Ball of Fire (1941)
Barbara Stanwyck: Sugarpuss O'Shea
Photos
Quotes
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[Professor Magenbrush says Sugarpuss has a slight rosiness at the back of her throat]
Sugarpuss O'Shea : SLIGHT rosiness? It's as red as The Daily Worker and just as sore!
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [needing help with a stubborn zipper] You know, I had this happen one night in the middle of my act. I couldn't get a thing off. Was I embarrassed!
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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]
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [about Potts] Yes, I love him. I love those hick shirts he wears with the boiled cuffs and the way he always has his vest buttoned wrong. Looks like a giraffe, and I love him. I love him because he's the kind of a guy that gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk, and I love the way he blushes right up over his ears. Love him because he doesn't know how to kiss, the jerk!
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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.
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, I see what you mean. Very interesting. Make no mistake, I shall regret the absence of your keen mind; unfortunately, it is inseparable from an extremely disturbing body.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Hey, who decorated this place, the mug who shot Lincoln?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [mistaking Bertram for a police dick come to take her downtown] 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.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Asleep?
Professor Bertram Potts : Yes, they go to bed at nine every night.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : You mean to tell me with crime what it is in New Yor... Say, are you a bull or aren't you?
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, if "bull" is a slang word for professor, then I'm a bull.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : A professor?
Professor Bertram Potts : Of English.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [jibing Betram for nervousness over his loosened tie] Oh, you know, one time I watched my big brother shave.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [examining the professors' books] Oh, "Greek philosophy!" I got a set like this with a radio inside.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : You, uh, you don't think we could sort of begin the beguine right now?
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, it's, uh, nearly one o'clock, Miss O'Shea.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Oh, foo, professor. And let's get ourselves a couple drinks, light the fire maybe, and you can start working on me right away.
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, I wouldn't think of imposing on you at this hour.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Listen, I figured on working all night.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Richard ill. Who's Richard ill?
Professor Bertram Potts : Richard the Third.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : What's buzzin', cousin?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Huh! A little sun on my hair and you had to water your neck.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : [Upon arriving late to Professor Potts's round-table discussion on slang, already in progress] Don't tell me the jive session has beat off without baby!
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Third Avenue girl in the major league at last. Wait till they find out, those other dolls in the show.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Okay, what do you want, hep cats?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Come on, Krup, knock yourself out!
[singing]
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Boogie!
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Lah-dah-dee-lah-dah-lah-dah
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Boogie!
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Lah-dah-dee-lah-dah-lah-dah
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Now, mister, can't keep on a-drivin', Just gently jam the jivin', Drumboogie, the cat is rockin' with a solid eight, I tell you it's more to gait, The joint is jumpin'...
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Gene Krupa Orchestra : [singing] Boogie!
Sugarpuss O'Shea : You hear the rhythm rompin'
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Boogie!
Sugarpuss O'Shea : You see the drummer stompin', Drumboogie, drumboogie
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Boogie!
Sugarpuss O'Shea : It really is a killer, Drumboogie, drumboogie, The drum boogie-woogie
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Boogie!
Sugarpuss O'Shea : The rhythm won't offend you
Gene Krupa Orchestra : Boogie!
Sugarpuss O'Shea : It's really gonna send you...
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Asthma Anderson : Benny the Creep had an accident.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : I never heard of Benny the Creep. Who's he?
Asthma Anderson : One of the boys.
Duke Pastrami : He was on kind of an errand when he grazed into a police car, that dope.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : And for that I've got to hide out? That don't make sense, Pastrami.
Duke Pastrami : No, you see, when the bulls gave Benny a ticket, they saw Kinnick in the back of the car.
Asthma Anderson : Dead.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : In the accident?
Duke Pastrami : That's what Benny was trying to tell them. Only they saw Kinnick's feet.
Asthma Anderson : They was in a cake of cement.
Duke Pastrami : Benny was gonna dump him in the East River.
Asthma Anderson : That was the errand.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Suppose you tell the DA to take a nice running jump for himself?
Professor Bertram Potts : Bewildering.
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Professor Bertram Potts : I hate to intrude like this, but mine is a very...
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Cut the corners. What is it?
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, this inquiry is one of considerable importance.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Stop beating up with the gums.
Professor Bertram Potts : What was that?
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Get this. I don't know from nothing.
Professor Bertram Potts : Oh, but you do. Every word you say proves as much.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : What is all this subpeni business?
