arrive by boxcar in new york city and the shrewd young woman with the baby face begin to methodically canoodle her way to the top floor of power in a great bank . barbara stanwyck be fascinate a the amoral heroine of this influential pre code drama . without a shred of decency or regret and she coolly manipulate the removal or destruction of the men unlucky enough to find themselves in her way . a wonderful actress and stanwyck have full opportunity here to display her ample talent . appear quite late in the story and george brent be a welcome addition a the one fellow possibly able to handle stanwyck while his sophisticated style of act make a nice counterpoint to her icy demeanor . douglas dumbrille and donald cook and henry kolker portray a succession of her unfortunate victim . john wayne appear for just a few scant second a an unsuccessful suitor for stanwyck affection . this would be the only time these two performer appear together on screen . movie maven should recognize nat pendleton a a speakeasy customer and and charles sellon and edward van sloan a bank executive all unbilled . the music heard on the soundtrack throughout the film and perfectly punctuate the plot and be baby face ( 1926 ) by benny davis and harry akst and st . louis blue ( 1914 ) by w. c. handy . baby face be a prime example of pre code naughtiness . in it frank and unapologetic dealing with sex and it be precisely the kind of film which the implementation of the production code in 1934 be mean to eliminate .