Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (also known as The Professor and the Burlesque Queen) is a 1941 comedy film directed by Howard Hawks about a group of professors laboring for years to write an encyclopedia and their encounter with a nightclub performer who provides her own unique knowledge. The film stars Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, with a supporting cast that includes Oskar Homolka, S.Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea and Elisha Cook, Jr.

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Plot: A group of professors have lived together, isolated for years in an urban residence, compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. The youngest, Professor Bertram Potts (Cooper), is a scholar of philology who is researching modern American slang. They are accustomed to working in relative seclusion at a leisurely pace with a prim housekeeper named Miss Bragg keeping tabs on them, but their impatient financial backer suddenly demands that they finish their work soon. Venturing out to do some independent research, Bertram becomes interested in the slang vocabulary of saucy [nightclub] performer "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Stanwyck). She is reluctant to assist him in his research until she needs a place to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend, mob boss Joe Lilac (Andrews). Sugarpuss takes refuge in the house where the professors live and work, despite Bertram's objections.
The professors soon become enamored of her insouciance, and she unexpectedly begins to become quite fond of them. She teaches them to conga and demonstrates to Bertram the meaning of the phrase "yum yum" (kisses). She becomes attracted to Bertram, who reciprocates with a vengeance by proposing marriage to her. She accepts, but before they can do anything, she is taken away by Lilac's henchmen. Lilac also wants to marry her, but only so she cannot testify against him. The professors eventually outwit Lilac and his henchmen and rescue Sugarpuss. She decides she is not good enough for Bertram, but his forceful application of "yum yum" convinces her to change her mind.

–from wikipedia

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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Ball of Fire (1941)

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