Ball of Fire

Composite Score: 85.4

Starring: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S. Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Leonid Kinskey, Richard Haydn, Aubrey Mather, Allen Jenkins, Dana Andrews, Dan Durya, and Kathleen Howard

Director: Howard Hawks

Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Thomas Monroe

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Romance

MPAA Rating: Approved

Box Office: $2.64 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Ball of Fire is the screwball comedy from Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder about a group of professors working to write an encyclopedia and their encounter with a nightclub singer while their grammarian researches modern slang that embroils them in dealings with the mob. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as the aforementioned singer, Sugarpuss O’Shea, across from the “romantic” lead Gary Cooper as the laser-focused Professor Bertram Potts. The hijinks of their romantic and professional entanglement earned four Oscar nominations – Best Dramatic Score, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Stanwyck. Its wacky and witty energy and unlikely love story make it one of the all-time classics worth checking out.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Ball of Fire falls victim to similar issues as other screwball comedies, leaning sometimes too heavily on tropes about gender norms that have either become outdated, problematic, or both. Particularly, much of the comedy of the film’s second act comes in the form of Potts’s fellow professors’ reaction to being in such close proximity to as beautiful a woman as Stanwyck’s O’Shea. Their ogling and not-so-subtle attempts at lecherous humor get played off as typical of men and more joking than troubling, leaving a somewhat odd taste in the mouth of a more modern audience. While in the film, their ineptitude in the face of a single beautiful, confident woman might be funny, it borders very closely to sympathy for incel culture without ever engaging with the incredibly problematic side of that ineptitude. As a film from the early 1940s, it couldn’t have thought to engage with such a modern sentiment or subculture, but because of the progression of gender relations and politics since its release, its story takes on a potentially more problematic tone if not approached carefully.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                The rest of the film’s comedy certainly helps it overcome the shortcomings of its era along with a strong leading turn from Barbara Stanwyck. Billy Wilder is considered one of the greatest screenwriters of a generation, and you can see that showcased in the witty humor of Ball of Fire. The ridiculous situation of a nightclub singer embroiled in a mob trial, on the run from the law, laying low at a house full of stuffy academics while waiting to be extricated by her mob boyfriend’s goons serves as comedy gold on its own. When you combine that with the hilarity of the hot young professor falling in love with her and the plethora of double entendre and misunderstandings of contemporary slang that go along with it all, you get a classic comedy that still manages to fire on most of its cylinders.

                Stanwyck is ideal as the leading lady because of how well she plays sultry and troublemaking while still being able to turn on the genuine emotion for the moments when it’s called for. She carries the film’s comedy, drama, and romance on her shoulders, giving play to her counterparts in Grant and the other professors and to the over-the-top performances of Dana Andrews as Joe Lilac and his underlings. But always, the film’s best scenes turn on the performance of Stanwyck as Sugarpuss O’Shea. She outshines them all and more than earns her Oscar nomination with a varied performance that showcases so many levels of her talent.

                Stanwyck’s leading performance works perfectly in the story and script from Billy Wilder to turn Howard Hawks’s film from just any other screwball comedy into one that stands the test of time to earn a spot among the greats. While not all of its humor holds up, plenty of it does, and the romance at the center isn’t too bad either. You can currently stream this film with ads on Plex or YouTube or rent it on most other major streaming services if you’d like to check it out.