The movie we’re looking for is maybe one of the raciest of the pre-Code movies made by a major studio, Warner Brothers in this case. The movie itself is something like an early version of Madame X’s Just That Type Of Girl song (or the song is a late sound version of the movie), i.e. a woman who’s a gold digger and doesn’t mind to use her female power to get what she wants.

Anyway, the one song heard throughout the flick is W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues, either as instrumental or sung by Chico, the female protagonist’s partner in crime, friend and maid played by an African-American actress.

But back to the main character Lily Powers, who has had a very troubled childhood, since she’s been sold by her father to any man who offered enough money or like the corrupt politician Ed Sipple protection (who calls her sweetheart of the night shift) for the father’s speak easy.

Or to say it with Lily’s words:

Yeah, I’m a tramp, and who’s to blame? My father. A swell start you gave me. Ever since I was 14, what’s it been? Nothing but men! Dirty, rotten men! And you’re lower than any of them! I’ll hate you as long as I live!

So Lily isn’t too unhappy when her father dies in an explosion of his bootleg still. And then there’s Adolf Cragg who tells Lily to exploit herself and cites Nietzsche:

A woman, young, beautiful like you can get anything she wants in the world because you have power over men. But you must use men, not let them use you. You must be a master, not a slave.
Look. Here. Nietzsche says:
“All life, no matter how we idealize it is nothing more, nor less, than exploitation.”
That’s what I’m telling you. Exploit yourself. Go to some big city where you will find opportunities.
Use men. Be strong! Defiant! Use men to get the things you want!

And that’s just what Lily does, she travels to New York with Chico, pays for the trip with her body by seducing a train inspector and when in New York she climbs the ladder of success - wrong by wrong. From the Filing Dept. to the Mortgage Dept. to the Accounting Dept. of the Gotham Trust Company until she finally gets to the head of the bank.

To cut a long story short Lily becomes the notorious bank tragedy woman, spends some time in Paris, France, and finally gets half a million dollars. And promises herself “Someday I’ll have the other half that goes with it.” Actually things end a little bit different than Lily planned it.

The movie we’re looking for has been re-discovered as an unedited negative in the Library of Congress a few years ago and finally the world was able to see a rather uncensored version that adds a different meaning to this film than the version eventually approved by the Hays office in 1933. William Hays considered the movie demoralizing. And I’m sure there aren’t many movies even today, in which a father pimps his daughter, in which politicians trade patronage for sex and in which working people cheat on their wives or use the workplace for sex.