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Professor Bertram Potts : You see, I'm conducting an investigation on current slang. Would you object if I used you for observation and study?
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Yeah, I would.
Professor Bertram Potts : If I could have your assistance for just a few days it would be...
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Out, out, Professor.
Professor Bertram Potts : Then you won't help me?
Sugarpuss O'Shea : No. Out. Shove in your clutch.
Professor Bertram Potts : "Shove in your clutch." Exactly the kind of thing I want.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Scrow. Scram. Scraw.
Professor Bertram Potts : The complete conjugation. All right, I'll scraw.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : I think you're a pair of cracked dice.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : If you want me tomorrow morning at 9:30, you...
Professor Bertram Potts : Oh, I do, Miss O'Shea. But, even the most free-thinking people must respect the...
Sugarpuss O'Shea : All right, feel that.
[sticks her bare leg up]
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Go on, feel that foot.
[Potts feels the foot]
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Okay, tootsie bell, what do you say?
Professor Bertram Potts : It's cold.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : It's cold and it's wet. Now, come here. Come here. Closer. Closer. Come on, give!
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : I'm fine. Except I've got a run in this stocking. Well, how do we start, Professor? You see, this is the first time anybody moved in on my brain. Have you got some kind of a machine, an X-ray or a vacuum cleaner maybe that sorts out the words you want? What's your method, Professor?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Any message?
Prof. Peagram : Well, they spoke very picturesquely.
Prof. Robinson : Yeah, very.
Prof. Oddly : Yes, they said it's getting hot and hotter and to stay in the icebox like a good little salad.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Who was that guy learned so much from watching an apple drop?
Prof. Gurkakoff : Isaac Newton, 1642 to 1727. The law of gravity.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Yeah, that's him. And I want you to look at me as another apple, Professor Potts. Just another apple.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Hi-de-ho, fellas.
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Professor Bertram Potts : There's another word I'd like to take up now. It's recurred several times in our discussions and its meaning still eludes me. I think it was Miss O'Shea who used it yesterday in reference to the cuffs that I wear. The word is "corny."
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Yeah, wouldn't you say they were corny?
Professor Bertram Potts : Because of the cornstarch in them?
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Because it's 1941.
Professor Bertram Potts : Then corny means old fashioned.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Kind of hick, loose-tooth.
Garbage Man : Mortimer Snerd. Oh, geez.
College Boy : There's other kinds of corn, too. When you give your girl your fraternity pin, well, if she says, "I'll keep it forever," - that's corny too.
Newsboy : Yeah or take a joke. "That's no lady, that's my wife."
Garbage Man : Making your baby's shoes into ashtrays. That's corn.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Right off the cob.
Professor Bertram Potts : Well, let's stick with corn. Is it synonymous with baloney?
Newsboy : No, it's anything that gets them in the sticks.
Garbage Man : "Long time, no see, " that's Indian corn.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Yeah, when a guy comes to see a girl and says, "Let's turn off the lights, it hurts my eyes." Brother, that's corn.
Professor Bertram Potts : The implication is he's trying to pull some hoytoytoy?
Sugarpuss O'Shea : You're catching on, Professor.
Professor Bertram Potts : Countrified, old-fashioned, sentimental.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Oh, swell. Now where is this little clambake of Professor Potts'?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Say, kids, I'm stuck. Any of you can jerk a zipper?
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Prof. Magenbruch : Did you get the records?
Prof. Robinson : Well, they were all out of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar".
Prof. Oddly : Oh, dear, oh, dear.
Prof. Robinson : But I got "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "Shoot the Sherbet to Me Herbert".
Sugarpuss O'Shea : Oh, now watch us go!
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : I'm supposed to stay in this old mans' home till the moths eat holes in me?
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Prof. Gurkakoff : I can't find the common denominator between the steps and the music.
Sugarpuss O'Shea : You bet you can't, you're playing a polka, and I taught you a conga.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : I don't give a whoop whether the others went for me. You're the one I'm wacky about, just plain wacky.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : One of the professors got off the beam a little. Yeah, a slight case of Andy Hardy.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : Maybe I'm just crazy, but to me, you're a regular yum-yum type.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : A man is a goof to marry any woman.
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : What is this? Putting the screws on me?
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Sugarpuss O'Shea : I'm mink coat. I'm no bungalow apron. That's the guy I'm getting. Pretty good getting for a gal that came up the hard way.