Bola de fuego

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.

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.

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.

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.

This film (remade in 1948 as a musical with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo with the title, "A Song Is Born") is a hilarious vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, who was nominated for Best Actress for her performance here. Anyone who has only seen Ms. Stanwyck in film noir such as "Double Indemnity" or in television's Big Valley should watch this or "Christmas In Connecticut" to see a fine comedic talent at work. She blows Gary Cooper off the screen! Most Recommended.