Ball of Fire (1941): A Tramp Amongst Scholars

Samuel Goldwyn

Screwball Elements: 

• Marriage Plot: A girl is caught between two engagements. Which one will she marry?
• Class Conflict: A girl who performs at a nightclub suddenly finds herself living with eight distinguished professors.
• Battle of the Sexes: The worldly nightclub gal vs the inexperienced academic.
• Rapid-fire speeches full of the period’s slang.
• Mistaken identities, created by the heroine in order to deceive the other characters.

Favorite Lines:

Professor Bertram Potts: [to Sugarpuss O’Shea] I shall regret the absence of your keen mind. Unfortunately, it is inseparable from an extremely disturbing body.

Welcome to the World of Slang

Sugarpuss O’Shea: For instance, do you know what this means – “I’ll get you on the Ameche”?

Professor Bertram Potts: No.

Sugarpuss O’Shea: ‘Course you don’t. An Ameche is the telephone, on account of he invented it.

Professor Bertram Potts: Oh, no, he didn’t.

Sugarpuss O’Shea: Like, you know, in the movies.

It’s perfectly alright if O’Shea’s clarification still fails to elucidate you on the meaning of the word “ameche.” Don Ameche was an actor who portrayed the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). This gave rise to the nickname “ameche” to mean “telephone,” as O’Shea (Stanwyck) explains to Potts (Cooper), who is conducting a study on slang for his encyclopedia. (His obsession with grammar makes me think twice as I write this… am I splitting infinitives?) This is how the two of them meet, as Potts ventures out to a nightclub in order to listen in on people and pick up new vocabulary. Of course, the poor sod doesn’t know what hits him as the devious O’Shea takes advantage of the project to find refuge from the cops, who want her to testify against her boyfriend and mob boss, Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). At any rate, the study on slang is fascinating to behold as it explains words used more than 70 years ago. They are numerous and fun to learn; after all, we don’t have an amusing slang word for “phone,” do we? However worldly you might be like O’Shea, it’s very possible you will be completely clueless in understanding the colloquialism-laden speeches, putting you in the same position as Professor Bertram Potts, or “Potsy,” as affectionately called by Sugarpuss.

Meet the Professors

Sugarpuss O’Shea: Hey, how many of you are on this job?

Professor Bertram Potts: Uh, the entire project? Eight.

Sugarpuss O’Shea: Oh. The other seven waiting outside?

Professor Bertram Potts: Oh, no. They’re at home sound asleep, I imagine.

In a bizarre alternate version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (which inspired the movie), here we have Sugarpuss O’Shea and the Eight Professors. Each professor has his area of expertise, but none possesses what Sugarpuss has obtained from experience – knowledge of the real world. While she learns how to use proper grammar, they learn how to dance. Much of the comedy comes from this eccentric ensemble. My personal favorite is Magenbruch (the Hungarian actor S.Z. Sakall, who works with Stanwyck again in Christmas in Connecticut to hilarious effect), although Robinson, (Tully Marshall) whose best moment comes when he puts a finger in front of a gun in order to block it, is a delightfully close second. Of course, the leader of this innocent gang is Bertram Potts, the boy prodigy who graduated from Princeton at 13 and is abruptly swept away from his confirmed bachelorhood by the buoyant appearance of Sugarpuss.

What’s a Yum Yum?

Professor Bertram Potts: What’re you gonna do?

Sugarpuss O’Shea: I’m going to show you what yum-yum is. Here’s yum.

[kisses him]

Sugarpuss O’Shea: Here’s the other yum.

[kisses him again]

Sugarpuss O’Shea: And here’s yum-yum.

[gives a long kiss that knocks him backwards onto a chair]

I don’t know how many people really used ‘yum-yum’ to mean ‘kiss.’ But it works here. Sugarpuss is the one sweeping her man off his feet with her demonstration, but this being a screwball comedy, she ends up in her own trap by unwittingly falling for him. He’s certainly a breath of fresh air compared to the scoundrels she’s used to. But the best part of this whole ‘yum-yum’ process is that unlike most movies where the camera might adjust to reduce the height disparity between actors, Ball of Fire utilizes it to adorable effect. Petite Barbara Stanwyck was 5’5” according to her profile, while Gary Cooper was a towering 6’3”. So, in order to ‘yum’ Potts, Sugarpuss stacks three books and simply steps onto them. The outcome can be seen in the photo. Very cute, very ‘yum-yum.’

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Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper

#92 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs
Available on Amazon