Ball of Fire(1941)

Ball of Fire(1941). Screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks. Cast: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The supporting cast includes: Oskar Homolka, S. Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, and Dan Duryea. In 1948, the plot was recycled for a musical film, A Song Is Born, starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo.

At the Daniel S. Totten Foundation in New York, Bertram Potts, an overly dedicated linguistics professor, is writing the new encyclopedia, on which he and his eight colleagues have been working on for nine years.

When their financial backer, Miss Totten, stops by to check on their progress, not happy with what she finds threatens to withdraw her support, Bertram flirts with her. Charmed, Miss Totten changes her mind, agreeing to continue to back the encyclopedia project.

Soon after, a garbage man knocks on the foundation's door and asks the professors for help on a radio quiz show questions. Intrigued by the garbage man's slang, Bertram believes that his section on slang is outdated and requires further research. Bertram then walks the streets, where he eavesdrops on many conversations and invites several people to participate on his project.

When he invites nightclub performer Sugarpuss O'Shea to attend, Sugarpuss thinking him with the police refuses. Unknown to Bertram, Sugarpuss is wanted by the district attorney in connection with a murder that her gangster boyfriend, Joe Lilac, is suspected of committing. She and a couple of thugs, Asthma Anderson and Duke Pastrami, flee the club one step ahead of the police. Sugarpuss decides to take Bertram up on his invitation and shows up at the foundation's door step later that night.



Glad that Sugarpuss has changed her mind, Bertram, does not think it is proper that she stay the night, but.. his colleagues insist that she stay.

Meanwhile, at the district attorney's office, Joe is asked about a monogrammed bathrobe found in the murdered man's suitcase. Which the district attorney suspects belonged to Joe and was given to him by Sugarpuss. Concerned that Sugarpuss might agree to testify against Joe, his lawyer advises him to marry her.

Three days later, Sugarpuss, who has been helping Bertram with his slang expressions as well as teaching the other professors the conga, is visited by Asthma and Pastrami. The thugs present her with a beautiful diamond engagement ring from Joe and Sugarpuss, gladly accepts the ring and agrees to stay at the foundation until it is safe.

Just then, Miss Bragg, the professors' housekeeper, demands that Sugarpuss leave, as she has become too much of a distraction. Bertram, agrees and asks Sugarpuss to leave, admitting that she has distracted him from his work. Sugarpuss, quick on her feet says that she is.. "just plain wacky" for him and kisses him. Bertram, decides to propose to her and the next morning, he gives her a small diamond engagement ring.

Soon after, Joe telephones from New Jersey. As Joe has identified himself as "Daddy," Bertram assumes he is Sugarpuss' father and asks him for permission to marry her. Joe, agrees thinking it is the best way to get Sugarpuss past the police's dragnet, then insist that the wedding be performed in New Jersey.

Just as the wedding party is about to leave, Miss Bragg, having seen Sugarpuss' photo in the newspaper, threatens to call the police. Sugarpuss, slugs Miss Bragg and locks her in a closet, Bertram and the other professors leave for New Jersey.

On the way, Professor Gurkakoff, who is driving the car has an accident disabling the car. The wedding party is forced to spend the night at an auto court. Sugarpuss calls Joe with the news, he insists on picking her up that night.

While she waits in her bungalow, Professor Oddly, a widowed botanist, tells Bertram about his honeymoon, then retires for the night. Confused by Oddly's conversation with Sugarpuss , Bertram goes looking for him, but accidentally ends up in Sugarpuss' bungalow. Believing that he is speaking to Oddly, Bertram describes his love for Sugarpuss, she kisses him.

Joe and his gang arrive and expose Sugarpuss' for what she truly is. Finding lipstick on Bertram's face, Joe then attacks the professor. After lying to Miss Bragg, who escaped from the closet and the police saying that she has already left, Bertram confronts Sugarpuss. She tearfully apologizes, but Bertram returns to New York, heartbroken. Will Bertram ever forgive Sugarpuss and think her worthy of him?

Fun Facts:

Kathleen Howard was left with a fractured jaw when the punch that Barbara Stanwyck threw accidentally made contact. Stanwyck was reportedly mortified by the incident.

The roles of the seven professors (besides Gary Cooper) were inspired by Disney's Seven Dwarfs. There is even a photograph showing the actors sitting in front of a Disney poster, each one in front of his corresponding dwarf: S.Z. Sakall - Dopey; Leonid Kinskey - Sneezy; Richard Haydn - Bashful; Henry Travers - Sleepy; Aubrey Mather - Happy; Tully Marshall - Grumpy, and Oskar Homolka - Doc.

In the scene where Pastrami and Asthma have the professors hostage in the library, the gunmen begin shooting at random items. One gunman (Pastrami) says, "I saw me a picture last week," and proceeds to lick his thumb and then rubs it on the sight of his gun. This is a reference to star Gary Cooper's previous movie Sergeant York in which York uses this as a technique to improve his marksmanship.

Ginger Rogers was the original choice for Katherine 'Sugarpuss' O'Shea, but Rogers declined.

