What happens to an ivy tower atmosphere if it is invaded by a sexually alluring siren? Will it lead to events similar to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from their perfect cocoon of the Garden of Eden? But the sin of Adam and Eve was tasting of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. The eight professors in the ivy tower already have all the known knowledge of the world - their only problem is trying to dispense that knowledge within a three year deadline. Will they now miss that deadline?
That is the situation of Howard Hawk's comedy "Ball Of Fire", one of the two great comedies (with "The Lady Eve") that Barbara Stanwyck made at Paramount in 1941. People who think of Stanwyck as the dramatic equal of Davis and Hepburn only think of her in films like "Stella Dallas", "Baby Face", "Double Indemnity", or "Sorry, Wrong Number". Nobody denies Stanwyck's abilities as a fine dramatic actress, but she was terrific too in comedies (and it is interesting that her two finest comedies showcase her as a sexually alluring comedian).
Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea is a nightclub entertainer, who is also the girlfriend of mob boss Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews, in a rare villainous role). Joe is having trouble with the District Attorney of New York City (Addison Richards) who is trying to crack a murder that may be linked to the mobster. It turns out that Sugarpuss can cement the case, so Joe needs to hide his girlfriend...and maybe marry her (if they marry she can't testify against her husband). He sends his two henchmen, Duke Pastrami (Dan Duryea) and Asthma Anderson (Ralph Peters) to tell her to lay low...but where? Earlier that evening Sugarpuss got a visit from a Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) who needs her knowledge of street vernacular for an article he is writing in an encyclopedia on the subject of "slang". Although she initially rejected his request for help, she now finds it fits nicely into the needs of her boyfriend Joe. So she turns up at the building in Manhattan that Potts and seven colleagues (Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinski, Harry Travers, and S.Z. Sakall) have been living at for nearly a decade while working on this major encyclopedia for a foundation.
That is the bare bones set-up for this film, one of Howard Hawks best comedies. Like "His Gal Friday" and "I Was A Male War Bride", Hawks makes his female lead fully capable at being a match or more than a match for the male characters. If Cary Grant's newspaper editor Walter Burns did connive and scheme against Rosalind Russell's Hildy Johnson, she gave him as good as he gave her until circumstances played into his hands. The situation is the same here, except that Sugarpuss is like a breath of youth and fresh air to Cooper and the seven older professors, so that for all their book learning they lack a certain amount of common sense in dealing with the charming singer. She manages to compromise them from the start, establishing a room for herself in their headquarters building that the foundation never made plans for.
Not everyone is taken in: Kathleen Howard, the housekeeper Mrs. Bragg, finds out the truth from a newspaper and almost ruins Sugarpuss' schemes. But what is worse, perhaps, is the slow realization by Sugarpuss that the square, geeky Bertram is a decent guy - and a better boyfriend than Joe. Which sort of gums up the works for Joe and his schemes, and Joe is not the sort to like his schemes to be gummed up at all.
Samuel Goldwyn produced "Ball Of Fire", and since he did he got a first rate director and cast together. Stanwyck appears to have been third choice for Sugarpuss (Lucille Ball was supposed to play the role, but was dropped when Stanwyck became available - she might have carried it off, for she played a similar role in "The Big Street" opposite Henry Fonda a few years later). One wonder is Hawks originally planned for Grant in the lead (one could see him as the expert on English, who is a naive professor - similar to his anthropologist in "Bringing Up Baby"). But Goldwyn made several films with Cooper, and probably pushed for that leading man. Cooper shows enough naiveté in his performance to make his discovery of love all the sweeter. The real joy that he expresses when he realizes that Stanwyck favors him over Andrews is rather touching, even though it is presented at a moment of danger to Cooper and several others.
As for the supporting cast, they are all good. Duryea is properly insolent and dumb as the hoodlum Pastrami. Allen Jenkins is a garbage man seeking knowledge for pecuniary gain (quiz show answers). The professors are individually cute, particularly Homolka, driving with an out-of-date driver's license (from 1906) but insisting Teddy Roosevelt thought his driving "bully", and Haydn, the only one of the professors to have ever married, who proves a sentimental type (he carries his dead wife's hair around in a locket). One also notes Mary Field as Miss Totten, the daughter of the wealthy inventor who created the foundation, who (despite the wise words of her lawyer Charles Lane) keeps giving the professors more time to finish their work because she is sweet on Cooper. We last see that young lady enjoying a chase sequence - it was more fun than she ever had experienced before.
