SYNOPSIS

When Prof. Bertram Potts decides he needs some first-hand research for an encyclopedia on slang he's co-writing with seven scholars, he takes to the streets where he recruits various characters for further research, inviting them to the professors' residence. One of his subjects, stripper Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), takes him up on his offer when her gangster boyfriend, Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews), decides to force her into marriage so she can't testify against him. Moving in with the academics, Sugarpuss soon charms the older men and wins Potts' love but it's only a matter of time until Lilac and his henchmen track her down.

Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Screenplay: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
Based on the story "From A to Z" by Thomas Monroe and Wilder Cinematography: Gregg Toland
Editing: Daniel Mandell
Art Direction: Perry Ferguson
Music: Alfred Newman
Cast: Gary Cooper (Prof. Bertram Potts), Barbara Stanwyck (Sugarpuss O'Shea), Oskar Homolka (Prof. Gurkakoff), Henry Travers (Prof. Jerome), S.Z. Sakall (Prof. Magenbruch), Tully Marshall (Prof. Robinson), Leonid Kinskey (Prof. Quintana), Richard Haydn (Prof. Oddly), Aubrey Mather (Prof. Peagram), Allen Jenkins (Garbage Man), Dana Andrews (Joe Lilac), Dan Duryea (Duke Pastrami), Charles Lane (Larson), Elisha Cook, Jr. (Waiter), Gene Krupa (Himself).
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Why BALL OF FIRE Is Essential

Historians have called Ball of Fire the last great screwball comedy released before World War II. Technically, the film only previewed before the U.S. entry into the war, not having its official premiere until January 1942, but it was still the last appearance of this brand of Hollywood comedy before the U.S. was plunged into battle against the Axis.

Although less frenetic than Howard Hawks' other comedies, most notably Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), Ball of Fire fits well into the director's canon in its depiction of one of his most prominent themes, the way characters in conflict can change each other for the better.

Ball of Fire was the film that introduced writer-director Billy Wilder to Barbara Stanwyck. Impressed with her work, he would later offer her the role of Phyllis Dietrichson in the classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944).

Ball of Fire was the last time Wilder received credit for a screenplay that he did not direct himself. He had been increasingly unhappy with the way some directors were treating his work, and moved into the director's chair with his next film, The Major and the Minor (1942), starring Ginger Rogers.

by Frank Miller