Click photo for high-definition enlargement.

This color-tinted image was taken from an 11 x 14" lobby card for the 1949 re-release of The Lady Eve. Here's the same still in black and white.

Written and directed by Preston Sturges.

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demerest, Eric Blore, Melville Cooper, Robert Grieg.

About The Lady Eve:

Sturges wrote this script with Stanwyck in mind, so he must have known how much she'd bring to the role.  The dry text on the page only hints at the delicious comic juice Stanwyck subtly wrings out of seemingly innocuous lines such as "That's pretty," or "Don't you?"  And although her closing punchline -- "Why Hopsie, you ought to be kept in a cage" -- reads funny, it doesn't begin to do justice to Stanwyck's flirtatious reading of it.  Sturges was brilliant at letting his actors play out a scene in a two-shot or a master, rather than alter their comic timing with jarring cuts.  For the humor to come across, the actors (and their director) have to set the pace. However there are a number of cuts in this scene -- including a hilarious POV shot as Fonda gazes up at Stanwyck and his vision blurs with delerium.  He's obviously quite intoxicated -- not from beer, not from ale, and not (just) from the smell of her perfume. 

Jean/Eve sets up this encounter as a little ice-breaker.  She teasingly maneuvers shy Charles/Hopsie into an intimate situation, kneeling down to cradle her ankle and slip on a shoe. Knowing he's been "up the Amazon" for a year, she can then pretty much lay back and let nature take its course.  By the end of the scene she's still totally in control, but slyly turned the tables to make it look like he's the one who has coming on strong!

And so, as in Double Indemnity and Ball of Fire, Stanwyck's character is talking about one thing on the surface, but really trying to convey something else.   Taken as a whole, this scene is simply about putting on a new pair of shoes to replace the one that broke, but of course it's really a set-up, an opportunity to lay the groundwork for seducing Charles.  And when he's talking about the difference between beer and ale, he really winds up talking about his frustration with his family, and how he wants to break away and live his own life.

The background on these pages was made by sampling Sugarpuss O'Shea's sparkling show dress from Ball of Fire.

Stanwyck plays Jean, masquerading aboard a cruise ship as Lady Eve Harrington.  Her mark: Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), heir to the Pike's Pale Ale fortune.  In this classic scene she takes him to her cabin after breaking the heel off her shoe -- and blaming the accident on him.

JEAN'S CABIN - FULL SHOT

It is SOMETHING... modern, handsome and romantic.  It has its private deck.  Jean limps in, followed by Charles who closes the door after him.

CHARLES
(Looking around)
Holy Moses!

JEAN
What's the matter?

CHARLES
(Inhaling deeply)
That perfume.

JEAN
What's the matter with it?

CHARLES
It's just that... I've been up the Amazon for a year... they don't use perfume.

JEAN
Oh...
(She points to a closet)
The shoes are in there... because you were so polite you can pick them out... and then put them on... if you like.

Charles looks at her strangely, then opens the closet door, revealing a compartmented shoe bag with fifty pairs of shoes.

CHARLES
Holy Moses!

He touches several pairs of shoes shyly, then lifts out a pair.   Jean laughs behind his back, then sits down.

JEAN
Those the ones you want?

CHARLES
(Turning slowly)
Doesn't seem possible for anybody to wear anything... that size.

JEAN
That's pretty.

Charles gets on one knee clumsily.  Jean extends the foot with the broken heel.

CHARLES
(Huskily as he takes hold of her foot)
I hope I... didn't hurt you.

JEAN
Of course you didn't.
(Looking at him)
Don't you feel well?

CHARLES
I'm all right.

He takes off her broken slipper and slips on the new one.

JEAN
What were you doing up the Amazon?

CHARLES
Looking for snakes... I'm an Ophiologist.

JEAN
I thought you said you were in the beer business.

CHARLES
Beer!  Ale.

He takes off the other slipper and puts the new one on.

JEAN
What's the difference?

CHARLES
Between beer and ale?

JEAN
Yes.

CHARLES
My father would burst a blood vessel.  There's a big difference... ale is sort of fermented on the top or something and beer is fermented on the bottom... or maybe it's vice versa... There's no similarity at all.  The uh... you see, the trouble with being descended from a brewer, no matter how long ago he brooded, or whatever you call it, is that you're supposed to know something all about something you don't give a hoot about.   It's funny to be kneeling here at your feet and talking about beer, isn't it?   You see, I don't like beer, bock beer, lager, beer, or steam beer.

JEAN
Don't you?

CHARLES
(With some fire)
I do not! And I don't like pale ale, brown ale, nut brown ale, porter or stout which makes me ulp just to think about it. Ulp! But that hasn't stopped everybody from calling me Hopsie ever since I was six years old.  Hopsie Pike!

JEAN
Hello, Hopsie.

CHARLES
Make it Charlie, will you?

JEAN
All right, but there's somethink kinda cute about Hopsie and once you got older I could call you Popsie... Hopsie Popsie!

CHARLES
(Smiling)
That's all I need.
(He looks down at her feet)
Now here's a business I wouldn't mind being in... I never realized before how lovely it could be.

JEAN
Thank you.

She reaches out and touches his hair.  Charles seizes her hand, then slowly lets go.

JEAN
We'd better get back now.

CHARLES
I guess so.  You see, where I've been, I mean, up the Amazon, you kind of forget how... how... I mean when you haven't seen a girl in a long time... I meant there's something about that perfume that... that...

JEAN
Don't you like my perfume?

CHARLES
Like it!  I'm cockeyed for it!

JEAN
(Getting to her feet)
Why Hopsie... you ought to be kept in a cage.

© 1941 by Universal Pictures.  Used without permission for educational purposes.