Susie Diamond

Susie Diamond is a fictional character who appears in the romantic musical comedy-drama film "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989). Portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, Susie is a former escort who becomes a professional lounge singer when she is hired to help revitalize the career of The Fabulous Baker Boys, a waning piano duo consisting of brothers Jack and Frank Baker. Susie's addition to the group benefits both the trio's career and her own, but she also inadvertently generates conflict between the two brothers as Frank strongly disapproves of Jack's romantic interest in Susie, ultimately jeopardizing both the brothers' relationship with each other and the trio's future as a musical act.
Susie was created for the film by director and screenwriter Steve Kloves. Although Kloves was interested in casting Pfeiffer in the role from the beginning, Pfeiffer was much more hesitant to commit, citing exhaustion after having just recently completed several films at the time until Kloves ultimately convinced her to accept. Jodie Foster and Madonna were also considered for the role, among other candidates. Having not sung on-screen since her first leading role in the musical film "Grease 2" (1982), Pfeiffer initially experienced reservations about providing her character's vocals herself but ultimately underwent several months of vocal coaching in preparation for the film's musical numbers. Furthermore, Pfeiffer researched professional lounge singers in addition to drawing inspiration from the performances of renowned jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
A pivotal role in the actress' career, Pfeiffer's performance garnered widespread acclaim from film critics, who were impressed with both her acting and singing abilities, and frequently dubbed her the film's highlight. Often commenting upon her strong sex appeal, comparisons were drawn between Pfeiffer and several classic Hollywood actresses, namely Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Rita Hayworth. Pfeiffer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. The actress was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress but lost to Jessica Tandy's performance in "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), a controversial outcome at the time that disappointed several critics. Additionally, Pfeiffer was recognized with "best actress" accolades from nearly all prestigious American film award organizations between 1989 and 1990.
Susie remains Pfeiffer's most critically acclaimed performance to-date, responsible for establishing her as both a bankable film actress and sex symbol. The scene in which Susie seductively performs the jazz standard "Makin' Whoopee", for which "The Fabulous Baker Boys" continues to be best-remembered, is considered to be an iconic staple of modern-day cinema, while earning a reputation as one of the sexiest scenes in film history.
Role.
"The Fabulous Baker Boys" conveys how Susie's induction into the eponymous musical duo affects the dynamic of both the act and the brothers' relationship with each other. As The Fabulous Baker Boys' business manager, Frank Baker decides that they should hire a female singer to help revive their struggling 15 year-old piano duo consisting of himself and his younger brother, Jack. 37 aspiring singers audition to be the group's third member, none of whom are promising candidates until Susie, a call girl previously employed by the Triple A Dating Service, arrives. Despite being an hour and a half late – by which time the brothers are frustrated – and dressed unprofessionally, Susie impresses them with her performance of "More Than You Know"; Jack in particular, being more forgiving of the character's unprofessionalism than Frank, believes that the combination of Susie's voice and attractiveness could help bolster their career. Susie is also much less accommodating than the other candidates Frank and Jack interview.
While Susie's addition helps The Fabulous Baker Boys experience success, it also results in complications among the group by disturbing some of the original act's traditions and threatening to come between the two brothers when Jack begins to fall in love with her. Susie and Jack's growing mutual attraction towards each other eventually threatens the stability of the trio. Having a family of his own, Frank is particularly concerned that if his younger brother Jack pursues Susie he will ultimately disregard her and cause her to leave the group, while Susie insists that she deserves a say in determining what songs the trio will perform, particularly lamenting that she is forced to sing "Feelings" at every scheduled performance. When Frank is pulled away from work for a family emergency around New Year's Eve, Susie and Jack seize the opportunity to make adjustments to their set list and ultimately make love in a late night jazz club after performing alone together. Frank is furious to learn that Susie and Jack have changed the set list without his permission and an argument ensues between Jack and Frank. Susie eventually leaves both the group and Jack due to Jack's refusal to express his true feelings for her, accepting a job singing jingles for television commercials. After mending his relationship with Frank, Susie receives a visit from Jack who apologizes for his behavior towards her; Susie does not clarify if she and Jack will rekindle their romance before walking away.