Lucille Ball was set to play Katherine 'Sugarpuss' O'Shea, but once producer Samuel Goldwyn found out that Barbara Stanwyck was available he gave her the part instead.

When Gary Cooper is taking notes of the news boy's slang, the marquee on the theater across the street advertises Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an inside joke that refers to the script's inspiration.

To pick up authentic slang for the film script, screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett visited the drugstore across the street from Hollywood High School, a burlesque house and the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Hal McIntyre can be seen in the saxophone section during the number "Drumboogie". Also, Roy Eldridge has a brief trumpet solo.

Even though they play two of the "old men" lexicographers, Leonid Kinskey (Prof. Quintana) and Richard Haydn (Prof. Oddly) were both under 40 years old when they made this movie.

Lighthearted romantic comedy that belongs to Barbara Stanwyck, who is perfect for the part of Sugarpuss O'Shea. A Nice for a change to see Gary Cooper play a person who is awkward,intelligent and romantic. Please click here to view past Ball of Fire review with videos.

Oskar Homolka (August 12, 1898 – January 27, 1978). After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Homolka attended the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and began his career on the Austrian stage.

Success there led to work in the much more prestigious German theatrical community in Munich where in 1924 he played Mortimer in the premiere of Brecht's play, The Life of Edward II of England at the Munich Kammerspiele and since 1925 in Berlin where he worked under Max Reinhardt.

Homolka's made at least thirty silent films in Germany and starred in the first talking picture ever made there.

After the Nazi rise to power, Homolka moved to Britain, where he starred in the films Rhodes, Empire Builder, with Walter Huston, 1936 and Everything Is Thunder, with Constance Bennett.

In 1936, he appeared opposite Sylvia Sidney in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Sabotage. Although he often played villains such as Communist spies and Soviet-bloc military officers or scientists, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the crusty, beloved uncle in I Remember Mama (1948).

He also acted with Ingrid Bergman in Rage in Heaven, with Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, with Ronald Reagan in Prisoner of War, and with Katharine Hepburn in The Madwoman of Chaillot.

He returned to England in the mid-1960's, to play the Soviet KGB Colonel Stok in Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967), opposite Michael Caine.

His last film was the Blake Edwards romantic drama The Tamarind Seed(1974).

In 1967 Homolka was awarded the Filmband in Gold of the Deutscher Filmpreis for outstanding contributions to German cinema.

His career in television included appearances in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1957 and 1960.

Homolka married four times: His first wife was Grete Mosheim, a Hungarian Jewish actress. They married in Berlin on June 28, 1928, but divorced in 1937. She later married Howard Gould. His second wife, Baroness Vally Hatvany (died 1938), was also a Hungarian actress. They married in December 1937, but she died four months later. In 1939, Homolka married socialite and photographer Florence Meyer (1911–1962), a daughter of The Washington Post owner, Eugene Meyer. They had two sons, Vincent and Laurence, but eventually divorced. His last wife was actress Joan Tetzel whom he married in 1949. The marriage lasted until Tetzel's death in 1977.

Oskar Homolka made his home in England after 1966. He died of pneumonia in Sussex, England, on January 27, 1978, just three months after the death of his fourth wife, actress Joan Tetzel. He was 79 years old.

Star of the Month: Barbara Stanwyck.

Banjo On My Knee (1936). A comedy film directed by John Cromwell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording (Edmund H. Hansen).

Ernie Holley runs away on his wedding night because he thinks he has killed a wedding guest. His father Newt and bride Pearl find him in New Orleans and try and talk him into coming home.

 

Remember the Night (1940). A romantic comedy/drama Christmas film directed by Mitchell Leisen. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. The film was written by Preston Sturges, his last as a writer before he became a writer-director with The Great McGinty.

Preston Sturges had suggested "Great Love" as a title for this film. Director Mitchell Leisen, shortened Sturges' script, which annoyed Sturges and one of the main reasons he wanted to directing his own scripts which he did beginning with his next film project, The Great McGinty.

During shooting, Sturges hung around the set and got to know Barbara Stanwyck. One day he told her that he was going to write a screwball comedy for her, which he did just a year later, The Lady Eve. Remember the Night was completed eight days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget, which Leisen attributed to Stanwyck's professionalism.

Please click here for past movie review.

The Lady Eve(1941). was loosely based in a 19-page story by Monckton Hoffe called "Two Bad Hats", which was also the working title for the film. Sturges was assigned to write a script based on Hoffe's story in 1938, with Claudette Colbert expected to be the star.

The censors at the Hays Office initially rejected the script that was submitted to them, because of an affair between your two leads" which lacked "compensating moral values." A later, revised, script was approved.

The casting of the lead roles for The Lady Eve went through some changes. At some point, the studio wanted Brian Aherne for the male lead, and Joel McCrea, Madeleine Carroll and Paulette Goddard were under consideration.

In September, Darryl Zanuck lent Henry Fonda to co-star with Paulette Goddard, who was then replaced by Barbara Stanwyck. Barbara Stanwyck from a trailer for The Lady Eve. Sturges, wore a colorful beret or a felt cap with a feather, a white cashmere scarf and a loud print shirt in loud hues ... so the crew could find him in the crowds of actors and technicians.

