Not as well-known as some other Howard Hawks films (or Billy Wilder scripts, for that matter), Ball of Fire, starring Gary Cooper as the nerdy linguistics professor (only in Hollywood ) and Barbara Stanwyck as the wise-cracking two-bit showgirl Sugarpuss O’Shea is one of my favorite Hawks films. It has all the familiar Hawks-ian elements: men doing manly stuff in a masculine cloister, a cloister disrupted by a compelling wise-cracking dame who livens the mood, bringing the possibility of sex with her. Not domesticity, but fun friendly sex. She’s not a vamp. She’s one of the boys, only she’s got slamming curves. Usually Hawks’ masculine cloister is more action-based (airfields, battlefields, gangster shoot-ups), but in Ball of Fire it’s intellectual and professorial. The same rules apply.
Ball of Fire is a “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” story, with Sugarpuss entering the Cloister of the seven professors (commissioned to write a new Encyclopedia, each man having his own area of expertise). Sugarpuss is on the run from her gangster boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews) and guesses that the goons will never track her to that dusty old mansion filled with virgin professors.
Naturally, Sugarpuss (who is first seen doing an unforgettable nightclub act, accompanied by the one, the only, Gene Krupa) completely disrupts the encyclopedia project: she looks around at the grim intellectual group, and demands that they all lighten up and have a little fun.
Before you know it, she’s leading them in a conga line around the drawing room.
My favorite moment may be the “14 watercolors” moment (it makes me laugh every time), but there are so many other great moments. It’s a crackling romance, too, with Cooper and Stanwyck generating enough heat to power the entire East Side. Cooper plays a man unused to feeling the way she makes him feel. He is convincingly shy. (Cooper was a shy man.) And Stanwyck is both tough and tragic, in her understanding that she’s not good enough for this guy, she’s sunk too low. Stanwyck plays the comedic side of the other “tramps” she played in her career, showing the cost for these types of women. The film does not descend into maudlin moralizing, however. It’s way too funny for that.
I encourage you to go and read my friend Charles Taylor’s wonderful Village Voice review of the film. (He’s such a good writer. That last paragraph!!)
Man, I love Ball of Fire – dorky Gary Cooper and Barbara S sexy as all get out. My favourite version of Snow White ;-) A great film to catch at Christmas.
I know! So hilarious – those prim professors following her around the library in a Conga line.
… And Elisha Cook Jr? I gotta see this.
Oh, it’s an all-time fave.
Plus Gene Krupa!!
You know I didn’t remember Elijah Cook in it. Just went and saw it again. He has 2 lines. He’s basically an extra. But fun to see him!
The whole movie is like a Grand Parade of Hollywood character actors!
I saw him listed in IMDB, didn’t know his part was so small in this.
I saw a list today “10 things you didn’t know about Peter Lorre” or something to that effect. I guess Peter’s Joel Cairo got pretty handsy with Elisha in Maltese Falcon and the censors made John H. cut those scenes. Now I’m wishing for a deleted scenes version.
Yeah – I just looked up his IMDB page – I knew he started out in the 30s – Ball of Fire is 1941, so he clearly was early on in his career. He does get a couple of good zingers in – which Gary Cooper (whose character is doing an investigation of American slang) is intrigued by.
and Ooh!! Love that Peter Lorre bit – I had no idea. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Peter Lorre.” Uhm, link please??
Here ya go…
I love that movie. I even tolerate Hawks/Wilder’s remake with Danny Kaye because of the music (Louis Armstrong, etc.). The scene at the end when Cooper makes her stand on the books to kiss him is so sweet. I also love Howard Hawks. As you say, he uses the same formula over and over again, but it works. Hatari, Rio Bravo, The Thing from Outer Space, A Song is Born all have the same framework but all are very entertaining movies.
// The scene at the end when Cooper makes her stand on the books to kiss him is so sweet. //
Oh, it’s wonderful!
I love her monologue near the end:
“I love him because he gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk. I love him because he doesn’t know how to kiss, the jerk!”
I’m writing a chapter for an upcoming book about Howard Hawks – so this showing of one of my favorites is very well-timed. I’ve never seen it on the big screen too, so it should be fun!
Also: in what universe would Gary Cooper be believable as a celibate monk-ish intellectual??
In Howard Hawks’ universe. Similar to Cary Grant being believable as a celibate nerdy scientist in Bringing Up Baby.
There’s something so satisfying about these gorgeous leading men being re-cast as bumbling nerds … it’s ridiculous but it totally works!!