Lilly aka Babyface

It clear from watching the film in class that Barbara Stanwyck's performance as the deadly seductive Lilly is certainly deserving of thorough analysis in order to highlight its grand importance in the history of cinema. One can argue however that perhaps we will never be able to fully understand Lilly as a character and the debate could be endless as to deciding upon her true personality.
Whilst of course it is clear to the audience what her motivations are for the way she behaves ie a lust for money and status, it can be debated as to what is indeed the real root cause behind her actions. The arguement can be made that she is so desperate to escape her old life of oppression under her father and being constantly "eyeballed" and propositioned by the drunken men in her father's seedy speakeasy that she is determined to be in a position of power and standing far removed from such circumstances. This would offer a slightly sympathetic view of the character of Lilly, however, another perspective could simply be her inherent lust for power and money. As instructed by the shoe maker, she will "use men" to get what she wants. From this perspective, Lilly can be seen to be almost pre-empting the femme fatale character, a staple of 40s-50s film noir. This is an easy comparisson to make as like many of the stereotypical femme fatales, Lilly uses her beauty to seduce men and make them seemingly forget their common sense and devote themselves entirely do her and once she is done with them and moved onto a man higher up in staus or wealthier, she completelty shuns them, and as shown in the film, this ultimately leads to their downfall.
Of course, despite her golddigging ways and cruel and cold attitude to men, it can be said that Lilly is a step forward fro the importance of women not only in cinema, but in real life. She is forceful and strong-willed, she deliberatley (albeit violently) turns down the advances of the politician in a perfect example of pre-code filming and also despite her sleazy way of getting to the top of the pile at work, she is actually shown to be working and therefore we cannot simply dismiss her character as simply just out for getting what she wants in the simplest way possible. She surprises both the audience and Trentholm towards the end of the film by actually holding down the job in Paris which again is a clear example of her breaking of the stereotypical golddigger or fallen woman image.
The key scene where the audience make up their mind about Lilly's character is to be found at the end of the film. After she has gotten off the cruise boat and envisioned the faces of all her previous lovers, she appears to decide that she actually is in love with Trentholm and is shown to actually care for him and no longer for his money. Throughout the film she only ever used her seductive smile or cold glare, but here at the end, she is visably distressed and upset over his attempted suicide. Because of this reaction, many people instantly change their opinion of Lilly and believe that her emotion she is displaying is genuine. The ending is of course quite against the grain of usual fallen women film in that she doesn't reach a tragic end, the alternative ending infact stated that she and Trentholm infact live "happily ever after" by getting by as normal members of society without excessive riches. The other way to view the final act is through a cynical lens, she openly stated that she was determined to get the other half of the million dollars that she was after from Trentholm and without the alternative ending tacked on, if one still lacks sympathy for Lilly (as I did) then we only have the parting shot of her "apparent" change of heart to go on. Who is to say that once Trentholm got better, or if at all, she wouldnt go back to her old ways seeking out rich men with power and wealth.
Ultimately it is down to the indivual viewer's perspective as to weither or not they feel symapthy or agravation towards Lilly at the end of the film. Any form of arguement would be deadlocked with no conclusion over the version that we saw in class, however, if we had seen the alternative ending when we hear about what happens to them later in life, then the assumption that she truely had repented from her ways woukld have been far clearer to understand and more of an audience-friendly ending which some who prefer the ambiguiety of our version's ending, would see as a traditional Hollywood cop-out.