History Film / BallOfFire

* HoldingTheFloor: Bertram gives the hostage takers a lecture on anatomy to buy Gurkakoff time to burn the rope.

* LovingDetails: The famous scene of Sugarpuss telling Lilac all the things she loves about Bertram. It was famous enough to be nominated for Creator/AmericanFilmInstitutes' [[https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movie-quotes/ 100 Movie Quotes list]].

* NerdsAreSexy: Sugarpuss soon realises that she has feelings for Bertram and lists all of his anti-social traits that she finds endearing to Joe Lilac when she's trying to tell him that she doesn't love him anymore.

There, she meets the tall, sheltered and conservative English professor Bertram Potts (Cooper), who is determined to understand the ever-changing colloquialisms of the socialites of today, in order to put it inside an encyclopedia with his other colleagues' work from all sides of the curriculum. With the help of other members of the public he's rounded up, including the garbage disposal man that visits the mansion every day, Potts invites Sugarpuss to work alongside them, remembering one of her nightclub performances that he attended for research.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:After getting into a fist fight with Lilac (and possibly having his backside handed to him in most of it), Bertram escapes unscathed, apart from a black eye.]]

** Bertram turns from a tall, uptight and socially-awkward {{workaholic}} that spends time with older men with no sense of the changing world, to a man that could have relationships with other people his age and balance out his working life too.
** Sugarpuss dreaded her time in the mansion with the professors, desperately wanting to be with her fiance, but then empathises with them when her fiance threatens them at gunpoint, as if they kidnapped her.

* DefrostingIceKing: Bertram. This is mostly down to his interactions with Sugarpuss, who manages to turn him from reserved to open. He sternly admits that he's attracted to her but then calms himself down, however, this is soon changed once Sugarpuss plants a few kisses on him, turning him into a relaxed man that's smitten with a nightclub performer.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: There is a brief moment of Sugarpuss dabbing the back of her neck with a cool flannel after kissing the smitten and newly-consensual Bertram, hinting that strong feelings for him are developing, despite being engaged to someone else.

* TickleTorture: The professors uses this (with a feather) on Pastrami, one of Joe Lilac's {{mooks}}, to get him to say where Lilac is going to (try to) marry Sugarpuss. It works.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Sugarpuss kisses Bertram, the plot of Bertram's grammar classes aren't seen again in the story, however, it can be argued that they still happened off-screen. The only characters from that slang group that reappear in the story are Sugarpuss and the garbage disposal man. The man from the pub, the college student, and the paperboy aren't seen again.

!!Tropes

* ClingyJealousGirl: Miss Bragg (in a non-romantic way) becomes cold towards the professors when she discovers that Sugarpuss is living with them, [[NotBigEnoughForTheTwoOfUs even threatening to resign from being their housekeeper]]. Bertram refuses to evict Sugarpuss, but Miss Bragg continues working, with some of the professors calling her bluff. She discovers Sugarpuss' true identity when she "accidentally" searches through her luggage, confronting her when she walks in the room.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Sugarpuss' real name is Katherine. We don't find this out until she is facing the priest with Lilac. It also makes one wonder whether Bertram and the professors even know (and/or ever find out) her real name.

* PerfectSolutionFallacy: Bertram is devastated that he was studying outdated slang and throws his work in the bin. The professors try to convince him that he's overreacting.

* MeaningfulEcho: When the garbageman calls Miss Bragg "sister" early in the film, she retorts, "I am not your sister!" Later, when they're part of the group being held hostage by Asthma and Pastrami (who are shooting up the place):
-->'''Garbageman''': Looks like they'll be a lot of trash tomorrow, sister.\\
'''Miss Bragg''': If there ''is'' a tomorrow, brother.

* LipstickMark: A non-infidelity example. The professors realise that a romance might blossom between Bertram and Sugarpuss when they notice that Bertram is CoveredInKisses and grinning when he was supposed to be forcing Sugarpuss to move out their mansion.

* SixIsNine: A poorly secured 9 on the front door of a motel cabin falls over and becomes a 6. This causes Bertram to enter the wrong cabin (thinking it's Professor Oddly's room) and accidentally pour his heart out to Sugarpuss, reciting a LoveConfession speech he's planned beforehand. While sitting in the darkness feeling guilty about planning her escape, Sugarpuss is moved to tears by his words.

