BALL OF FIRE

US, 1942, 111 minutes, Black and white.
Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S. Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Leonid Kinsky, Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather, Allen Jenkins, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea.
Directed by Howard Hawks.

Ball of Fire is a very entertaining comedy of the early '40s. It is more gentle than the traditional screwball comedy of the '30s. Director Howard Hawks had made Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday with Cary Grant starring with Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell. These were quick witted fast paced comedies. This is more measured with Barbara Stanwyck doing the fast movements and Gary Cooper doing the pleasantly slow comic moves. There is a strong supporting cast especially the professors led by Oscar Homolka. Dana Andrews has a good role as the villain and Dan Duryea does yet another of his thugs.

The screenplay, by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, has a lot of the sardonic Wilder touch (he began his directing career with The Major and the Minor at this time). Director Hawks is more noted for his action films and the theme of male bonding and the woman entering into the men's world. This is in evidence here. The film has excellent technical credits and is a comedy with some charm. Gary Cooper was to win the Oscar the following year in Hawks' Sergeant York.

The film was remade by Hawks himself seven years later as a musical with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, A Song is Born. Mary Field played Miss Totten in both films, enjoyably in the first but with a chance to do some singing and dancing with Danny Kaye in the second.

1. An entertaining film? Comedy pleasures? A piece of '40s Americana? Theme of men, the group, the woman in the group? Their enterprise, culture and reality? The world of the gangsters, the nightclubs, the law? Guns and violence? Intellectual attitudes towards life, instincts? Romance?

2. The reputation of Howard Hawks and his action style? His comedies? Billy Wilder's films, writing and direction and the sardonic satirical touch? The theme of the group, the group being changed? Culture? Comedy? The film and its relationship to the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story?

3. Production values: black and white photography, the mansion, the night club? The visual impact of New York and New Jersey in the '40s? The sounds, verbal, songs? The leading stars and their complementary styles?

4. The establishing of the situation: the professors returning from lunch, getting to work, their isolation, the mansion, their expertise? The respect for their job - and the satire on its ivory tower style? The range of personalities ? character actors of the early '40s and their styles, interaction? Types? Secluded bachelors, plus one widower!

5. The crisis in the writing of the encyclopaedia? Miss Totten and her lawyer? The warnings and confrontation? Bertram Potts and his ability to charm Miss Totten?

6. The man with the quiz questions and his interrogation? His use of slang and the professors' shock and their insular knowledge, learning only from out-of-date books? Bertram's decision to go out? His tour and checking vocabulary? His fascination with Sugarpuss? Her song? His interrogation and leaving his card? The establishing of Potts as a pleasant Gary Cooper style? Nice, quiet, with some go? A romantic type without knowing it?

7. The introduction of Sugarpuss ? Barbara Stanwyck's vivacity, her nightclub song, getting the people to join in the boogie-woogie song? The crooks arriving, warning her to leave, her love for Joe Lilac? The decision to hide, the arrival of the police, the escape in the taxi, the card and her decision to use the professors?

8. The reaction of the professors to her arrival? Shyness, awkwardness, fuss, giving their rooms, wanting their trousers ironed? Miss Bragg and her hostile reaction? Sugarpuss teaching them how to dance? Their romantic sides coming out? Her helping in the details of research?

9. Bertram and his encounter with her, her using him to stay the night? Participating in the work? The recordings, Bertram's fascination and falling in love? Miss Bragg's confrontation? The kiss and Yum Yum? Miss Bragg's ultimatum and the taxi for her? The breakfast sequence and Bertram proposing, the ring?

10. The phone call from Daddy and Sugarpuss' getting away, Bertram talking to his prospective father-in-law with the ironic comedy? The set up for Sugarpuss' escape? Sugar and the paper and her punching and locking up Miss Bragg?

11. The group's reaction to the engagement? all engaged and kissing the fiancee? The preparations, the car, being held up by the police, the old-fashioned driving ? without a renewed licence? The accident?

12. The sentiment in the variation on the bucks' party? Oddly and his intellectual reminiscence about Genevieve? Their singing 'Genevieve' and the songs? Bertram and the mistaken room? His speech to Oddly and Sugar's response?

13. Joe and company, the plans, the arrival, the telling of the truth, Bertram sending away the police? Sugarpuss' apology and the blank page without excuse?

14. The return home, disillusionment, hearing her on the record? The invasion by the gangsters? The device of Miss Totten and the lawyer arriving? Their all being involved? The high-falutin' talk and the tricking of the gangsters? Their shooting up the house, mindless violence?

15. Sugar and her stalling the marriage, her hostility to Joe?

16. The professors and Bertram getting the guns, going to the rescue? Bertram and the fighting manual and his being knocked out? Instinct and fighting Joe? The persuasion to marry Sugarpuss: the professors and all their scientific arguments? The Yum Yum kiss?

17. The happy ending? Themes of men and women? Romance? Intellect and heart? Culture? Change?