Si bémol et fa dièse

I'm truly dating myself but back in the swing days there was a bandleader named Sammy Kaye who used that as his band's slogan. Otherwise my title would have been the tag line for this film.

It was only seven years earlier that the original film, Ball of Fire also came from the Sam Goldwyn Studio. In that one Gary Cooper was one of several professors who were putting together an encyclopedia. His specialty was linguistics and he selected Barbara Stanwyck to help in learn new slang terms.

Here it's a musical encyclopedia and Virginia Mayo stumbles into the lives of the sheltered professors putting this history together. They've led such a cloistered existence that the whole jazz era has passed them by. So Kaye in the Cooper role and another professor played by Benny Goodman with Mayo get some of the best to help them along.

A Song is Born is a pleasant although a previous reviewer is correct in saying that Danny Kaye is far more subdued than usual in this film. But anytime you can get Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, and Mel Powell together for a jam session, the film automatically becomes worthwhile.

This is for every fan of jazz in the world.

While there is a decent plot and Danny Kaye does a good job, the best parts are the music scenes with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and many others. It is a great collection of popular artists of the 40's and earlier.

There are surprises in the plot, especially if you don't recognize some of the actors until they perform.

Danny Kaye's form of humor is not fully appreciated now, but in his time he drew a large following. This movie is a good example of his artistry. His best movie was probably "Hans Christian Anderson." I watched it as a kid and I can still remember the song "Beautiful, Beautiful Copenhagen."

I have this on a vhs and watch it from time to time. Apart from the musical sequences, the story pleases me because Danny Kaye is taken for an idiot by the young lady but in the end she falls in love with him ! It is a pleasure to watch the way her attitude changes. There are not many films with this kind of story, so when I see one I like to treasure it ! In addition to this the musical sequences are memorable with well-known stars. Hopefully they will put it onto Dvd but unfortunately the DVD industry seems to have forgotten about Danny Kaye !

Billy Wilder's story 'From A-Z' which had already been filmed in 1941 as the excellent 'Ball of Fire' with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck gets a musical makeover in this 1948 remake of a group of professors writing an Encyclopedia of music and a gangster's moll hiding out in their foundation.

Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran are reunited yet again after appearing together in 1945's 'Wonder Man' and 1946's 'The Kid from Brooklyn' and this was the fourth and final pairing of Kaye and Mayo, (the other being 1947's 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). However, Kaye is no Gary Cooper, Mayo is no Barbara Stanwyck and Cochran is no Dana Andrews.

The main screenplay for the most part remains unaltered and is basically a word for word copy, except of course in this movie the professors are writing a musical Encyclopedia and not one on general knowledge so these aspects have been changed to fit this change.

Sadly this version lacks the spark that made the original so great and instead of a ball of fire, we get a hot water bottle at best.

However, we are treated to some great 1940's swing, big band and Jazz talent in the form of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Mel Powell, Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton, all masters of their craft and it's these musical interludes that are the ONLY reasons to watch this instead of the 1941 version as they are brilliant and fun to watch and will have your toes a'tappin.

Mayo's singing voice was dubbed by the ultra talented, yet sadly uncredited Jeni Sullavan and some Sullavan's other vocal recordings are well worth checking out.

However, Kaye doesn't have a single song in the movie, which is sad given that comedy songs and zany musical numbers were his main stock in trade. This was because he had recently split from his wife Sylvia Fine who was also the composer of all of his songs and she refused to write write for him and he didn't want anyone else composing for him. Thankfully, the split was only temporary and they reconciled soon after.

Howard Hawks who had directed the original returns to direct here, but he found this version difficult and disliked the finish product. Mary Field is the only returning performer from 'Ball of Fire' as the socialite Miss Totten , the same role she had played seven years before.

Not a bad film, but If you're in it for the plot and plot alone, watch the original. However, if you have a penchant for 1940's jazz and swing music, then give this one a try, those parts will give you a thrill at least even if nothing else does.

Enjoy!

Howard Hawks remake of his 1941 comedy "Ball of Fire" was a vehicle for Danny Kaye, who was popular at the time. This film is based on a story by Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe, which had also been the basis of the original film. The movie was shot in Technicolor, something that must have been one of the stipulations of its star, Danny Kaye.

By changing the original premise from learning about slang to learning about the new popular rhythms that had come out during the thirties and forties, the creators thought they were updating the basic idea, and they succeed, at times. The best thing in this film is the array of talent we see. Some of the giants in popular music of that time, are seen at their best in musical numbers that are clever and that reminds the viewer how classic compositions could relate to the new expressions.

The central story is just a pretext to present Danny Kaye, who is the nerdy professor Frisbee, and his co-star, Virginia Mayo, a night club singer, Honey Swanson. Professor Frisbee gets in hot water because unknown to him, Honey is involved with a gangster, Tony Crow, who doesn't want to let go of his beautiful girlfriend. Besides the two stars, Steve Cochran puts in an appearance as Tony.

Some of the best known popular musicians of that era are seen doing wonderful music together. Tommy Dorsey, Mel Powell, Buck and Bubbles, Charlie Barnett, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, who plays one of the professors.

The film, while not as original as its model, is worth watching for the music alone. Music fans are in for a treat thanks to Mr. Hawks.