Bola de Fogo

1941 may very well have been Gary Cooper's career year. His film performances that year are among his best, the Oscar winning Sergeant York, Frank Capra's classic Meet John Doe, and this sparking comedy Ball of Fire. However it was Barbara Stanwyck who snagged an Oscar nomination for this film with her portrayal of sassy nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea. Stanwyck lost however to Joan Fontaine in Suspicion.

A whole lot of talent went into the making of this film besides the two leads. Howard Hawks worked from a script by Billy Wilder and his writing partner, Charles Brackett. And Hawks put together a superb list of supporting players including seven of our finest character actors to be Cooper's professorial colleagues, Henry Travers, Leonid Kinskey, Aubrey Mather, Oscar Homolka, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall and making his film debut, Richard Haydn.

These eight cloistered academicians are working off a grant to create some kind of ultimate encyclopedia. Cooper's specialty is the English language. A garbageman played by Allen Jenkins awakens him to a whole generation of new slang terms he hasn't heard. Cooper ventures out into the world and meets a variety of people and hears a whole batch of new expressions. His wanderings take him to a nightclub where he hears Stanwyck singing with Gene Krupa's band.

Stanwyck's just filled with all the new hep jive talk, but she's also ducking a grand jury subpoena to testify against her boy friend, gangster Dana Andrews. She decides a good place to hide might just be the house where all these professors are quartered.

It's quite a mismatch, scholarly and shy Cooper and brazen Stanwyck, In fact Hawks modeled Cooper's Bertram Potts on the character Cary Grant played in Bringing Up Baby which Hawks also directed. Cooper was as successful as Grant in breaking his stereotype though he never quite got the physical comedy down the way Cary did.

Still Ball of Fire is a great big ball of amusement. I'm surprised there hasn't been a remake of this recently. Danny Kaye did a remake called A Song Is Born later in the decade with Kaye being a music professor instead. But I can see the possibilities of a remake here with this group of academicians putting together a Wikipedia like encyclopedia or even an ultimate search engine for the internet like Google.

Ball of Fire is a real 'screwball' comedy, and it being directed by Howard Hawks, who made arguably the best one of all (His Girl Friday), ups the stakes just a bit. Not only that, but it was one of Billy Wilder's first projects on a screenplay, and his sharp wit comes through in almost every scene that needs it. And more than that, when the movie needs to be romantic, without any frills, it really is. At the center of the craziness that becomes the story (mostly towards the end and early on and a little in the middle) is a story that we know is formulaic- that a woman who is already attached (if not quite yet hitched) to someone else falls into an unlikely situation with another man and the two suddenly become really close, the man first and then the woman- but its the chemistry between a sexy pre-Double Indemnity Barbara Stanwyck with conservative Gary Cooper.

If, ultimately, it doesn't have the machine-gun energy of His Girl Friday (then again, few movies do), it makes up for it with a fun premise that Hawks and Wilder ride out logically, as far as comedy premises can go. It's about seven professors and their leader professor, played by Cooper, who for years have been writing an encyclopedia and are coming close to the end... except for a snag - slang words. The old guys and intellectuals haven't a clue as to what words like "Boogie" and "sugar-puss" mean, until they get a few people off the street to tell them. That, and a nightclub singer (Stanwyck) on the run from the cops after she gets unwittingly (and unfairly) mixed up in a murder plot with her fiancée. So, she shacks up with Cooper and his fellow profs, and it becomes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the twist that the girl this time is a lot more wily (and tempting) while the men are... old professor types who know almost everything except the human heart.

