Click photo for high-definition enlargement.

Actually, in the movie itself, the other professors haven't yet gathered 'round when Sugarpuss her lifts her leg and demands that Professor Potts feel her cold foot.  (It's hard to imagine Sugarpuss O'Shea with cold feet!) They have clustered aroudn her few moments later, however, when she opens her mouth and demands that he peer down her throat (a moment captured in another still).

Directed by Billy Wilder.

Written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, based on a short story in the book Three of a Kind by James M. Cain.

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Gig Young.

About Ball of Fire:

If Ball of Fire had been remade, say in the 1970s (and thank god it wasn't), Sugarpuss would have just taken off her blouse and asked Potts to feel her erect nipples.   The 1941 way is infinitely sexier.  Here's this young, vital, vivacious woman in this musty old house of "bachelors" (living entirely with their minds instead of their bodies) who shows up late at night, takes off her stockings, then brazenly offers her bare leg and foot to Professor Potts and tells him to feel it!  When she raises her leg, well, she's the one with the erection ("I figured on working all night...") -- and you can bet he's responding in kind.  Like Jean/Eve in The Lady Eve, Sugarpuss uses her feet to bring the object of her desire (erotic, monetary, or otherwise) back down to earth, to teasingly and seductively confront him with the biological basics.  (Many years later, in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson would have a discussion about the sexual implications of foot massage. Barbara Stanwyck laid the cinematic groundwork for that conversation...)

The background on these pages was made by sampling Sugarpuss O'Shea's sparkling show dress.

Stanwyck plays Sugarpuss O'Shea, a sassy, slang-slinging nightclub singer.  Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), in the course of researching an encyclopedia article on American slang, catches her act (she sings a relaxed but sizzling "Drum Boogie" with the Gene Krupa band) and goes backstage to request her help with his study, but she turns him down flat and tells him to scram. 

Later that night, however, after her gangster boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews) tells her to lay low to avoid a supoena, she makes a nocturnal appearance at the residence of Professor Potts and his elderly encyclopedia colleagues, just as they are heading to bed.  She barges right in, startling them in their nightclothes, but she is unabashed ("Aw, you know, once I watched my big brother shave," she says with mock coyness).  Entering the library she is overhwelmed the number of books ("All of 'em different?") and picks up a volume on Greek philosophy ("I got a set like this with a radio inside").  Then she gets down to business.  The following is my transcription of the scene.

SUGARPUSS
Well, how do we start, Professor?  You see, this is the first time anybody's moved in on my brain.
(She crosses the room and sits)
Have you got some kind of machine -- an x-ray or a vacuum cleaner, maybe -- that sorts out the words you want?
(Leaning toward him, flirting)
What's your method, Professor?

POTTS
Well, it's quite simple.  If you'll be here tomorrow morning, not later than 9:30 --

SUGARPUSS
--Tomorrow morning!

POTTS
Well, yes.  I've arranged a round-table discussion with a few people of various backgrounds --

SUGARPUSS
-- Uh-huh.  You don't think we could sorta "begin the beguine" right now...

POTTS
It's nearly one o'clock in the morning, Miss O'Shea --

SUGARPUSS
-- Oh, foo, Professor.  Let's get ourselves a coupla drinks, light the fire maybe, and you can start working on me right now.

POTTS
I wouldn't think of imposing on you at this hour.

SUGARPUSS
(slowly, suggestively)
Listen, I figured on working all night...

POTTS
Any hasty, random discussion would be of no scientific value.  You see, I have to have my notes thoroughly prepared for the, uh, seminar tomorrow.

SUGARPUSS
Uh-huh.
(Giving in -- and instantly switching to Plan B)
OK, where do I sleep?

POTTS
Well, I don't know.  Where do you live?

SUGARPUSS
Up on Riverside, but I'm gonna sleep here.

POTTS
Here?  Oh, you don't understand, Miss O'Shea.  We're all bachelors, with the exception of Professor Oddly, who is a widower.  Why no woman ever --    Even Miss Bragg, who takes care of our needs, goes home every night at 7:30.

SUGARPUSS
If you want me tomorrow morning at 9:30 --

POTTS
-- Oh, I do, Miss O'Shea!
(She begins to peel off her stocking)
But, uh, even the most free-thinking people must respect the, uh --

She raises her leg and presents him with her foot.

SUGARPUSS
All right, feel that.  Go on, feel that foot.
(He hesitates, grabs it, then quickly lets go)
OK, Tootsie Bell, whaddaya say?

POTTS
It's cold.

SUGARPUSS
It's cold and it's wet.
(Beckoning him)
Now, c'mere... C'mere... closer... closer...
(She grabs him and pulls him to her face)
Oh, c'mon, give!

She momentarily turns to acknowledge the other professors, who have been slowly, stealthily gathering around.

SUGARPUSS
Hullo, kids.
(Back to Potts)
Look down my throat.
(Opens her mouth wide and keeps talking)
Ga awn, ook da...

As he leans over to peer inside, she keeps making unintelligible sounds.

POTTS
I don't know what to look for.

DR. MAGENBRUCH
There is possibly a slight rosiness of the laryngal region?

SUGARPUSS
Slight rosiness?  It's as red as the Daily Worker and just as sore!

© 1941 by the Samuel Goldwyn Co.  Used without permission for educational purposes.