Ball of Fire (1941)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Charles Brackett (screenplay) &
Billy Wilder (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 December 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

The New Year's red-hot comedy!

Plot:

A group of ivory-tower lexicographers realize they need to hear how real people talk, and end up helping a beautiful singer escape from the Mob.

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Slang | Nightclub | Singer | Gangster

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars.

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Prof. Bertram Potts
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Sugarpuss O'Shea
Oskar Homolka	...	Prof. Gurkakoff
Henry Travers	...	Prof. Jerome
S.Z. Sakall	...	Prof. Magenbruch
Tully Marshall	...	Prof. Robinson
Leonid Kinskey	...	Prof. Quintana
Richard Haydn	...	Prof. Oddly
Aubrey Mather	...	Prof. Peagram
Allen Jenkins	...	Garbage Man
Dana Andrews	...	Joe Lilac
Dan Duryea	...	Duke Pastrami
Ralph Peters	...	Asthma Anderson
Kathleen Howard	...	Miss Bragg
Mary Field	...	Miss Totten

Also Known As:

The Professor and the Burlesque Queen

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Argentina:Atp | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #7847)

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

To pick up authentic slang for the film script, screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett visited the drugstore across the street from Hollywood High School, a burlesque house and the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the "Drumboogie" sequence, the black jazz trumpet soloist Roy Eldridge disappears from the band between shots.

Quotes:

Sugarpuss O'Shea: [about Potts] Yes, I love him. I love those hick shirts he wears with the boiled cuffs and the way he always has his vest buttoned wrong. He looks like a giraffe, and I love him.

Movie Connections:

References Sergeant York (1941)

Soundtrack:

Drum Boogie

Ball of fun.

Basically, this is a gangster version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Here "Snow White" is a night club singer faultlessly played by Barbara Stanwyck. The "evil witch" is the local police, out to haul her in because of tie-in to a gangster (Dana Andrews) The magic forest of course, is New York. The seven dwarfs are a group of introverted professors led by bookworm Gary Cooper.

The film ahs a wonderful screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. (Sample dialog COP: How do you find a needle in a haystack? GANGSTER: Simple. Feed the hay to a horse, and X-Ray the horse.) Directed with zip by the great Howard Hawks.