1941 – Barbara Stanwyck
Ball of Fire
Ok, I’m going to say it. This little more than a mildly amusing movie. The plot was silly and frivolous. They had a few big names like Gary Cooper, who played himself… again, and Barbara Stanwyck, who was, granted, probably the most interesting character in the film, though the roll itself was not terribly dynamic or dramatic. Now, I understand that the movie wasn’t trying to be a heavy drama or a deep romance. It was a light romantic comedy. But did that make Stanwyck’s performance worthy of an Oscar consideration? I’m not convinced.
She played Katherine “Sugarpuss” O’Shea, a nightclub dancer and singer who is mixed up with a mob boss. When the police come looking for her to interrogate her about her boyfriend, she hides out in the house of eight professors who are working on writing an encyclopedia. Her fast-talking charm and sexy legs bring light and passion into their dreary den of scholarly endeavors. This is what Stanwyck had to bring to the table. Well, there is no doubt, she had the legs!
But the interest in her character, and the way she played it, was in her duplicity. In order to convince the professors to let her stay, she had to make them all fall in love with her, especially Gary Cooper. But she was lying to them all, and planned to leave him flat when he got her safely to her mob boss boyfriend, played by Dana Andrews. The internal conflict the actress had to portray was certainly there most of the time, and the slow transfer of her affections from the mobster to the scholar was gradual enough to be believable.
So I supposed I have to check myself. Sure, the role itself lacked intensity, but that doesn’t make it a bad performance. The plot point of the professor needing to research modern slang, and her proficient and easy use of it, gave her some dialogue that sounded tricky, at least to my modern ears, though there were a few times it sounded a little forced. Stanwyck was good, and she performed the role as it was written, exactly as it was intended. But did it challenge the actress? Did it challenge the audience? Did it stand out as an outstanding performance? Maybe. Why not? So I guess I don’t mind the nomination. But I am glad she didn’t win.