BBBB.5
(out of 5)
Gary Cooper is a shy professor of linguistics who along with seven other equally isolated gentlemen is working on a brand-new, up-to-date dictionary thanks to a fund left behind by a late, wealthy benefactor. Upon researching an entry in the book he intends to devote to “slang” language, Cooper comes across snazzy club singer Barbara Stanwyck and asks her for research help. She initially refuses, but when she finds she’s in a little trouble with the law thanks to some shady mobster connections, she immediately makes her way over to the mansion where the gentlemen live and work and moves in. These guys, having not set eyes upon a woman in decades, all go gaga over her, and before you can say Buzzbomb she’s turned their world upside down. None more so than Cooper, who has developed doe eyes for the lady who kisses him in order to teach him the meaning of the slang term “yum yum”. One of Stanwyck’s most energetic and appealing performances.
USA, 1941
Directed by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, based on an original story by Billy Wilder, Thomas Monroe
Cinematography by Gregg Toland
Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
Music by Alfred Newman
Production Design by Perry Ferguson
Costume Design by Edith Head
Film Editing by Daniel Mandell
Cast Tags: Addison Richards, Alan Rhein, Aldrich Bowker, Allen Jenkins, Aubrey Mather, Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Arnt, Charles Lane, Dan Duryea, Dana Andrews, Eddie Foster, Elisha Cook Jr., Gary Cooper, Gene Krupa and His Orchestra, Henry Travers, Kathleen Howard, Kenneth Howell, Leonid Kinskey,Mary Field, Oskar Homolka, Pat West, Ralph Peters, Richard Haydn, S.Z. Sakall, Tim Ryan, Tommy Ryan, Tully Marshall, Will Lee
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actress (Barbara Stanwyck as “Sugarpuss O’Shea”)
Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic Picture) (Alfred Newman)
Best Sound Recording (Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Thomas T. Moulton, sound director)
Best Writing (Original Story) (Billy Wilder, Thomas Monroe)
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