Boule de feu

"Ball of Fire" is known as the last great pre-war comedy, and with good reason. It all begins when a group of egghead professors are writing an encyclopedia. Then, grammarian Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) realizes that he doesn't know any modern slang. Frequenting the nightclubs, he meets dancer Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), who has a connection to the mob. This leads all the characters on the most unexpected adventure.

I really liked the way that every one of the nerdy professors is tempted to correct every mistake made by the others. But the gags throughout the movie are really something. Hilarious.

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.

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.

Snow White elated fable with an early 1940s touch. This modern day Snow White is riddled with lingo commonly spoken by people in early 1940s America. Instead of being a pure and innocent woman as in the original version, this Snow White is a nightclub singer with dubious associations to a known gangster. Also, the character played by Gary Cooper is both Prince Charming and head dwarf rolled into one.

Feels more like a Billy Wilder film than a Howard Hawks feature. This is because of certain characteristics throughout the story like its zanniness which is a fixture of Billy Wilder's comedies. Also includes a satiric element so importantly featured in most of Billy Wilder's directorial work. Skillfully written by Billy Wilder, a filmmaker with a knack for creating humorous situations out of everyday life.

Ball of Fire(1941) is the major blue print for Billy Wilder's late 1950s comedy masterpiece, Some Like It Hot(1959). It deals with someone who has to blend with a crowd she doesn't usually hang out with to avoid trouble which was the basic premise for Some Like It Hot(1959). The plot for Ball of Fire(1941) where Sugarpuss O'Shea finds sanctuary in a male filled world is the perfect opposite of Some Like It Hot(1959) where the two male characters blend in a female dominated band. Sugurpuss O'Shea and the two male characters of Some Like It Hot(1959) are involved in nightclub work though in different jobs.

Barbara Stanwyck is awe striking gorgeous for the part of Sugarpuss O'Shea. She belongs in a long line of beautiful and talented actressess who dazzles the big screen with presence in Howard Hawks films. Barbara Stanwyck in this film is a sensuous kitten and tough thinking woman. A warmup for Stanwyck's most sensual performance on film in Double Indemnity(1944).

No Howard Hawks motion picture(with few exceptions) goes through a story without including some kind of romantic chemistry and romantic conflict. Professor Potts and Sugarpuss O'Shea are opposites personality wise yet connect because of Potts naive but joyful look at life. What wins Sugarpuss's heart is Professor Potts clumsy and gentle nature which is quite a contrast to her gangster boyfriend. The romantic chemistry of the two lacks the hard-boiled edge of the Bogart-Bacall films by Howard Hawks which is a refreshing change here.

The classic screwball comedy that was extremely popular during the decades of the 1930s and 1940s. Ball of Fire(1941) is part of Howard Hawks screwball comedy period when he contributed to the sub genre with comical and witty portrayals of everyday life. Matches the rapid fire dialogue of His Girl Friday(1941) with the sultriness of The Big Sleep(1946). Ball of Fire(1941) puts smiles on faces with priceless moments of laughter.

Sugarpuss O'Shea is a typically strong Hawks female character who overwheims the film's hero with her flamboyant manners. The name Sugarpuss suggests something that is alluring and sweet. The inspiration for the person of Sugarpuss O'Shea was Mistress of Bugsy Siegal, Virginia "Sugar" Hill. Sugarpuss O'Shea bar none is the most alluring female character in a Howard Hawks movie.

Well rounded performances are turned out by the majority of the cast. The actors who play Professor Potts associates excell in their eccentric performances. Nice for a change to see Gary Cooper play a person who is awkward, intellegent, and romantic. Dan Duryea adds a touch of dry comic relief as a gangster thug.

Amusing to see six grown men behave in manners akin to an adolescent the minute Sugarpuss O'Shea walks into their lives. The scenes where Professor Potts goes on the street to learn of some street slang to add to his and associates encyclopedia is a masterstroke in editing. The moment near the end where Potts tells the gangster boyfriend of Sugarpuss to "Put up your dukes" is a hirilous moment in the film. His Girl Friday(1940) is still the best screwball comedy Howard Hawks ever did but Ball of Fire(1941) is a close second.

Ball of Fire(1941) comprises of some fine cinematography by Gregg Toland whose creative eye lended a hand to the monumental camera work of Citizen Kane released during the same year. Early in the nightclub scene is an uncredited cameo by Elisha Cook Jr. Most of the time an excellent film is marked by excellent direction and Ball of Fire(1941) is no exception. Lighthearted and sentlementle romantic comedy that belongs to an era when films were done a certain way.

Wow, what a cast! Let's see, there's Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Haydn, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Dana Andrews, Allen Jenkins and more! Classic film fans know all these names.

What's more, it's a fun movie, fun to see and especially fun to hear. Stanwyck is her usual fascinating self, but in this movie it's the men - the seven old bachelors and the younger Cooper in the "club" - that are the most entertaining.

When you have directors and writers such as Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder behind the film, you know it's a winner.

Because the story dealt with a bunch of encyclopedia writers trying to find out the latest slang words, the dialog in here is really funny. The expressions of the day are dated and humorous and there are so many you can't count them all. Some are stupid; some are hilarious...which is what you get with most comedies anyway. Not every line hits the mark, but a lot do in this one.

Tack on some action and some romance and it's corny-but-cute film , entertaining all the way.