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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.
All Critics (26) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (0) | DVD (3)
Ball of Fire came out five days before Pearl Harbor. You can imagine Americans listening to its flood of slang and knowing exactly what they were fighting for. Dec 22, 2015 | Full Review…
Ball of Fire came out five days before Pearl Harbor. You can imagine Americans listening to its flood of slang and knowing exactly what they were fighting for.
Charles Taylor
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. Feb 4, 2009 | Full Review…
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.
Casting is meticulously perfect to make every character a caricature of itself. Aug 14, 2007 | Full Review…
Casting is meticulously perfect to make every character a caricature of itself.
Variety Staff
A delight. Aug 14, 2007 | Full Review…
A delight.
Don Druker
Pure joy. Jan 26, 2006 | Full Review…
Pure joy.
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. May 20, 2003 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
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.
Bosley Crowther
Great, deep, humane, well-built comedy. But throw in Barbara Stanwyck's unbelievable act of character creation, and that's when Ball of Fire becomes its best self. Mar 20, 2015 | Rating: 9/10 | Full Review…
Great, deep, humane, well-built comedy. But throw in Barbara Stanwyck's unbelievable act of character creation, and that's when Ball of Fire becomes its best self.
Tim Brayton
'I've gone goofy, completely goofy,' Cooper says, as the chaos of slang overwhelms his orderly vocabulary: 'Bim-buggy, slap-happy.' Watching 'Ball of Fire,' you feel similarly liberated. Feb 18, 2011 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
'I've gone goofy, completely goofy,' Cooper says, as the chaos of slang overwhelms his orderly vocabulary: 'Bim-buggy, slap-happy.' Watching 'Ball of Fire,' you feel similarly liberated.
John Beifuss
One of the best screwball comedies. Jul 7, 2010 | Full Review…
One of the best screwball comedies.
Michael E. Grost
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. Jun 24, 2007 | Rating: A | Full Review…
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.
Emanuel Levy
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. May 24, 2007 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
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.
Fernando F. Croce
Does a fine job subverting the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs children's story. Jan 31, 2006 | Rating: B | Full Review…
Does a fine job subverting the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs children's story.
Dennis Schwartz
Gary ("aw shucks m'am!") Cooper leads a collection of every eccentric nerd uncle character actor ever as they attempt to understand how 40's swell cats canoodled the English language through the cypher of OMG sweltering Barbara Stanwyck. Heat ensues, and how! Big fun tiger.
Super Reviewer
A grammarian who is toiling away at an encyclopedia meets a nightclub singer who teaches him slang. In the Hollywood's mind, making a film often involved merely pairing the two right movie stars, actors who would look good together and whose respective markets would overlap. To a large extent, that's even true now (e.g. You've Got Mail and Runaway Bride are re-hashes of couples that worked well in the past). It's like multimillion-dollar match.com. I suspect that's the thinking that went into Ball of Fire. The story is trite and cliche. It's re-telling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [sic] -- how cliched can you get? But Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck are delightful, rapping their dialogue in a staccato that often makes classics classic. Overall, it's a fun diversion and easy to predict, but there's a lot to like about Ball of Fire.
Not only is this movie hilarious, unique, and witty, but you learn a lot about slang words too. This movie is really fun, great cast and story and everything, I loved it, and I highly recommend it.
Ah. A dilemma every English dork struggles with. Kinda reminded me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but modern. Very cute and funny. Gary Cooper kinda surprised me in this, the only other movie I had seen before this was High Noon, but his refined nature in this was well played. And I loved Barbara Stanwyck, loved her carefree nature in this.
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