In Ball of Fire (1941), Barbara Stanwyck played Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer who hides out with a group of absent-minded professors writing an encyclopedia. Directed by Howard Hawks, the comedy pairs Stanwyck with Gary Cooper as the shy professor Bertram Potts.
Sugarpuss is brassy, funny and full of slang, and Stanwyck played her with a comic energy that made the contrast with the professors hilarious. She also showed a softer side as Sugarpuss falls for Potts, and the film earned Stanwyck an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Ball of Fire is a classic screwball comedy, and Stanwyck’s Sugarpuss is one of its great creations — a character who could talk her way into, and out of, almost anything.