But Hawks makes twist on his own premise as he goes along, too. We see the natural progression of the plot, of Cooper quickly falling in love with Stanwyck's advances (all fake at first just so she can stay at the house), and then little by little she falls for him too, or at least feels so guilty about what she's doing to see the old geezers as real people instead of obstacles. There are a few key scenes that break the mold of the comedic antics (some of which, like Stanwyck showing the old men how to dance is hilarious and memorable): one is the bachelor dinner between the professors, when the one professor, played by Richard Haydn, talks about his marriage from many years before, and it becomes genuinely tender and sincere, not played for laughs, certainly not when they're all singing the song Gienevive. The other scene is when Cooper walks into the wrong room (thinking it's a professor and not his future wife) and asks for advice about what to do, as he loves her and isn't sure about himself. It's all shot in dark, with a few specific lighting touches, and it's about perfect.

The ensemble is entertaining- from the old men with their various (sometimes interchangeable) personalities, to the film-noir knockoffs playing the henchmen of Joe Lilac- and there are many lines and moments that, upon a repeat viewing, should become even quotable. It could be said that it's slightly dated in some of its approach to tradition vs. the titillating, but it never loses its sense of humor, all the way up to the climax. Oh, and it also happens to feature one of the best nightclub music scenes in the movies, with Gene Krupa and his band doing "Drum Boogie", first in its usual form (a fantastic drum solo at the end), and then a variation on it with Krupa performing the song in a huddle of people with matchsticks on a matchbox. A small masterpiece of music in the middle of very good romantic comedy.

Barbara Stanwyck plays a wise-cracking entertainer who moves in with 8 professorial types in "Ball of Fire," a marvelous Billy Wilder film, directed by Howard Hawks, that is loosely based on Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs! Only Wilder could come up with an idea like this and make it shine.

And shine it does. Stanwyck is perfect as Sugarpuss O'Shea, whose boyfriend is a mobster sought after by the police. After a visit by Cooper, whose assignment is slang for the encyclopedia he and the others have been writing for only nine years, she drops in on him late at night, intending to hide out there so the police can't subpoena her testimony. Cooper falls for her while the other, older men develop paternalistic feelings for her.

Stanwyck is gorgeous and gets to show off that fabulous body and great legs as well as her flair for comedy. She's in stark contrast to Cooper as a man who's been in his ivory tower too long. Cooper was one of the handsomest movie stars ever. Tall and gangly, slow-talking, with a boyish smile that lights up his face, it's no wonder the heiress funding the encyclopedia is crazy about him and that Stanwyck finds herself drifting into love with him.

Dana Andrews has a good role as the mobster boyfriend, and one of his sidekicks is the always snarky Dan Duryea. The professors are all terrific. Highly entertaining fare from Billy Wilder, and the last film he ever wrote but didn't direct.

When you think of Gary Cooper, what kinds of part do you think of? Strong silent men, men of honor, gunfighters of the old west, people like Sergeant York and the Sheriff in "High Noon", right? You certainly don't think funny, and you'd certainly never think he could play a NERD, but he does in this film. Not only is he a convincing complete geek, but he's funny, AND sexy!

The story is pretty silly (inspired by "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs", really): A group of dorky professors are writing an encyclopedia, and English Professor Cooper decides he needs more information on Slang. In his quest for current jive talk he meets Barbara Stanwyck, as a too-lively singer/gang moll. She takes advantage of his invitation to discuss verbiage to use his ivory tower as a hideout, and moves in with the professors. She quickly decides to stay, then to have her way with Coop (who wouldn't), and then falls...

A very funny, sprightly film, fast-paced and full of wonderful performances. Stanwyck is glowingly wonderful, but I still can't get over Cooper's wonderful characterization of a supremely attractive total geek. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, see the movie and you'll realize it's true.

How in hell have I never seen this film before or even been aware of it? How did I forget just how freaking hot Barbara Stanwyck was back in the day?Why can't Hollywood make movies this smart, funny, and good these days? Even though it's been displayed in other films like "Mr Deeds Goes to Town," how did Gary Cooper's comedic abilities surprise me in this one?

This is a very enjoyable film. It's got snappy, funny dialogue and while the premise requires suspension of belief it's not so far-fetched as to prevent enjoyment.

While there are film noir qualities it is more in line with the screwball comedies of the period. Big plus for featuring Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge in the nightclub scene.

Highly recommended.