"Ball of Fire"

"Ball of Fire"

Ball of Fire

		Year: 1941 Running Time: 111 minutes Other: B/W Category: Comedy Directed by: Howard Hawks Produced by: Samuel Goldwyn Screenplay by: Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder
		Cast: Dana Andrews - Joe Lilac Gary Cooper - Prof. Bertram Potts Dan Duryea - Duke Pastrami Richard Haydn - Prof. Oddly Oscar Homolka - Prof. Gurkakoff Allen Jenkins - Garbage Man Gene Krupa and his Orchestra - Themselves Tully Marshall - Prof. Robinson S.Z. Sakall - Prof. Magenbruch Barbara Stanwyck - Sugarpuss O'Shea Henry Travers - Prof. Jerome Charles Arnt - McNeary George Barton - Garbage Man Aldrich Bowker - Justice of the Peace Doria Caron - Girl in Subway Eddy Chandler - Cop Ken Christy - Cop Edward Clark - Motor Court Proprietor Elisha Cook, Jr. - Waiter Mary Field - Miss Totten Pat Flaherty - Deputy Eddie Foster - Pinstripe Geraldine - Fissette Otto Hoffman - Stage Doorman June Horne - Nursemaid at Park Kathleen Howard - Miss Bragg Ken Howell - College Boy Leonid Kinskey - Prof. Quintana Charles Lane - Larsen, the Lawyer Will Lee - Benny the Creep Ethelreda Leopold - Nursemaid at Park Aubrey Mather - Prof. Peagram Lorraine Miller - Girl in Cafe Johnnie Morris Ed Mundy - Spieler Jack Perry - Fighting Bum Ralph Peters - Asthma Anderson Lee Phelps - Cop Gerald Pierce - Delivery Boy Al Rhein - Horseface Addison Richards - District Attorney Dick Rush - Cop Tommy Ryan - Newsboy Tim Ryan - Motor Cop Francis Sayles - Taxi Driver Helen Seamon George Sherwood - Deputy Walter Shumway - Garbage Man Pat West - Bum

Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors assembling a dictionary of slang. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch. When gangster Andrews and his torpedo Dan Duryea show up to claim Stanwyck (Andrews wants to marry her so she can't testify against him), the professors save the day and it is Cooper who ends up with the beautiful Stanwyck. Of note, the release of Ball of Fire on DVD in August of '98 marks Gene's first appearance on the new media.

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