* DaddysGirl: Miss Totten. Her father died prior to movie events and was the professor behind the encyclopedia project. She would do anything to help the professors get their research finished but regretfully attempts to cancel it once she discovers that they've become preoccupied with the Sugarpuss scenario.

* ChekhovsGunman: The professors, sans Bertram.

* CluelessChickMagnet: Bertram, who is unable to notice that not only Sugarpuss is interested in him, but Miss Totten as well, considering how nervous she acts whenever they talk to each other.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Sugarpuss' real name is Katherine. We don't find this out until she is facing the priest with Lilac. It also makes one wonder whether Bertram and the professors even know (and/or ever find out) her real name.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: Bertram is devastated that he was studying outdated slang and throws his work in the bin. The professors try to convince him that he's overreacting.

* GotMeDoingIt: When the garbageman calls Miss Bragg "sister" early in the film, she retorts, "I am not your sister!" Later, when they're part of the group being held hostage by Asthma and Pastrami (who are shooting up the place):

* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: As a gangster, Joe Lilac lavishes luxuries on Surgarpuss. As a professor, Bertram doesn't make much money, but genuinely loves and respects her. After Bertram gives her his engagement ring, she slides the simple band with a heart-felt engraved message next to the glamorous, definitely stolen, diamond ring Joe gave her.

* SeriousBusiness: The professors need to have their encyclopedia as accurate and up-to-date as possible. If not, they will be fired by Miss Totten, the daughter of a dead former colleague.

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Bertram recites a speech from ''Theatre/RichardIII'' when giving Sugarpuss the engagement ring. The monologue he quotes is written on the inside of the ring.

* TookALevelInBadass: All of the professors near the end, and Bertram in particular.

* WilliamTelling: The professors get a gangster to stay seated in a chair by challenging him to hit a coin held by one of them in his fingers so that they could knock him unconscious with a painting hanging above his seat.

->''Once upon a time -- in 1941 to be exact -- there live in a great, tall forest -- called New York -- eight men who were writing an encyclopedia. They were so wise they knew everything: the depth of the oceans, and what makes a glowworm glow, and what tune Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. But there was one thing about which they knew very little -- as you shall see...''

* SettleItWithoutWeapons: Sort of. After the good guys have already captured the bad guys and the cops are on the way, a thoroughly pissed-off Bertram gives his gun to one of the other professors and challenges Joe Lilac to a fistfight.

** To convince him to allow her to live in the mansion, she takes off her heels and [[ShesGotLegs stretches out her leg]] to him to feel how cold and wet her feet are from the rain.

''Ball of Fire'' is a 1941 American {{screwball comedy}} starring Creator/GaryCooper and Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, and was co-written by Creator/BillyWilder, directed by Creator/HowardHawks with a score by Music/AlfredNewman. It was nominated for three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Actress and Best Story, and was then remade into a musical movie in 1948 called ''Film/ASongIsBorn'', [[SelfRemake also made by Hawks]].

There, she meets the tall, sheltered and conservative English professor Bertram Potts (Cooper), who is determined to understand the ever-changing colloquialisms of the socialites of today, in order to put it inside an encyclopedia with his other colleagues' work from all sides of the curriculum. With the help of other members of the public, he's rounded up, including the garbage disposal man that visits the mansion every day, Potts invites Sugarpuss to work alongside them, remembering one of her nightclub performances that he attended for research.

However, with her fiance's patience wearing thin and wanting to elope as soon as possible, Sugarpuss tries everything she can to stop tension in the professors' home and successfully distracts them from her true intentions, but her friendliness soon backfires when Bertram confesses he has a crush on her and pops out an engagement ring.

** Bertram turns from a tall, uptight and socially-awkward {{workaholic}} that spend time with older men with no sense of the changing world, to a man that could have relationships with other people his age and balance out his working life too.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Sugarpuss' real name is Katherine. We don't find this out until she is facing the priest with Lilac. It also makes one wonder whether Bertram and the professors even know (and/or ever find out) her real name.