Development and casting.
Director and screenwriter Steve Kloves spent six months writing "The Fabulous Baker Boys" from the perspective of its three main characters, exploring their complicated relationship with each other. Susie is portrayed by American actress Michelle Pfeiffer, who was first offered the role five years before production, only to decline it on several occasions. Despite being one of the most sought-after film actresses at the time due to her recent Academy Award-nominated performance in "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988), some studio executives feared that Pfeiffer was still too obscure to attract a significant audience on her own. Having already known her personally, Pfeiffer was the first actor Kloves expressed interest in casting in "The Fabulous Baker Boys"; he eventually focused on casting real-life brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges as the eponymous Baker Boys once establishing contact with Pfeiffer proved difficult. However, Kloves' script continued to struggle without an actress playing Susie. During this time, actress Debra Winger and singer Madonna were both considered for the role, the latter of whom turned it down because she felt that Kloves' script was "too mushy". Actresses Jodie Foster and Jennifer Jason Leigh had also expressed interest in the part, but Kloves was eventually able to contact Pfeiffer, maintaining that she is the only actress that he himself had ever considered for the role. Although the actress enjoyed both the script and character, with whom she identified emotionally, she was hesitant to commit to another role so soon after having just having recently completed several film projects in a row, initially intending to go on hiatus after filming "Dangerous Liaisons" due to exhaustion. Thus, Kloves spent one week visiting Pfeiffer at her home until she finally relented. Prior to "The Fabulous Baker Boys", most of Pfeiffer's roles had been rather unglamorous; Pfeiffer claims that she typically avoided playing glamorous characters because she found most of them uninteresting until she discovered Susie. Pfeiffer accepted the role because she "thought [Susie] was a great woman ... someone I really wanted to be like." Film critic Mike D'Angelo, writing for "The Dissolve", believes that Pfeiffer decided to accept the role of Susie because she was still embarrassed by her performance in the unsuccessful musical "Grease 2" (1982), and wanted to prove that she was in fact capable of playing a character who was a combination of both Sandy Olsson and Betty Rizzo from "Grease" (1978) at the same time.
Pfeiffer provides all of her character's vocals for both the film and its soundtrack. Because she does not consider herself a professional singer, Pfeiffer's inhibitions about singing on camera initially contributed to her early reservations about accepting the role, having not done so since her performance in "Grease 2"; "The Fabulous Baker Boys" would mark Pfeiffer's first professional singing role in seven years. Despite Kloves' insistence that Pfeiffer's singing voice not be dubbed, composer Dave Grusin was initially skeptical about Pfeiffer's musical abilities until she ultimately convinced him with her rendition of "My Funny Valentine". For four months (although sources differ, citing any period of time between two months to an entire year), the actress took extensive singing lessons under the tutelage of voice coach Sally Stevens in preparation for the role, at the suggestion of Grusin. In addition to performing vocal exercises to strengthen her vocal chords, Pfeiffer would often work 10-hour days in the recording studio before finally returning home to listen to and study her own recordings. Already impressed with Pfeiffer's rhythm and phrasing, Stevens trained the actress to avoid pronouncing words in ways that would make the film's jazz standards sound too much like rock songs; Stevens jokenly likened Pfeiffer's original pronunciation to musician Bob Dylan, and recording the songs for Pfieffer to use as reference for enunciation, teaching the actress about using her teeth and mouth to pronounce words and smiling to "lift" her pitch. Admitting that the film's songs were much more difficult than the ones she had performed in "Grease 2", Pfeiffer worked especially hard on improving her phrasing because the material for "The Fabulous Baker Boys" were different than the pop music she had grown more accustomed to singing, explaining, "Those older songs were written for singers; they weren't written for synthesizers and drums ... It was an entirely new way of listening to songs." Additionally, the actress drew inspiration from real-life lounge singers performing at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, while listening to jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Rickie Lee Jones, Billie Holiday and Helen Merrill for inspiration, maintaining, "I didn't copy anybody, but I heard a lot. For me, it helps to act the song out." Pfeiffer incorporated the "undercurrent of anger" in the lounge singer's performances, drawn from the fact that "a lot of club singers ... haven't had the recognition they feel they deserve or that they had hoped for" into her own interpretation of Susie. Stevens encouraged Pfeiffer to envision herself as Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa Lund in the film "Casablanca" (1942) while recording "More Than You Know" for the film's soundtrack, which the actress identified as one of her favorite songs. Stevens also suggested that Pfeiffer research jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald because Fitzgerald possesses "a quality artists of that period had that we felt the character Susie might have listened to", describing the end result as "an airy alto, a nice breathy quality, and intelligence in delivery". Despite her extensive training, the vocal coach felt it was important that Susie's voice sound "pleasant" but still untrained. Kloves maintains that he did not hire Pfeiffer based on her singing abilities, but rather because of the way in which she uses her acting abilities to interpret lyrics.
