great time spending 2 hours inhabiting the world of a wanton slut who did what she had to in order to find a better life.  And Better just kept getting Better.  I looked like a lot of fun, with very little emotional consequences.  

Every once in a while, I like to toy with the idea of talking a different path through life.  This afternoon, naughty looks very attractive.