Sugar always carries a fl ask of alcohol hidden about her person, even though she has been warned by the band manager that she will be thrown out if she is caught drinking again. When she is alone with Josephine and Daphne, Sugar confesses that she drinks too much when she is feeling low, and we realise she must be unhappy beneath that charming and fl irtatious exterior. Shortly after this admission, Sugar tells Josephine that she has had a series of bad relationships with musicians who have abused her kindness and good nature: ‘You fall for them and you love ‘em … and the next thing you know they’re borrowing money from you and spending it on other dames and betting on the horses.’ Sugar is tired of always getting ‘the fuzzy end of the lollipop’ and wants to fi nd a millionaire to marry. She realises that she is ‘not very bright’ and her vulnerability and lack of self-esteem endear her to the audience.
It would be easy to dismiss Sugar as a gold-digger when she sets her sights on Junior, a man she believes to be the Shell Oil heir but who is really Joe in disguise. However, Sugar wants security and a man who will treat her well far more than she wants money. This is completely understandable when we learn how she has been treated in the past. One of her boyfriends, for example, sent her out for food at two in the morning but when she brought him coleslaw instead of potato salad, he threw it in her face.
Sugar’s admirable sweetness and generosity of spirit shine through at the end of the fi lm. She realises at the last moment that Josephine, Junior and Joe are all the same person, and that she loves Joe dearly. Sugar rushes to join Joe as he prepares to sail away with Jerry and Osgood. Joe, who has realised what a good and loving person Sugar is, admits he is a fraud and advises her to go back and fi nd herself a millionaire: ‘You don’t want me, Sugar – I’m a liar and a phony – a saxophone player – one of those no-goodnicks you’ve been running away from.’ However, Sugar refuses to be put off and throws her arms around Joe, kissing him passionately. Any doubts we may have had about Sugar vanish as we see love triumphing over materialistic concerns.