Pfeiffer likened preparing herself for the role to a musician preparing to record an album, describing the process as twice as much work. At one point, she confessed to Kloves that she felt she was performing terribly; Kloves insisted that Pfeiffer is a poignant and insightful perfectionist. Producer Mark Rosenberg appreciated Pfeiffer for portraying Susie as a character who is "so colorful and full of life that even Jack ... has to perk up and pay attention". Pfeiffer decided to play her character in a way that ultimately uncovers "the scared kid inside" despite her profane and world-weary introduction. Although Pfeiffer was ultimately pleased with her singing, she sometimes doubted her own abilities while filming in fear that she might have "outdone" herself. Pfeiffer slightly slurred her speech to portray her character. A scene originally intended for the film in which Pfeiffer's character accidentally allows a bath she has begun pouring herself to overflow because she has become distracted thinking about Jack was ultimately edited out of the final film. Pfeiffer initially had reservations about performing atop a grand piano, fearing that it would appear "silly" and cause audience members to laugh. However, Kloves encouraged her to commit to the scene. Pfeiffer's short evening dress worn during the musical sequence was designed to be revealing enough without exposing Pfeiffer while she moves, which was choreographed by dancer Peggy Holmes. Pfeiffer touted her character "one of the most alive characters that I've played", describing her as an "emotional creature" who is "not afraid to take risks ... doesn't lie to herself. If she makes a mistake, she doesn't blame anybody else. There's a purity in her honesty that I really respect", becoming a strong role model for the actress herself. According to the "Orlando Sentinel"'s Kathy Huffhines, Susie "has a harder shell, a sharper edge, and a franker sexiness" than previous characters Pfeiffer has played. According to film critic David Thomson of "The Independent", the role of Susie allowed Pfeiffer to add an aspect to her filmography, prior to which had been "dutiful" yet "routine".
Characterization and themes.
According to film critic Roger Ebert, Susie adheres to the Hollywood tradition of being depicted as a hooker with a heart of gold, while her tough demeanor is little more than an act. Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing described Susie as a "tough-talking, street-smart" character who is "always ready with a quip (or a sharp counter to a quip)." Writing for "The Daily Beast", Elizabeth Kaye identified Susie as "a woman who must battle to keep her emotions from showing". "Film Quarterly"'s Steve Vineberg wrote that the character boasts "a cannily concealed underlayer of childlike dreaminess," comparing her appearance and wardrobe to that of singer Ricky Lee Jones. Wounded by life, Susie wears an "armor" that is both impenetrable yet makes others want to experience more of the character. Kaye felt that the role was especially poignant for Pfeiffer, who in real life had still been recovering from an affair with actor John Malkovich at the same time she was filming "The Fabulous Baker Boys". According to Cinapse's Frank Cavillo, Pfeiffer "had never been as open or vulnerable on screen until starring in "The Fabulous Baker Boys"."
Although the eponymous Baker brothers are the default stars of the film, Susie is considered to be the film's "centerpiece". Film critic Mike D'angelo, writing for "The Dissolve", observed that "the character's name is Susie Diamond, and she's written like a woman named Susie Diamond, and Pfeiffer plays her ... like a woman named Susie Diamond." As a romantic film, "The Fabulous Baker Boys" focuses on "the unfulfilled longing between" bandmates Susie and Jack. Susie is the only woman capable of changing "the aloof, uncommunicative Jack ... by throwing incendiary tantrums and sounding even tougher than he does", slowly inspiring the pianist to change the person he has allowed himself to become. "Rolling Stone"'s Peter Travers believes that Susie and Jack bond because both characters are "losers who've sold themselves on the cheap"; Jack is a skilled musician who despises himself for squandering his talent, which reminds former escort Susie of herself. Pfeiffer agreed that her character essentially becomes "a mirror image for Jack" although both remain very different individuals. While Jack is depicted as timid and cautious about his decisions, Susie rather "embraces life" instead. An adventurous individual, Susie refuses to do only one thing, including perform, for her entire life. Pfeiffer observed that although her character has spent a significant portion of her life as an escort, she remains less of a "whore" than Jack because she retains her individuality, while Jack "has ceased to be a vital human being." When Susie and Jack have their final argument, the profanity Jack uses actually helps establish Susie as the stronger character, according to Mark R. Hasan of KQEK.com. Susie's nicknames for her bandmates reveal exactly how she feels about both brothers individually; while she refers to Frank as "Egghead" because of his growing bald spot and tendency to act unintelligent at times, she calls Jack simply "Baker" because, in her opinion, "there's really only one Baker brother and he's it." The way Susie teases Frank is reminiscent of how Jack used to treat him several years before she joined the band when he had energy to do it.
Susie's ballads occupy roughly one-third of the film, performing a combination of both contemporary and classic standards. Rosenberg compared the character to actress Marilyn Monroe's character Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in the film "Some Like it Hot" (1959). Susie's lack of singing experience is balanced by an "ineffable vocal quality that causes people to listen, because they might be missing something." Steve Vineberg, writing in the journal "Film Quarterly", agreed that, despite her unimpressive voice, Susie "wears a lyric tight to her skin, liked a zipped-up sleeping bag." According to "Télérama's" Guillemette Odicino, the character has been "endowed with a voice and a charm to take the breath." Susie remains a heavily guarded individual until she performs "Makin' Whoopee", which finally allows her to lower her defenses. When Susie performs the song, she is – for the first time – not singing to the audience, but to her sole accompanist Jack instead. According to "Slant" film critic Chuck Bowen, "When Susie sings 'Makin' Whoopee' in a traffic-stopping red dress, mounting Jack's piano as if it's an extension of his very essence ... all bets of detached, business-collaborative stability between the two are understood to be off." Bowen also compared the character's performance to actress Rita Hayworth's in the film "Gilda" (1946). Prior to this moment, it almost appears as though a romantic relationship might never actually develop between the two characters. Observing that the character's tough attitude matches the difficult life she has been through, Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" believes that Susie must be "singing from experience" when she performs the song "Ten Cents a Dance". "Go Slow: The Life of Julie London" author Michael Owen considers both Pfeiffer's performance and Susie herself to be a tribute to actress and singer Julie London, citing similarities such as asking her accompanist to perform "More Than You Know" in a slow tempo, swearing into a live microphone and delivering a "sexy rendition" of "Makin' Whoopee", capturing "some of the essence of Julie's style."
Reception.
When "The Fabulous Baker Boys" was released in 1989, the idea of Pfeiffer portraying a sex worker immediately garnered strong media attention. Pfeiffer's performance of "Makin' Whoopee" was heavily used to promote the film; the attention garnered by this particular sequence rivaled that of most films released that year. Pfeiffer continued to generate significant press even after the studio was forced to remove "The Fabulous Baker Boys" from most theaters to which it had initially been released due to financial concerns. In 1990, "Empire" magazine crowned the actress "The Fabulous Pfeiffer Girl" in homage to her role. Ultimately, Pfeiffer's performance garnered unanimous acclaim. "The New York Times" film critic Janet Maslin wrote that "Pfeiffer is [an] unexpected ... choice for this musical bombshell" but ultimately admitted that she "proves to be electrifyingly right" for the role. According to Jay Boyar of the "Orlando Sentinel", "Pfeiffer does as much for this movie as her Susie does for the Baker boys' act", praising all of her musical performances. Referencing one of her character's lines in which Susie negatively compares the song "Feelings" to parsley, "Rolling Stone" film critic Peter Travers insisted, "Michelle Pfeiffer ... is not parsley. Take her out of this movie, and the movie would evaporate." Travers credits the actress with resurrecting the film during its final moments, opining, "The bounce goes out of the movie until Pfeiffer returns to wrap things up", concluding, "the Bridges brothers are a winning pair. But make no mistake: It's Michelle Pfeiffer who puts the 'fabulous' into Baker Boys." Steve Simels of "Entertainment Weekly" agreed that Pfeiffer "saves Baker Boys from cliché", going on to hail the actress as "a marvel ... so funny and vulnerable that she almost makes her indifferently written bad-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold into something three-dimensional and believable." "Vanity Fair"'s Katey Rich concurred: "The film is ostensibly about the Baker (and Bridges) boys, but Pfeiffer stole the show" by "endow[ing] her lounge-singer character with a lot more soul and vulnerability than she needed to." Contributing to The Morton Report, Chaz Lipp agreed that "Pfeiffer feels absolutely authentic in the role ... put[ting] just the right spin on her line readings to sidestep cliche at every turn", appreciating the actress for interpreting Susie as more than simply a stock character. Despite lamenting that the three main actors "become less interesting" towards the end of the film, "TV Guide" agreed that although "the Bridges boys give typically solid performances, it's Pfeiffer who deserves the most credit". "The Independent"'s David Thomson was particularly impressed with Pfeiffer's singing, opining, "Anyone who can sing like that would be in Las Vegas, not holding together a piano act in the bars and clubs of Seattle". The "Chicago Reader" film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum agreed, calling Pfeiffer "a terrific singer."
"Exclaim!"'s Travis Mackenzie Hoover reviewed, "Pfeiffer turns in a surprisingly nuanced performance in a role that might have been blown off by most other actresses." "The Dissolve"'s Mike D'Angelo opined that Pfeiffer's "best scenes are the ones in which Susie talks candidly about her former life as an 'escort,'" writing, "it's remarkable how she can make a lengthy, here's-my-psyche-in-a-nutshell monologue and sound natural and impromptu, while still coming across as delectably movie-star glamorous." DVD Talk's Neil Lumbard described Pfeiffer's acting as "sensational" in a role that "showcases her talents as both a dramatic and comedic actress." Writing for "The Washington Post", Rita Kempley compared Pfeiffer to actress Lauren Bacall: "Like the sun through a magnifying glass, she burns an image on the screen." Guillemette Odicino of "Télérama" wrote that Pfeiffer's performance proved "she was a wonderful actress" in addition to her beauty. Some critics found that they were unable to comment upon anything other than Pfeiffer's performance of "Makin' Whoopee" despite the film's other merits. Audiences agreed that the scene is a highlight of the film. For the "Arizona Daily Sun", Erin Shelley wrote that "The Fabulous Baker Boys" finally "soars" once Pfeiffer performs "Makin' Whoopee". Dubbing it "one of her finest performances", AllMovie critic Matthew Doberman described Pfeiffer's rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" as "enough to make the film worth seeing." As a character, Susie herself has also garnered a positive reception. Describing her as a "fully-drawn" character, "The Daily Beast"'s Elizabeth Kaye wrote that Susie is "interesting precisely because she's a Madonna and a whore rolled into one." While praising the entire cast and characters, Frank Calvillo of Cinapse declared Susie "the standout and the film's most indispensable character", calling Pfeiffer "luminous and poetic in every frame". However, "Time Out" wrote that Susie fails to "escape stereotyping" despite Pfeiffer's strong performance. Describing the role as Pfeiffer's "richest work", Matthew Jacobs of "HuffPost Canada" wrote that she demonstrates "an accessibility that defies easy assumptions", commending her ability to win audiences over "without bulldozing her co-stars or positioning herself as some sort of diva to be reckoned with — a foundation that pays off later in the film when Susie reveals her working-class vulnerability."
Film critic Roger Ebert predicted that "The Fabulous Baker Boys" would become "one of the movies they will use as a document ... when they begin to trace the steps by which Pfeiffer became a great star", concluding, "This is the movie of her flowering - not just as a beautiful woman, but as an actress with the ability to make you care about her, to make you feel what she feels." Ebert also identified Pfeiffer as a successor to classic Hollywood actresses Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.
Pfeiffer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, her first win and second nomination after having been nominated the previous year for her performance in "Married to the Mob" (1988). Some critics questioned why she had not been nominated in the award's Comedy or Musical category instead considering her several musical performances given throughout "The Fabulous Baker Boys". Pfeiffer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, her second Academy Award nomination. According to film critic Emanuel Levy, Pfeiffer and fellow nominee Jessica Tandy were considered to be the category's top two contenders due to the lackluster performances delivered by other nominees that year; the competition between Pfeiffer and Tandy was dubbed "Old Hollywood Vs. Young Hollywood" by the media as a result of the age difference between Pfeiffer (31) and Tandy (80) at the time. Despite being largely favored to win, Pfeiffer ultimately lost the award to Tandy, who won for her performance in "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), a result that upset both surprised critics and the general public. Critics believe Tandy won because Academy Award voters felt sentimental towards her age, aided by the fact that her film had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture while "The Fabulous Baker Boys" was not. Katey Rich of "Vanity Fair" insists that the award rightfully belonged to Pfeiffer, ranking the spectacle among "10 Times the Golden Globes Got It Right and the Oscars Didn't". Pfeiffer became one of only seven actresses to win Best Actress awards from all four major United States film critics associations – the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics – for a single performance, as well as the only one of these seven actresses who did not go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for that same performance. According to "Stylist", Pfeiffer won nearly every recognized "best actress" film award that season except for the Academy and British Academy Film Awards. Pfeiffer was also nominated for an American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture.
Impact and legacy.
Pfeiffer had already begun to make a name for herself as an actress by starring in the films "Tequila Sunrise", "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Married to the Mob" in 1988, but her performance in "The Fabulous Baker Boys" the following year ultimately benefited her career the most by leaving the largest impression on the film industry, becoming one of her defining roles. One of the actress' earliest notable performances, Susie remains Pfeiffer's most critically acclaimed role to-date, having earned the most enthusiastic reviews of her career thus far. In 2007, Mal Vincent of "The Virginian-Pilot" called Susie "her greatest role", a sentiment shared by Into Film. According to the "Arizona Daily Sun"'s Erin Shelley, Susie's reception finally "cemented Michelle Pfeiffer's reputation as a movie star." "New Woman" contributor Adam Platt wrote that, after the success of "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) and "Dangerous Liaisons", "The Fabulous Baker Boys" established the actress as "a Hollywood star". "Harper's Bazaar"'s Carolyn Doyle Karasyov agreed that Susie "captivated the critics and solidified [Pfeiffer's] position as one of Hollywood's leading ladies." Stephen Rebello of Movieline believes that the Academy Award nomination Pfeiffer received for her performance finally "allowed her to pick the projects she desired" henceforth.
