Ball of Fire
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett from an original story by Wilder and Thomas Monroe
1941/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Repeat viewing/Warner Home Video DVD
[box] Professor Bertram Potts: Make no mistake, I shall regret the absence of your keen mind; unfortunately, it is inseparable from an extremely disturbing body.[/box]
I love this film. Started smiling when I watched the trailer and didn’t stop until it was over.
The inventor of the electric toaster was miffed at his omission from the Encyclopedia Britannica so left a small fortune to a group of professors to compile a new and “improved” version. One of the stipulations is that the professors be single. The “leader” of the eight experts is linguist Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), who realizes he is not up with the times on American slang. He hits the streets to learn how American English is spoken in 1941 and to put together a “round table” on the subject. One of his star finds is nightclub entertainer Katherine “Sugarpuss” O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck).
It so happens that her gangster boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews) has been picked up for murder and the police are looking for her. She parlays Pott’s invitation to participate in the round table into a place to take cover for a few days. All the old professors are gaga for her and Potts falls in love. But Joe has decided that the best way to deal with his problem is to marry her so she cannot testify against him … With Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, and Leonid Kinsky as a few of the professors and Dan Duryea as Duke Pastrami, Joe’s henchman.
One of the best kissing scenes everBased loosely on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, Wilder and Brackett’s screenplay is a hoot. Stanwyck and Cooper carry over their great chemistry from Meet John Doe and the cast of sterling character actors is superb. This is just a whole lot of fun and quite romantic to boot. Hawks keeps the zingers flying.
Ball of Fire was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Sound, Recording and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Alfred Newman).
Trailer – cinematography by Gregg Toland
A terrific way to kick off August!
I was really ready for a good comedy after all that noir. Today I go back to the darker side with The Little Foxes
Love THE LITTLE FOXES.
I have a massive screen crush on Barbara Stanwyck, so it comes as little surprise I found this charming and fun. The divine Ms. Stanwyck really can’t pull off the “singer” part of burlesque singer, but she can do the rest, and that really is one of the great joys of this movie.
Stanwyck is my very favorite actress of the studio era. I especially love her in comedies. Maybe she can’t sing, but she really sold that “Drum Boogie” with her eyes and body.
Thanks, I’d never have come across this one without your pointer.
I love Barbara Stanwyck in this! She didn’t work enough as a comedienne. Have you seen The Lady Eve? She’s at her comic peak in that one.
After just inferring “haven’t seen this” I find I have, can’t remember it at all….a revisit is called for!. Haven’t (but who knows!!) seen The Lady Eve, onto The List it goes.
Thanks again sensai.
If you can’t imagine Henry Fonda doing a pratfall, you must see this movie! It is hilarious and Barbara Stanwyck is very sexy.
Well I can only say thanks for mentioning Ball of Fire, dunno when I watched it but this time I “knew” something of the main performers and last time I didn’t at all I think. While I can’t love it like you do It was OK (love those olde worlde settings like the profs research & study area in any film). And you’re right about Cooper – put him in the right role and he does comedy very well. This stolen review sums things up far better than I ever could-
review by PeaceAnarchy taken from Criticker
Corny and terribly dated it’d be so easy to dismiss this. Yet I couldn’t help enjoying myself, from the great dance number at the beginning (CAN’T AGREE THERE BUT with Gene Kruppa!), to the many Snow White allusions, the ridiculous slang and the tired archetypes. It’s an absurd comedy that doesn’t realize just how absurd it is because it’s grounded in a realism that’s no longer real.
Looks like wife and I will need to work on you. My husband doesn’t laugh like I do but he mostly gives these a thumbs up at the end.