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.

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 !

"A Song is Born" was made in 1948. This was a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

A group of dull music professors are studying the history of music. Two window cleaners urge Danny Kaye, a music professor, to go out and hear music around him.

In Damon Runyan-like atmosphere, he accidentally gets involved with gangsters and their moll-Virginia Mayo.

She hides out by Kaye and his other professors as she is wanted for questioning regarding a murder that her guy-Steve Cochran-may have committed. Remember Cochran and Mayo two years earlier in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives?"

When she hides out, she brings an assortment of musicians with her to join the professors and all belt out music. Thanks to Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey, the music shines. Benny Goodman is unrecognizable as one of the corny music professors.

The hostage situation at film's end is hilarious at best.

A musical treat; funny and memorable when Kaye pops the question. Lots of good fun.

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.

This is a musical remake of the 1940 classic "Ball of Fire". The plot is almost the same, a gangster's moll crashes the residence of a bunch of professors who are writing an encyclopedia, and falls in love the the youngest one. This time they're a musical encyclopedia rather than a generalized one, which allows for a lot of musical numbers, some of them pretty enjoyable. It's a lively, superficial, colorful musical with some laughs to it, if you haven't seen "Ball of Fire" you'll probably have quite a good time.

But the film and especially the performances are vastly inferior to the original. Virginia Mayo is the same as she always was in musical comedies, a sort of generic leading lady/straight man. Danny Kaye is limited by his role, he's playing an uptight nerd and can't use his fabulous manic energy at all for most of the film (Gary Cooper was absolutely hilarious as the uptight nerd in the original, he was one good actor). The supporting performances are all pretty cartoonish, none stand out, but there are appearances by Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Lionel Hampton which you might want to catch.