Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper shine in the 1941 classic, Ball of Fire. Co-written by Billy Wilder, of the Some Like It Hot-fame, Cooper plays college professor Bertram Potts, who lives with seven other professors, conducting research for the Totten Foundation. The professors are charged with a 12-year project of writing an encyclopedia. Miss Bragg, their housekeeper, is the only woman they allow in, so as not to be distracted from their scholarly pursuits.One of their regular contacts from the outside is the garbage man. By talking to him, Potts realizes that as a professor of language, he is out of touch with the latest slang. He decides to venture outside of the house- much to the objection of his peers- to gather data from everyday people in order to improve the quality of his research.
His efforts eventually lead him to a nightclub, where he meets Sugarpuss O'Shea, played by Stanwyck. Engaged to a gangster who is wanted for murder, she is trying to keep a low profile and avoid the police. When Potts recruits her to be an informant for his slang study, she invites herself to stay at the Totten Foundation House. She feigns illness to convince Potts and his fellow colleagues to make an exception of their no-girls-allowed rule, and becomes their house guest.
She charms the professors so much that Potts falls in love with her, even though she is really trying to schedule a rendezvous with her fiance. Potts eventually wins her over after a wild goose chase and the gangster is carted off to jail while the nightclub singer and professor live happily ever after ...
From the perspective of someone inside the ivory tower, the degree to which the professors are out of touch, and their strict no-girls rule for producing the best scholarship possible for the encyclopedia make for a good laugh. Being distracted by women, particularly of the likes of Sugarpuss O'Shea, would be most detrimental to the encyclopedia...but Potts is able to make a few sacrifices, all in the name of scholarship, of course.
Here's a clip from the movie:
