MGM (1941) B&W, 111 Min's
Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper star in this hilarious romantic comedy as well as several of my favorite second/third fiddle actors. Including the angel from Its a Wonderful Life, the bar tenders from Casablanca, and more. It starts in an environment academia, Cooper and seven others are professors working to write a encyclopedia. When there garbage man comes in to ask them a question, they hear his language and slang and don't understand, the portion Cooper is working on is about speech and he sees how far behind the times he is. He decides to go out and try to find some modern examples, he digs up a newsboy, the garbage man, and a fighter, he goes to a nightclub to try and find another, while there he sees Sugarpuss O'Shea sing, he is quite taken with her rendition of Drum Boogie, and trys to convince her to participate, at first she is not interested. But once she learns she is being sought by the police, for information on her boyfriend,(Dana Andrews) she quickly reconsiders. All of the professors react comically when she shows up at the lodgings soon after Pro.Potts (Cooper) arrived. She soon has them acting like new men, they all dress and act alive and Potts is especially effected. When she has to stay for a couple of days till the heat is off, it really gets good.
Trivia:
Kathleen Howard was left with a fractured jaw when the punch that Barbara Stanwyck threw accidentally made contact. Stanwyck was reportedly mortified by the incident.
Is remade in 1948 starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, (and alot of others) and is a musical titled A Song Is Born.
Quotes:
Joe Lilac-Dana Andrews
Prof. Potts-Gary Cooper
Sugarpuss O;Shea- Barbara Stanwyck
Joe Lilac: [as the professors draw guns on Joe and his men] What is this?
Prof. Oddly: I believe... I think it is known as an "up-stick".
Prof. Potts: I've just finished my article on slang. Twenty-three pages compiled from a dozen reference books, eight hundred examples.
Prof. Robinson: Well?
Prof.Potts: Everything from the idiotic combination of "absotively" to the pajorative use of "zigzag." I traced the evolution of "hunky-dory," tracked down "skidoo" from "skedaddle." Eight-hundred examples and I may as well throw it in the wastebasket. Three weeks work...
Prof. Robinson: You're hysterical.
Prof. Potts: Outmoded... based on reference books twenty years old. Take "smooch," take "dish," take, uh...
Prof. Oddly: "Hoy toy toy?"
Prof. Potts: "Hoy toy toy." Not one of them included. That man talked a living language; I embalmed some dead phrases.
Sugarpuss O'Shea: [jibing Potts for nervousness over his loosened tie] Oh, you know, one time I watched my bid brother shave
Prof. Gurkakoff: [discovering Sugarpuss gave back the wrong ring] The subconscious never makes a mistake. She gave you the ring she didn't want - his ring - and she kept the one she wanted - yours.
Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper star in this hilarious romantic comedy as well as several of my favorite second/third fiddle actors. Including the angel from Its a Wonderful Life, the bar tenders from Casablanca, and more. It starts in an environment academia, Cooper and seven others are professors working to write a encyclopedia. When there garbage man comes in to ask them a question, they hear his language and slang and don't understand, the portion Cooper is working on is about speech and he sees how far behind the times he is. He decides to go out and try to find some modern examples, he digs up a newsboy, the garbage man, and a fighter, he goes to a nightclub to try and find another, while there he sees Sugarpuss O'Shea sing, he is quite taken with her rendition of Drum Boogie, and trys to convince her to participate, at first she is not interested. But once she learns she is being sought by the police, for information on her boyfriend,(Dana Andrews) she quickly reconsiders. All of the professors react comically when she shows up at the lodgings soon after Pro.Potts (Cooper) arrived. She soon has them acting like new men, they all dress and act alive and Potts is especially effected. When she has to stay for a couple of days till the heat is off, it really gets good.
Trivia:
Kathleen Howard was left with a fractured jaw when the punch that Barbara Stanwyck threw accidentally made contact. Stanwyck was reportedly mortified by the incident.
The roles of the seven professors (besides Gary Cooper) were inspired by Disney's Seven Dwarfs. There is even a photograph showing the actors sitting in front of a Disney poster, each one in front of his corresponding dwarf: S.Z. Sakall - Dopey; Leonid Kinskey - Sneezy; Richard Haydn - Bashful; Henry Travers - Sleepy; Aubrey Mather - Happy; Tully Marshall - Grumpy, and Oskar Homolka - Doc.
In the scene where Pastrami and Asthma have the professors hostage in the library, the gunmen begin shooting at random items. One gunman (Pastrami) says, "I saw me a picture last week," and proceeds to lick his thumb and then rubs it on the sight of his gun. This is a reference to star Gary Cooper's previous movie Sergeant York in which York uses this as a technique to improve his marksmanship.
Lucille Ball was set to play Katherine 'Sugarpuss' O'Shea, but once producer Samuel Goldwyn found out that Barbara Stanwyck was available he gave her the part instead
When Gary Cooper is taking notes of the news boy's slang, the marquee on the theater across the street advertises Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an inside joke that refers to the script's inspiration.
While filming the scene in which Potts declares his love for Sugarpuss in a dark hotel bungalow, Gregg Toland put Barbara Stanwyck in blackface to make sure that her eyes were shining through the darkness.
To pick up authentic slang for the film script, screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett visited the drugstore across the street from Hollywood High School, a burlesque house and the Hollywood Park racetrack
Even though they play two of the "old men" lexicographers, Leonid Kinskey (Prof. Quintana) and Richard Haydn (Prof. Oddly) were both under 40 years old when they made this movie
Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on June 1, 1942 with Barbara Stanwyck reprising her film role
Is remade in 1948 starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, (and alot of others) and is a musical titled A Song Is Born.
Quotes:
Joe Lilac-Dana Andrews
Prof. Potts-Gary Cooper
Sugarpuss O;Shea- Barbara Stanwyck
Joe Lilac: [as the professors draw guns on Joe and his men] What is this?
Prof. Oddly: I believe... I think it is known as an "up-stick".
Prof. Potts: I've just finished my article on slang. Twenty-three pages compiled from a dozen reference books, eight hundred examples.
Prof. Robinson: Well?
Prof.Potts: Everything from the idiotic combination of "absotively" to the pajorative use of "zigzag." I traced the evolution of "hunky-dory," tracked down "skidoo" from "skedaddle." Eight-hundred examples and I may as well throw it in the wastebasket. Three weeks work...
Prof. Robinson: You're hysterical.
Prof. Potts: Outmoded... based on reference books twenty years old. Take "smooch," take "dish," take, uh...
Prof. Oddly: "Hoy toy toy?"
Prof. Potts: "Hoy toy toy." Not one of them included. That man talked a living language; I embalmed some dead phrases.
Sugarpuss O'Shea: [jibing Potts for nervousness over his loosened tie] Oh, you know, one time I watched my bid brother shave
Prof. Gurkakoff: [discovering Sugarpuss gave back the wrong ring] The subconscious never makes a mistake. She gave you the ring she didn't want - his ring - and she kept the one she wanted - yours.
Prof. Potts: She wouldn't say yes? What... Why, you very ugly young man, you know, to me, at this moment you look perfectly delightful
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