Ball of Fire (1941)

Perfect cast and a good story

A Masterpiece!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Howard Hawks' emblematic screwball comedy germinates from the wheeze of Billy Wilder when the latter was still in Germany, it is the quintessential coupling of the pedantic and the sultry, Gary Cooper plays Prof. Bertram Potts, a grammarian who is leading a group of eight scholars compiling and collating an encyclopedia, when a sultry nightclub performer Sugarpuss O'Shea (Stanwyck) takes shelter in their residence in NYC, who indeed is the gun moll of mob boss Joe Lilac (Andrews), the rest is written in the stone although it takes a tortuous route to reach its feel-good finish line. Less loquacious and rapid-fire than Howard's BRINGING UP BABY (1938), BALL OF FIRE points up the mine of vernacular in lieu of verbal rebuttal between the opposite sexes, it is during Prof. Potts' field trip to collect current lexicon of slang when he is swept off his feet by a bling-bling Sugarpuss, performing DRUM BOOGIE with Gene Krupa and his orchestra, accentuated by the bandleader's killing drum solo and an ingenious miniature encore with matches. They are two different kettles of fish, a stuffy bachelor vs. a pragmatic siren, a mismatch rarely can make their way out in real life, and that's what enthralls even today's audience, to watch something profoundly absurd but innocuously entertaining without its story being dumb-ed down or defamed by crass jokes pandering to the lowest common denominator is almost too good to be true.Also, the star appeal is in high voltage, Cooper is not just a too handsome specimen in a button- down suit, he also makes the shtick of doing everything with proprieties look effortless and goofy; an Oscar-nominated Stanwyck benefits from an earthier temperament and layers of inner conflicts deviled by her sapio-sexual conversion, is at her best when she retains her phlegm before impishly doling out her "yum yum" to a gawky virgin, which catches him unawares. Another fount of joy comes from the riff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as the other 7 professors grows an unanimous affinity to Sugarpuss, to the dismay of the stern housemaid Miss Bragg (Howard), and among them, the only widower is the botanist Prof. Oddly, Richard Haydn brings about a love-ably prissy mannerism that steals the limelight in the well-orchestrated crunch when the group has to outmaneuver Joe's two pistol-wielding henchmen.In short, considerably more accessible and more laid-back than BRINGING UP BABY, BALL OF FIRE excels in conflating different genre fodder (comedy, musical, gangster) into a helluva ride of a modern fairy-tale, and runs away with our affection on a moment's notice.

BALL OF FIRE is one unassailable and enjoyable to watch comedy. Director Hawks surprised me with his moderation. Honestly I was expecting an explosion of "something", but I think that in this case made a real impact as well. Perhaps overly potentiation (sexual) attraction between opposite character (in this case professor and entertainer) and sudden marriage at first sight. Cute is a parody of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Older professors are dwarfs, the youngest of them is prince, singer or entertainer is a princess and evil witch is ruthless gangster.Gary Cooper as Professor Bertram Potts was re-coiled and very intelligent. Some kind of genius. Maybe socially inept, but very gentle and honest character. Range humor is what adorns Cooper through this genre. Barbara Stanwyck as Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea She found herself in a similar role as The Lady Eve. Again, a strong female character who is tough and feminine at the same time. She again plays on sexuality. Just to mention a scene in which her foot after she pulled the sock, ended in Cooper's arms.Ball of Fire is light and entertaining comedy. Maybe it does not belong to classics, but is certainly enjoyable to watch.

A group of eight professors, each an expert in a different field, have been living under the same roof working on an encyclopedia project for nine years. The language expert, Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), realizes that his time cooped up in the house has made him out of touch with the most current slang. So he heads back out into the world in order to gather more research and update his slang vocabulary. He soon meets sexy nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), who has a colorful way with words. Realizing she is a one-woman slang dictionary, Bertram invites Sugarpuss to come stay with the professors while he finishes his research. She agrees, mostly because she needs a place to hide because her gangster boyfriend has been arrested and the police are after her to testify. Sugarpuss quickly takes a liking to the professors in this screwball comedy twist on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A gem of a comedy with an outstanding cast. Barbara Stanwyck is at her best her with a role that seems tailor-made for her. I doubt any other actress from the period could have pulled this part off as well. The closest I can think of would be Ginger Rogers, who apparently turned down the role. This movie reunites Stanwyck with Gary Cooper, her costar from Meet John Doe, released earlier the same year. Cooper is great, as you might expect. He has wonderful chemistry with Stanwyck. The professors are all charming character actors most classic movie fans will know and love: Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Oscar Homolka, Tully Marshall, Richard Haydn, Leonid Kinskey, and Aubrey Mather. In addition to these fine actors, there's good support from Dana Andrews, Allen Jenkins, and Dan Duryea. Just a marvelous cast.It's a very cute movie with heart and laughs. You can't go wrong with a Howard Hawks comedy from the '30s or '40s, especially one with a script by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. If you're a fan of the director or stars, of course you'll love it. If you like snappy patter and slang from this period, I think this movie will become a favorite of yours.

This story takes its viewers back to the days before advanced technology, back to the time when research came from slaving over dusty old volumes for hours on end. Eight peculiar professors spend nine years doing just that, fulfilling one deceased man's dream of compiling an exceptional encyclopedia. Absorbed by academia, they are unaware of the perks of street life until the handsome, yet naïve Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) ventures out to research his article on slang. Opting to observe city life and its specimens, he invites an array of characters to the foundation to assist him in studying art of slang.His subject of interest for the project is the feisty Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). The girlfriend of mob boss Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews), she uses the foundation to escape entanglement in Joe's murder charges. Almost immediately, she brings life to the foundation and its occupants. The clashing of the academic world with city life takes the viewers along for a ride of laughter, thrills, and more laughter. Gary Cooper did a fantastic job playing an egghead. His performance is charming and won my heart in more than one scene. Barbara Stanwyck portrayed the selfish club singer using others for her advantage, but she eventually softens. The real delights of the film were the seven elderly professors, particularly Richard Haydn whose comical one-liners and stuff-shirt demeanor keeps one laughing hysterically.This movie was by far one of the best I have seen for a long time, cleverly combining elements of comedy, romance, and drama.