The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss

Movie
German title	The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss
Original title	Ball of Fire
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1941
length	111 minutes
Rod
Director	Howard Hawks
script	Billy Wilder , Charles Brackett
production	Samuel Goldwyn
music	Alfred Newman
camera	Gregg Toland
cut	Daniel Mandell
occupation
Gary Cooper : Prof. Bertram Potts Barbara Stanwyck : Sugarpuss O'Shea Oskar Homolka : Prof. Gurkakoff Henry Travers : Prof. Jerome SZ Sakall : Prof. Magenbruch Tully Marshall : Prof. Robinson Leonid Kinskey : Prof. Quintana Richard Haydn : Prof. Oddly Aubrey Mather : Prof. Peagram Allen Jenkins : Garbage man Dana Andrews : Joe Lilac Dan Duryea : Duke Pastrami Ralph Peters : Asthma Anderson Kathleen Howard : Housekeeper Miss Bragg Mary Field : Miss Totten Charles Lane : Larsen Charles Arnt : Attorney McNeary Elisha Cook Jr .: waiter in the night club Addison Richards : District Attorney
synchronization

The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss , also known as the Whirlwind of Love (Original title: Ball of Fire ), is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck . A story by Thomas Monroe and Billy Wilder , who was also involved in the script, served as a template .

action

For years, a group of professors have lived in a house isolated from the outside world, working on an encyclopedia on human knowledge. The youngest among them, Professor Bertram Potts, is a linguist who specializes in researching American slang . When Miss Totten, the publisher and financier of the encyclopedia, gets impatient and asks the professors to finish their work as quickly as possible, Bertram goes on an independent tour of the city. In a night club, the professor becomes aware of the very colloquial vocabulary of the variety dancer Sugarpuss O'Shea.

At first Sugarpuss is unwilling to support Bertram in his research, but when she has to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend, gang boss Joe Lilac, she quartered in the house of Bertram and his seven colleagues. With her unconventional manner and her carefree attitude, she quickly wins over the scholars. She is also increasingly taken by the unworldly gentlemen and wants to bring a little more momentum into her life. She teaches her how to dance the conga and shows Bertram what the expression “yum yum” (meaning “delicious”) means by kissing him.

After her Bertram has proposed marriage, which she accepts, Sugarpuss is kidnapped by Joe's followers, because Joe wants to marry her too, but only so that she does not have to testify against him in court. However, Bertram and his colleagues manage to outsmart Joe and free Sugarpuss. When Sugarpuss finally doubts that he is good enough for Bertram, he convinces her with his enthusiastic interpretation of “yum yum”.

background

The plot is based in part on the German fairy tale Snow White , with the individual characterizations of the professors based on the seven dwarfs from Walt Disney's cartoon adaptation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Perry Ferguson was responsible for the film construction. Edith Head designed the costumes .

The Strange Taming of the Gangster Bride Sugarpuss premiered in the United States on December 2, 1941 and proved to be a huge box office success. In Germany, the film was first shown on television on May 24, 1976.

Director Howard Hawks filmed the script again in 1948 under the title The daring rescue of the gangster bride Honey Swanson .

Awards

The film was nominated in four categories at the Academy Awards in 1942 : Best Actress (Barbara Stanwyck), Best Original Story (Thomas Monroe, Billy Wilder), Best Score (Alfred Newman), and Best Sound (Thomas T. Moulton). However, the nominees could not prevail against the competition. In 2016 the film was in the National Film Registry added

Reviews

"Sometimes a breathless, fast-paced screwball comedy with well-humored actors," said the lexicon of international films . The comedy is sometimes "close to the slapstick, but always amusing entertainment". Cinema described the film as a "screwball classic with great dialogues".

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said at the time that Gary Cooper was "a little shaky" in his role at times, but still delivered a "simple idea", "as only he can deliver it". Barbara Stanwyck is "absolutely delicious in her role of the urbane seductress". Crowther also praised the production for being "excellent" and directed by Howard Hawks, who "kept it going at the right pace for almost two hours."

Variety stated that the film was built on just "a simple gag". The “funny initial situation”, however, is “sufficient to provide a few laughs”, for which the “slang like from the gun” within the dialogues also provides. The cast is "so apt and perfect" that "each character becomes a caricature of himself".

German version

A first German dubbed version was created in 1973 for ZDF at Berliner Synchron based on the dialogue book by Franz-Otto Krüger , who also took over the dubbing direction. In 1982 the film was re-dubbed for ARD by Berliner Synchron. The dubbing was directed by Dietmar Behnke based on the dialogue book by Lutz Arenz .

role	actor	Voice actor 1973	Voice actor 1982
Prof. Bertram Potts	Gary Cooper	Lothar Blumhagen	Hartmut Reck
Sugarpuss O'Shea	Barbara Stanwyck	Beate Hasenau	Gisela Fritsch
Prof. Gurkakoff	Oskar Homolka	Holger Kepich	Horst Schön
Prof. Jerome	Henry Travers	Erich Fiedler	Toni Herbert
Prof. gastric break	SZ Sakall	Gerd Duwner	Wolfgang Völz
Prof. Robinson	Tully Marshall	Ernst Wilhelm Borchert	Eric Vaessen
Prof. Quintana	Leonid Kinskey	Horst Gentzen	Friedrich G. Beckhaus
Prof. Oddly	Richard Haydn	Friedrich W. Building School	Friedrich W. Building School
Prof. Peagram	Aubrey Mather	Paul Esser	Hans W. Hamacher
Joe Lilac	Dana Andrews	Christian Brückner
Duke pastrami	Dan Duryea	Peter Thom	Ulrich Gressieker
Asthma Anderson	Ralph Peters	Wolfgang Völz	Karl Schulz
Housekeeper Miss Bragg	Kathleen Howard	Gudrun Genest	Christine Gerlach
Miss Totten	Mary Field	Eva Katharina Schultz	Eva-Maria Werth
Larsen	Charles Lane	Harry Wüstenhagen	Peter Matic
McNeary attorney	Charles Arnt		Christian Rode

Web links

Commons : The Strange Taming of the Gangster Bride Sugarpuss  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ball of Fire in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Ball of Fire at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
• Ball of Fire at Turner Classic Movies (English)
• The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss in the All Movie Guide (English)
• Pictures of the film on cinema.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. omovie.com
2. ↑ The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 9, 2019 .  
3. ↑ cf. cinema.de
4. ↑ “Mr. Cooper may be a little loose-tooth in spots, but he gives a homespun performance such as only he can give. Miss Stanwyck is plenty yum-yum in her worldly temptress role. [...] The production is excellent, and Howard Hawks has kept the whole thing moving at accelerated pace for nigh two hours. " Bosley Crowther : "Ball of Fire" a Delightful Comedy, With Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in Lead Roles, Opens at Music Hall . In: The New York Times , January 16, 1942.
5. ↑ “A simple gag […] one funny situation […]. It's sufficient, however, to provide quite a few chuckles. […] Much of the dialog is rapid-fire slang, […] but frequently good for laughs. Casting is meticulously perfect to make every character a caricature of itself. " See Ball of Fire . In: Variety , 1941.
6. ↑ cf. Synchronized version 1973 on synchrondatenbank.de
7. ↑ The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on February 2, 2020 . 
8. ↑ cf. Dubbed version 1982 on synchrondatenbank.de
9. ↑ The strange taming of the gangster bride Sugarpuss. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on February 2, 2020 .