Stanwyck compared Sturges' set to "a carnival" because instead of going to their trailers between filming, the cast relaxed in canvas chairs listening to Sturgers  stories or going over their lines with him. To get into mood for Barbara's bedroom scene, Sturges wore a bathrobe."Location shooting for the opening jungle scene took place at Lake Baldwin of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia, California. In that scene, Henry Fonda's character refers to "Professor Marsdit", whose last name is an anagram of that of Raymond L. Ditmars of the American Museum of Natural History, a well-known reptile expert and popular science writer of the time.

Please click here for past movie review.

 

Ball Of Fire (1941).The script was written by Charles Brackett, Thomas Monroe, and Billy Wilder from a short story written by Wilder while he was still in Europe, and based in part on the fairy tale Snow White. The professors themselves were based on the dwarfs from Walt Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Although Ball of Fire was directed by Howard Hawks, Wilder had already decided that he needed to direct his screenplays to protect them from studio and other director's interference. Hawks was happy to let Wilder study his directing on the set and Wilder thereafter directed his own films.

The film was the second feature of 1941 to pair Cooper and Stanwyck, following Meet John Doe. Wilder reveled in poking fun at those who took politics too seriously. At one point, "Sugarpuss" points to her sore throat and complains "Slight rosiness? It's as red as the Daily Worker and just as sore".

Later, she gives the overbearing housekeeper, the name "Franco", just before she knocks the woman out. Wilder also worked in a reference to Cooper's Academy Award-winning performance in Sergeant York by having Dan Duryea's character Duke Pastrami say "I saw me a movie last week" just before wetting the sights of his pistol and aiming it. Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard turned down the role of Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea, while Lucille Ball almost won the role until Gary Cooper recommended Stanwyck.

Please click here for past movie review.

 

You can buy this picture on Ebay.

You Belong to Me (1941). A romantic comedy directed by Wesley Ruggles. Cast Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Good Morning, Doctor.

Doctor Helen Hunt,  meets millionaire playboy Peter Kirk as he falls at her feet at a ski resort. He insists that only she can treat his injuries and soon proposes marriage, which she accepts.

On their wedding night, Helen is called away by a medical emergency. When she returns, Peter has fallen asleep. Peter becomes jealous and gets into an argument with two of her patients, Robert Andrews and Frederick Vandemer .

He is not to happy that Vandemer had also staged a skiing accident to get to know Helen and that Vandemer asked her to marry him. Helen hires Billings, Peter's groundskeeper, to try to interest Peter in gardening.

Instead.. Peter gets a job as a tie salesman under the name of "John Jenkins" which he seems to enjoy doing. Helen, decides to retire and become a housewife. When, the other department store employees recognize him they get mad at him for taking a job away from somebody who actually needs it, resulting in his firing.

Billings gives Peter an idea with the suggestion that he create jobs with his money. Peter decides to buy a nearly-bankrupt hospital, which will require most of his income to keep running and make Helen the chief of staff.

Lady Of Burlesque (1943). A mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee (with ghost-writing assistance from mystery writer Craig Rice).

The plot revolves around the murder of two strippers, backstage of a New York burlesque theater. The film is a cleaned up version because censorship of the time, adaptation of the original novel, although Gypsy Rose Lee, who appears as a character in her own book, is renamed "Dixie Daisy".

 

BALL OF FIRE (1941)

Ball of Fire (1941). Comedy. Cast: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Supporting cast: Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea and Elisha Cook J. The story was turned into a musical film, A Song Is Born(1948). Cast: Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. Director: Howard Hawks. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck make a wonderful on screen couple in this comedy.

I finally had the opportunity to see the film BALL OF FIRE. I thought the story of Bertram Potts, a linguistics professor and his group of quirky colleagues writing a encyclopedia, was Hilarious.

Loved watching the faces of the people that Bertram was eavesdropping on, while writing what they had to say in his little notebook.

My favorite scene is when Sugarpuss is teaching the conga to the other professors.

I also loved when the story takes a wild turn and the professor and his colleagues take on Sugarpuss's mobster boyfriend and his henchmen and wonderful scene in the nightclub.

FUN FACTS:

The roles of the seven professors (besides Gary Cooper) were inspired by Disney's Seven Dwarfs. There is even a photograph showing the actors sitting in front of a Disney poster: S.Z. Sakall - Dopey; Leonid Kinskey - Sneezy; 'Richard Haydn' - Bashful; Henry Travers - Sleepy; Aubrey Mather - Happy; Tully Marshall - Grumpy, and Oskar Homolka - Doc.
BALL OF FIRE (FULL MOVIE)

Kathleen Howard (July 27, 1884 - April 15, 1956) was a Canadian-born opera singer (mezzo-soprano), magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930's through the 1940's.

 She was also best known as the nagging, shrewish wife of W.C. Fields in a film, It's a Gift (1934). She performed in two other films of W.C. Fields: You're Telling Me! (1934) and Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935).