Finally there is a nice sequence where Stanwyck demonstrates her voice by singing "Drum Boogie" to the accompaniment of Gene Krupa and his band. She also (with the seven elderly professors) dances the conga. Stanwyck rarely appeared in musicals (I can only recall "Lady Of Burlesque" off hand), so it is nice to see her show her singing and her dancing here as well.
That is the situation of Howard Hawk's comedy "Ball Of Fire", one of the two great comedies (with "The Lady Eve") that Barbara Stanwyck made at Paramount in 1941. People who think of Stanwyck as the dramatic equal of Davis and Hepburn only think of her in films like "Stella Dallas", "Baby Face", "Double Indemnity", or "Sorry, Wrong Number". Nobody denies Stanwyck's abilities as a fine dramatic actress, but she was terrific too in comedies (and it is interesting that her two finest comedies showcase her as a sexually alluring comedian).
Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea is a nightclub entertainer, who is also the girlfriend of mob boss Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews, in a rare villainous role). Joe is having trouble with the District Attorney of New York City (Addison Richards) who is trying to crack a murder that may be linked to the mobster. It turns out that Sugarpuss can cement the case, so Joe needs to hide his girlfriend...and maybe marry her (if they marry she can't testify against her husband). He sends his two henchmen, Duke Pastrami (Dan Duryea) and Asthma Anderson (Ralph Peters) to tell her to lay low...but where? Earlier that evening Sugarpuss got a visit from a Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) who needs her knowledge of street vernacular for an article he is writing in an encyclopedia on the subject of "slang". Although she initially rejected his request for help, she now finds it fits nicely into the needs of her boyfriend Joe. So she turns up at the building in Manhattan that Potts and seven colleagues (Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinski, Harry Travers, and S.Z. Sakall) have been living at for nearly a decade while working on this major encyclopedia for a foundation.
That is the bare bones set-up for this film, one of Howard Hawks best comedies. Like "His Gal Friday" and "I Was A Male War Bride", Hawks makes his female lead fully capable at being a match or more than a match for the male characters. If Cary Grant's newspaper editor Walter Burns did connive and scheme against Rosalind Russell's Hildy Johnson, she gave him as good as he gave her until circumstances played into his hands. The situation is the same here, except that Sugarpuss is like a breath of youth and fresh air to Cooper and the seven older professors, so that for all their book learning they lack a certain amount of common sense in dealing with the charming singer. She manages to compromise them from the start, establishing a room for herself in their headquarters building that the foundation never made plans for.
Not everyone is taken in: Kathleen Howard, the housekeeper Mrs. Bragg, finds out the truth from a newspaper and almost ruins Sugarpuss' schemes. But what is worse, perhaps, is the slow realization by Sugarpuss that the square, geeky Bertram is a decent guy - and a better boyfriend than Joe. Which sort of gums up the works for Joe and his schemes, and Joe is not the sort to like his schemes to be gummed up at all.
Samuel Goldwyn produced "Ball Of Fire", and since he did he got a first rate director and cast together. Stanwyck appears to have been third choice for Sugarpuss (Lucille Ball was supposed to play the role, but was dropped when Stanwyck became available - she might have carried it off, for she played a similar role in "The Big Street" opposite Henry Fonda a few years later). One wonder is Hawks originally planned for Grant in the lead (one could see him as the expert on English, who is a naive professor - similar to his anthropologist in "Bringing Up Baby"). But Goldwyn made several films with Cooper, and probably pushed for that leading man. Cooper shows enough naiveté in his performance to make his discovery of love all the sweeter. The real joy that he expresses when he realizes that Stanwyck favors him over Andrews is rather touching, even though it is presented at a moment of danger to Cooper and several others.
As for the supporting cast, they are all good. Duryea is properly insolent and dumb as the hoodlum Pastrami. Allen Jenkins is a garbage man seeking knowledge for pecuniary gain (quiz show answers). The professors are individually cute, particularly Homolka, driving with an out-of-date driver's license (from 1906) but insisting Teddy Roosevelt thought his driving "bully", and Haydn, the only one of the professors to have ever married, who proves a sentimental type (he carries his dead wife's hair around in a locket). One also notes Mary Field as Miss Totten, the daughter of the wealthy inventor who created the foundation, who (despite the wise words of her lawyer Charles Lane) keeps giving the professors more time to finish their work because she is sweet on Cooper. We last see that young lady enjoying a chase sequence - it was more fun than she ever had experienced before.
Finally there is a nice sequence where Stanwyck demonstrates her voice by singing "Drum Boogie" to the accompaniment of Gene Krupa and his band. She also (with the seven elderly professors) dances the conga. Stanwyck rarely appeared in musicals (I can only recall "Lady Of Burlesque" off hand), so it is nice to see her show her singing and her dancing here as well.