Ranking "The Fabulous Baker Boys" Pfeiffer's best film, Rotten Tomatoes contributor Jeff Giles wrote that the film "most importantly — highlight[s] the luminous beauty of Michelle Pfeiffer." Also ranking it Pfeiffer's greatest film, Robert Pius of Golderby wrote that the actress "made film history." In a ranking of Pfeiffer's five best film roles, "Entertainment Weekly" crowned Susie "the role of her career ... so far". Vulture recognized the performance among Pfeiffer's "10 Essential Roles", which author Angelica Jade Bastién described as "tough yet vulnerable, alluring yet never overwrought", while "The Guardian"'s Adam Boult considers it one of the actress' "five best moments". "GamesRadar+" ranked Pfeiffer's portrayal of Susie the 194th greatest film performance of all-time. Filmsite.org considers Susie to be one of the "Greatest Film Characters of All Time". "Harper's Bazaar" included Susie among Pfeiffer's seven most fashionable film characters, while the Tribeca Film Festival website ranked Susie eighth on the organization's countdown of Pfeiffer's "18 Roles Ranked in Order of Terrifying Beauty". In 2017, InStyle ranked Susie Pfeiffer's fourth "Most Breathtaking" role. In addition to helping establish her as one of her generation's most acclaimed actresses, Pfeiffer's performance also established her as one of the industry's most enduring sex symbols. According to Jane Graham of "The Guardian", "The Fabulous Baker Boys" and Susie are responsible for making Pfeiffer "the biggest female film star in the world" at the time, simultaneously "catapult[ing] her to the top of every Most Desirable Female survey for most of the 90s." Similarly, "Entertainment Weekly"'s Steve Simels wrote that Susie encouraged Pfeiffer's reputation as the "sexiest woman in the movies".
The scene in which Susie, dressed in a red evening dress, seductively performs "Makin' Whoopee" on top of a grand piano has since become iconic and often parodied. As the film's most famous and iconic scene, it quickly became "the stuff of legend" according to Creative Loafing's Matt Brunson. "The Fabulous Baker Boys" tends to be most remembered for this celebrated scene. "The Guardian"'s Jane Graham agreed that the film's title "will immediately conjure up an image of a beautiful woman sliding her way across a grand piano", referring to Pfeiffer's performance as "undoubtedly ... the most memorable aspect" of "The Fabulous Baker Boys", rivaling performances by Marilyn Monroe. Vulture's Angelica Jade Bastién wrote that Pfeiffer elevates the scene "to that small pantheon of definitive bombshell moments that strike with the force of a chemical reaction," comparing it to Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe's performances in "Gilda" and "Some Like It Hot", respectively. Additionally, Turner Classic Movies believes that "Makin' Whoopee" is largely responsible for Pfeiffer's Academy Award nomination. In 2000, "Empire" film critic Ian Nathan proclaimed that Pfeiffer's "immaculate" rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" had finally achieved "classic" status. Mike D'Angelo of "The Dissolve" likened the sequence's impact to those of other famous film performances and lines that "are embodied in the cultural consciousness", such as "You talkin' to me?" from "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Get to the choppa!" from "Predator" (1987), concluding, "It's easy to forget ... that there was more to the movie—and to Pfeiffer's terrific work therein—than that one intensely erotic scene. While including "The Fabulous Baker Boys" among Pfeiffer's greatest film roles, Rachel West of "Entertainment Tonight Canada" wrote that the film's most famous scene "cements her status as a late 1980s blonde bombshell". InSing ranked the scene eighth on their "30 sexiest scenes in movie history" countdown. The "Calgary Herald" considers "The Fabulous Baker Boys" to be the ninth sexiest film of all-time largely due to "Makin' Whoopee". "Nerve" ranked Pfeiffer the 33rd "Greatest Female Sex Symbols in Film History", dubbing the actress' rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" "a play from a sex-symbol how-to guide." After providing her own vocals in "The Fabulous Baker Boys", Pfeiffer would eventually go on to sing in two more musical films, "The Prince of Egypt" (1998) and "Hairspray" (2007), earning positive reviews on each occasion.