To celebrate the unstoppable vitality of the feminine spirit, TCM presents a collection of films that focus on dynamic women and the irrepressible actresses who play them.

Barbara Stanwyck gives us one of the most liberated and notorious heroines of the pre-Code era in Baby Face (1933), in which she plays Lily Powers, an ambitious young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who sleeps her way to the top. Stanwyck gives a memorable and spirited performance, and the film itself was so frank in its treatment of sexuality that it helped usher in the movies' Production Code.

Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933) was another Depression-era heroine who shocked audiences of the day with her "amoral" behavior. Kay Francis stars as Dr. Stevens, a young pediatrician who decides to have a baby out of wedlock. She takes a cavalier attitude and remarks to a friend that "I didn't invent the idea. Women have been having babies for a long while!"

Jezebel (1938), the character that brought Bette Davis her second Best Actress win, is a sister-under-the-skin to another scheming daughter of the Old South, Scarlett O'Hara of Gone With the Wind fame. As Jezebel, Davis gets to run the gamut from willful Southern belle to self-sacrificing heroine willing to face an outbreak of yellow fever to save the life of the man she loves but cannot have. And, of course, she does it with the inimitable Davis energy and style.

The Women (1939), a film version of the Clare Booth Luce stage comedy about the relationships among Manhattan socialites of the 1930s, has a whole passel of feisty females - and a load of effervescent performances. Norma Shearer stars as a virtuous wife trying to keep shameless hussy Joan Crawford from stealing her husband. Taking sides in the struggle are vivacious associates played by Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine.

Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939) casts Priscilla Lane as a free-spirited young woman who shocks family and friends with her determination to spend a weekend with her lover before he heads off to work in Europe for two years. Fay Bainter costars as Lane's mother, a liberal pioneer for women's freedom who finds her feminist principles challenged by her daughter's actions.

In the screen version of the hit Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), Debbie Reynolds got her best chance to kick up her heels in a rambunctious star turn. Reynolds received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her free-wheeling interpretation of Brown, the Titanic survivor and Colorado social climber. A Variety critic praised Reynolds for the "enormous amount of verve and vigor" she packed into her performance.

by Roger Fristoe