Retro Hound

Ball of Fire and A Song Is Born Movie Reviews

Ball of Fire. Directed by Howard Hawks, Screenplay by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder story by Billy Wilder & Thomas Monroe. Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana Andrews. 1941. 111 minutes.

A Song is Born. Also directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell. 1948. 113 minutes.

A sexy Barbara Stanwyck and a bunch of old men. What do you think happens? OK, Gary Cooper isn’t old, but in this movie he might as well be. Except, he looks like Gary Cooper. The casting is excellent except for Gary Cooper. Somehow he seems miscast as the guy who was reading at two years old. He does a good job, but I’m not convinced as I watch. Barbara Stanwyck is great as the “girl from 3rd Ave.” Billy Wilder co-wrote, I wonder why he didn’t’ direct? As you can imagine, anything written by Wilder is going to be fun to listen to. If you are a person who loves fast-talking dames and gangsters, this is the movie for you. Linguists probably love Ball of Fire the way librarians and computer geeks love Desk Set.

Ball Of Fire legs

Gary Copper is Professor Bertram Potts, the leader of eight professors spending a decade or more living together while writing an encyclopedia. One day the trashman, hoping to win a contest, asks the professors a question using a lot of slang. The words he uses cause Prof. Potts to realize his 23-page article on slang is way out-of-date. (And really, when was slang more colorful than the 1930s and 1940s?) So he sets out to find people to help him learn new slang terms. One of the helpers is Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), a dancer and gangster’s moll that needs to hide out. She moves into the bachelor house and stirs the dust.

The supporting cast is great, as in many of these old movies. Henry Travers (the angel from It’s A Wonderful Life), S. Z. Sakall (From Casablanca), and others.

Jazz Greats Playing Together

This movie was remade in 1948 as A Song is Born starring Danny Kaye in the Copper role and Virginia Mayo in the Stanwyck role. The big difference in Song is that the professors are writing a music encyclopedia and discover Jazz. Benny Goodman stars as one of the professors and Louis Armstrong is in it as well. There are a couple of great scenes of several jazz greats playing together. We should be thankful for these scenes. Originally they were to be songs for Danny Kaye, but the songwriter (Kaye’s wife!) wanted double her normal amount. So Samuel Goldwyn decided to just let the musicians play popular jazz. The direction isn’t as sharp, and the supporting actors, while recognizable, lack the charms of the original. However, Kaye brings a more comic reading of the role and it is worth a viewing just to see all those classic jazz players together.

Filed under: B, Movies, Reviews, S | 1940s, Howard Hawks, Jazz, Screwball Comedy|1 Comment