Country: USA
Year: 1933
Duration: 76\'


Lily Powers, a young woman from a small town in Pennsylvania, wants more out of life than just waitressing in the speakeasy owned by her father, a man who is constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. When her father dies she finally has her chance to go to New York in search of fortune. Accustomed to using her beauty and charm to get whatever she wants, Lily exploits men with calculated cynicism, seducing and then abandoning them after they have fulfilled their purpose. In this way the girl rapidly climbs the ladder to success. Green hides behind no false modesty as he puts onscreen the wiles and charms of a woman who is willing to sell herself to achieve her goals. Splendidly portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck, Lily Powers became the prototype of an uninhibited and bewitching female role model which was widely copied in later Hollywood productions. The film is projected in the version that had been submitted to the censoring committee of the State of New York, and quickly rejected by it.

Biography

film director

Alfred E. Green

(Perris, 1889 - Hollywood, 1960), one of America's most prolific directors, entered the world of cinema in 1912 as an actor for Selig Polyscope Co. He later became assistant director for Colin Campbell and began making short, two-reel movies before making his first full-length film in 1917. During the golden age of silent films Green became one of the favorite directors of stars like Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Colleen Moore, and once talkies became popular he directed Bette Davis in her Oscar-winning role in Dangerous(1935) and also won critical and box office success with Al Jolson (1946). Over the course of his long career, which continued until the mid-1950s, above all in B-movies, Alfred E. Green made a name for himself as a craftsman of the cinematographic industry, passing unscathed from silent films to talkies and making movies which, like the famous film Baby Face(1933), have been rediscovered over time and are now considered some of the most audacious examples of Hollywood daring before the introduction of the self-censoring Code. After retiring from cinema in 1954 Green spent the last years of his life directing episodes of television series.

FILMOGRAFIA

The Green Goddes(La dea verde, 1930), Smart Money (1931), The Dark Horse (1932), Union Depot (Il vagabondo e la ballerina, 1932), It's Tough to Be Famous (I guai della celebrità, 1932), Baby Face (1933), Parachute Jumper (Uomini nello spazio, 1933), Central Airport (Ala errante, 1933), I Loved a Woman (Amai una donna, 1933), Here's to Romance (Canto d'amore, 1935), The Goose and the Gander (Mariti in pericolo, 1935), Dangerous (Paura d'amare, 1935), The Golden Arrow (Mogli di lusso, 1936), Two in crowd (Due nella folla, 1936), More than a Secretary (Cercasi segretaria, 1936), The Duke of West Point (I tre cadetti, 1938), King of the Turf (La grande corsa, 1939), South of Pago Pago (A sud di Pago Pago, 1940), East of River (Non mi ucciderete, 1940), Adventure in Washington (Avventura a Washington, 1941), Badlands of Dakota (Odio di sangue, 1941), Mr. Winkle Goes to War (Mister Winkle va alla guerra, 1944), A Thousand and One Nights (Notti d'Oriente, 1945), The Jolson Story (Al Jolson, 1946), The Fabulous Dorsey (L'America dei Dorsey, 1947), Copacabana (id., 1947), Four Faces West (Le quattro facce del West, 1948), Invasion USA (Invasione Usa, 1952).

Menu