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The year 1941 should have held very fond memories for both Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Each had three good to excellent films open that year that showed off their acting skills both comic and dramatic to maximum advantage. Stanwyck shone in Preston Sturges' scintillating "The Lady Eve"(excellent), Gary Cooper starred in "Sergeant York" for which he won his first Best Actor Oscar. Then there were the two films in which they both co-starred: Frank Capra's social drama "Meet John Doe"(good) and finally this one, the romantic comedy "Ball of Fire"(near excellent).
One of the best screenwriting teams in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Charles Brackett and Bill Wilder penned the original screenplay, a very savvy 20th century update of the classic fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Stanwyck's Snow White is called Sugarpuss O'Shea, her Prince Charming, gangling Professor Bertram Potts, Cooper of course, and the Seven Dwarfs are seven elderly professors of slight stature. The eight professors, all bachelors, live together in Manhattan in a house owned by the Daniel S. Totten Foundation for which they are working on compiling an encyclopedia. They are totally immersed in their work, and as such lead very sheltered, insular lives sternly kept in line by their tyrant of a housekeeper Miss Bragg (Kathleen Howard). When Potts discovers his current topic, American slang woefully outdated he ventures out into the city to do research. At day's end he finds himself at a nightclub where the star attraction is a sizzling singer called Sugarpuss O'Shea. Intrigued by her snappy line of patter, Potts goes backstage to try to enlist her participation in a slang workshop. She turns him down flat, but he leaves her his card in case she changes her mind. Sugarpuss shortly does, when she finds out the police are after her as a material witness against her gangster boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). She needs a hideout, finds Potts card, and next thing you know she's moved in pretending she's enthusiastic in helping him learn the latest slang. Just as Snow White's living with the Seven Dwarfs changes their lives for the better, so does Sugarpuss' influence bring the eight professors back into the vital real world. However Sugarpuss' character also changes positively, she becomes less hard-boiled, her finer side begins to emerge as she begins to be fond of them all. Bertram's long dormant hormones awake with a vengeance; despite herself Sugarpuss is touched by his gentle naïveté and starts to be attracted to him. Except, what of Joe Lilac who wants to marry her so as his wife she can't testify against him, and his two goons that are keeping tabs on her?
Some previous reviews have called the film dated because of the outmoded slang. I disagree, it's a snapshot of it's time, the USA in the early 1940's, and the initial motivation of the plot is that Professor Potts finds out how quickly the slang can become outdated. Also with texting and all the acronyms such as "OMG" and "LOL" going on these days, it's very pertinent. Quite fun to listen to American slang circa 1941, several of the terms are very quaint and picturesque such as: "smackeroo", "clip the mooch", "shove in your clutch", and my personal favorite "bop the apple" (hit the baseball). And, calling the feet "dogs" then is no more ludicrous than the current slang term "junk" used to label a guy's genitals!
Barbara Stanwyck has been grouped as one of the three "strong woman" actresses in films of the 1930's and 1940's, along with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and both have unjustly overshadowed her. She's an infinitely better actress than Crawford, and never chews the scenery as much as Davis can at her worst. Sugarpuss O'Shea the slick, hard as nails singer who winds up redeemed by love, is one of her most vibrant, delightful portrayals. The shift in her character is beautifully subtle, very delicately handled by Stanwyck, and always believable, with the additional bonus of her being provocatively alluring as well! This role landed her a second Best Actress nomination, probably in addition to her gorgeous dual performance in "The Lady Eve" that same year, but in yet another Oscar injustice she lost the prize!
This is one of Gary Cooper's funnier characterizations, he's quite inspired as the reserved, self contained Professor Bertram Potts, whose exposure to the "ball of fire" known as "Sugarpuss" results in his own dimly lit pilot light to start burning brightly. His frenzied bolting up the stairs after Sugarpuss has given him his first yum-yum, to dash cold water on his neck is a great piece of physical comedy, as is his spastic loose limbed fight with Joe Lilac near the end of the film. He masters a marvelous double take when Sugarpuss removes her fur coat the night she arrives at the foundation to reveal her scanty costume showcasing her fabulous legs. Also his goofily dreamy expression tinged with lust after Sugarpuss and he have had a little yum- yum is priceless. Yet he doesn't make the professor a buffoon and gives him a simple dignity that is very appealing, and makes it apparent why he is able to melt Sugarpuss' heart.
All of the seven professors give marvelous supporting performances, especially the superb character actors Henry Travers, S.Z Sakall, Oscar Homolka and Richard Haydn. In an early role, future star Dana Andrews is both smirking and menacing as Joe Lilac and Dan Duryea and Ralph Peters as his two thugs make perfect oafs, smug and stupid at the same time. A special nod of appreciation to Gene Krupa and his orchestra who perform the catchy "Drum Boogie" with Stanwyck. And last but no means least, director Howard Hawks, who developed the "Hawks woman" in film, the bright, attractive, self assured woman who was man's equal and insisted on it, such as Katharine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby", Jean Arthur in "Only Angels Have Wings", Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday" and Lauren Bacall in "To Have and Have Not". This was a trailblazing new woman in film, and Sugarpuss is one of the best examples.
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