Actor Cooper plays his Mr. Deeds role with the authority of long familiarity, and Miss Stanwyck (once Ruby Stevens, of Brooklyn) is equally at home in hers.
Ball of Fire (1941)
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Reviews Counted: 23
Fresh: 23
Rotten:0
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Consensus: A splendidly funny twist on the story of Snow White, Ball of Fire boasts a pair of perfect leads in Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: BALL OF FIRE opens with a group of eight mild-mannered professors who are hard at work compiling an encyclopedia. Work is dull but progressing well until language expert Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper)... BALL OF FIRE opens with a group of eight mild-mannered professors who are hard at work compiling an encyclopedia. Work is dull but progressing well until language expert Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) realizes his section on slang is outdated. For research he ventures into the outside world, where he encounters nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), who, thanks to her mobster boyfriend, Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews), needs a place to hide out. The professors are only too happy to have a woman living among them, and the brassy singer teaches them more than slang, in the process livening up their academic lives with nylons and conga lines. Potts becomes infatuated with Sugarpuss, but when Joe wants her back, things get complicated. A lively romantic comedy with top performances from Cooper, an Oscar-nominated Stanwyck, and a terrific cast of supporting actors, the film also features Gene Krupa and His Orchestra. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Story. Hawks went on to remake the film in 1948 as the musical A SONG IS BORN, starring Danny Kaye. [More]
Starring: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Dana Andrews
Starring: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Dana Andrews, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Leonid Kinskey, Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather, Allen Jenkins, Dan Duryea, Charles Lane
Director: Howard Hawks
Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Composer: Alfred Newman
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Reviews for Ball of Fire
Casting is meticulously perfect to make every character a caricature of itself.
As the timid professor and burlesque stripper, Cooper and Stanwyck are at the top of their form in Hawks' delectable screwball comedy, based on a witty script from Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.
After the rush of His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire is a more sedate ride, full of such marvelous passages as the conga line Stanwyck's delectable Sugarpuss teaches the professors.
Does a fine job subverting the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs children's story.
What a team: Stanwyck was rarely sexier, Cooper never more endearing. A jewel of a comedy.
Co-escrito por Billy Wilder e Charles Brackett, o filme tem um ótimo senso de humor, performances hilárias de todo o elenco e direção enérgica de Hawks.
Cooper and Stanwyck make an attractive pairing in Hawks' consistently funny romantic comedy.
Mr. Cooper may be a little loose-tooth in spots, but he gives a homespun performance such as only he can give. Miss Stanwyck is plenty yum-yum (meaning scorchy) in her worldly temptress role.
Cooper also worked with Hawks on Sergeant York, which garnered a lot more attention at the time, but doesn't hold up nearly as well as this delightful treasure.
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