* FemmeFatale: Sugarpuss is a deconstructed version. She saves her seductive methods for the youngest professor Bertram but acts as an InnocentFanserviceGirl to everyone else (the only person who isn't convinced is housekeeper Miss Bragg). However, this backfires horribly, because she eventually feels guilty when she tries to ditch them, Bertram develops feelings for her and proposes, and then she realises her fiance's determination to kill the professors [[TheyKnowTooMuch so they don't go to the police.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: One of the professors devoted their work to sex education, and even refers to it ''by name''. In a movie from 1941, when [[https://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php Section II of the Hays Code]] banned even the mention of sex.

** She passionately kissed him thrice when she was showing him what a "yum-yum" was, making him rush out of the room to calm himself down;
*** Also, when he shyly asked her to kiss him again through stammering;

* ObliviousToLove: Bertram at first.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Sugarpuss kisses Bertram, the plot of Bertram's grammar classes aren't seen again in the story, however, it can be argued that they still happened off-screen.
** The only characters from that slang group that reappear in the story are Sugarpuss and the garbage disposal man. The man from the pub and the paperboy aren't seen again.
* WhyCantIHateYou: Sugarpuss slowly realises that she is enjoying her stay with the professors, despite manipulating them so that she can betray them and elope with her gangster boyfriend. She struggles to try and tell them her true intentions, and cannot bring herself to write them a letter explaining why she's ditched them at the hotel when she and Bertram were supposed to get married.

* NerdsAreInnocent: Bertram and the other professors are classic nerds (or proto-nerds) who've cut themselves off from worldly experience to focus on academic study. Which, all else aside, is a problem when their studies extend to modern slang.

* BadassBookworm: the professors and Bertram, when it comes the time [[TookALevelInBadass to take a step up]].

** Sugarpuss uses several tactics to try and stay with the professors until she can elope with her gangster fiance, mostly by flirting with the reserved Bertram. It soon backfires when he falls for it, [[UpToEleven followed by]] ''her falling for him'' as well.

''Ball of Fire'' is a 1941 American {{screwball comedy}} starring Creator/GaryCooper and Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, and was co-written by Creator/BillyWilder, directed by Creator/HowardHawks with a score by Music/AlfredNewman. It was nominated for three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Actress and Best Story, and was then remade into a musical movie in 1948 called ''Film/ASongIsBorn''.

There, she meets the tall, sheltered and conservative English professor Bertram Potts (Cooper), who is determined to understand the ever-changing colloquialisms of the socialites of today, in order to put it inside an encyclopedia with his other colleagues' work from all sides of the curriculum. With the help of other members of the public he's rounded up, including the garbage disposal man that visits the mansion every day, Potts invites Sugarpuss to work alongside them, remembering one of her nightclub performances that he attended for research.

* BigBallOfViolence: [[spoiler:Bertram's attack on Lilac is implied to be this. Although shown off-screen (albeit below the camera view showing the amazed reactions of Sugarpuss, the neighbours and the rest of the professors), you can see legs spinning about, clothing flying everywhere, and dust kicking up.]]

* DaddysGirl: Miss Totten. Her father died prior to movie events and was the professor behind the encyclopedia project. She would do anything to help the professors get their research finished, but regretfully attempts to cancel it once she discovers that they've become preoccupied with the Sugarpuss scenario.

* DefrostingIceKing: Bertram. This is mostly down to his interactions with Sugarpuss, who manages to turn him from reserved to open. He sternly admits that he's attracted to her but then calms himself down, however, this is soon changed once Sugarpuss plants a few kisses on him, turning him into a relaxed man that's smitten for a nightclub performer.

* FemmeFatale: Sugarpuss is a deconstructed version. She saves her seductive methods for the youngest professor Bertram, but acts as an InnocentFanserviceGirl to everyone else (the only person who isn't convinced is housekeeper Miss Bragg). However, this backfires horribly, because she eventually feels guilty when she tries to ditch them, Bertram develops feelings for her and proposes, and then she realises her fiance's determination to kill the professors [[TheyKnowTooMuch so they don't go to the police.]]

* LuminescentBlush: Bertram blushes "right up over his ears" when he's embarrassed, according to Sugarpuss, which is one of the things she likes about him. This is more of a TakeOurWordForIt, since the film is monochrome, so we don't know how she discovered this. She more likely discovered this when:

* MeaningfulName: Being a professor of English language, Bertram works out that "Sugarpuss" is made up of two words -- "sugar" and "puss". "Puss" is slang for "face" and sugar is sweet, meaning "Sugarpuss" = "sweet face". Considering how easily Sugarpuss tricks everyone into liking her, [[FemmeFatale her stage name might have something to do with it]].

* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: As a gangster, Joe Lilac lavishes luxuries on Surgarpuss. As a professor, Bertram doesn't make much money, but genuinly loves and respects her. After Bertram gives her his engagement ring, she slides the simple band with a heart-felt engraved message next to the glamorous, definitely stolen, diamond ring Joe gave her.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: The garbage man played by Allen Jenkins. He's only in three scenes, but in his first scene, it's his use of slang that makes Bertram realize his knowledge of slang is outdated, and sets forth the events of the plot. Also, in his final scene, when talking about the quiz he's trying to solve, it's his questions that give Bertram and the other professors the idea on how to overpower Lilac's men.

* WilliamTelling: The professors get a gangster to stay seated in a chair by challenging him to hit a coin held by one of them in his fingers, so that they could knock him unconscious with a painting hanging above his seat.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Sugarpuss falls for Bertram, a bookish, kindharted professor, rather than bad boy gangster Joe Lilac.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: The garbage man played by Allen Jenkins. He's only in three scenes, but in his first scene, it's his use of slang (see SocietyMarchesOn below) that makes Bertram realize his knowledge of slang is outdated, and sets forth the events of the plot. Also, in his final scene, when talking about the quiz he's trying to solve, it's his questions that give Bertram and the other professors the idea on how to overpower Lilac's men.
* SocietyMarchesOn: [[invoked]] After hearing the local binman talking to the professors, Bertram notices that his slang is completely different to the slang he wrote about weeks before, which means that Bertram's hard work was useless (arguably, in his eyes), so he decides to leave for the city for research.

* LovingDetails: The famous scene of Sugarpuss telling Lilac all the things she loves about Bertram. It was famous enough to be nominated for the AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes list.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Loosely based on ''Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', nightclub performer Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Stanwyck) decides to hide in a communal library with a group of professors in order to escape being caught by the police, due to her fiance Joe Lilac's (Creator/DanaAndrews) mobster activities.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** One of the professors devoted their work to sex education, and even refers to it ''by name'' in a 1940s' movie, which might shock modern audiences.
** Bertram stating that he often dabs the back of his neck with a cool flannel to calm himself down from his attraction to Sugarpuss goes into the DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything territory.

There, she meets the tall, sheltered and conservative English professor Bertram Potts (Cooper), who is determined to understand the ever-changing colloquialisms of the socialites of today in order to put it inside an encyclopedia with his other colleagues' work from all sides of the curriculum. With the help of other members of the public he's rounded up, including the garbage disposal man that visits the mansion every day, Potts invites Sugarpuss to work alongside them, remembering one of her nightclub performances that he attended for research.

* AllMenArePerverts: Bertram tries the best he can to defy this trope around Sugarpuss. This is probably because he doesn't want to scare her away.
* ApronMatron: Miss Bragg.

* {{Adorkable}}:
** Bertram. He acts like learning new slang is SeriousBusiness, talks with SesquipedalianLoquaciousness a lot (even about his feelings towards Sugar), admits how aroused he is by Sugarpuss by having to wash his neck with cold water whenever he sees the sunlight in her hair, not to mention running out of the room after being kissed by her to do the latter, too. He also seems to be so devoted to his work (or just struggles to put on a suit), Sugarpuss notes that he always has his waistcoat buttoned up wrong every time she's seen him.
** The other professors, particularly through their obsessions over their work, and their lack of social skills around Sugarpuss, slightly admiring her like they'd never seen a woman in their lives.

''Ball of Fire'' is a 1941 American {{screwball comedy}} starring Creator/GaryCooper and Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, and was written by Creator/BillyWilder, directed by Creator/HowardHawks with a score by Music/AlfredNewman. It was nominated for three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Actress and Best Story, and was then remade into a musical movie in 1948 called ''Film/ASongIsBorn''.

* {{Expy}}: The other seven professors for [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the seven dwarfs]]. Lilac even calls them this, making Sugarpuss correct him with "eight".