Pluskylang Great Film overall

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

elvircorhodzic BALL OF FIRE is one unassailable and enjoyable to watch comedy. Director Hawks surprised me with his moderation. Honestly I was expecting an explosion of "something", but I think that in this case made a real impact as well. Perhaps overly potentiation (sexual) attraction between opposite character (in this case professor and entertainer) and sudden marriage at first sight. Cute is a parody of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Older professors are dwarfs, the youngest of them is prince, singer or entertainer is a princess and evil witch is ruthless gangster.Gary Cooper as Professor Bertram Potts was re-coiled and very intelligent. Some kind of genius. Maybe socially inept, but very gentle and honest character. Range humor is what adorns Cooper through this genre. Barbara Stanwyck as Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea She found herself in a similar role as The Lady Eve. Again, a strong female character who is tough and feminine at the same time. She again plays on sexuality. Just to mention a scene in which her foot after she pulled the sock, ended in Cooper's arms.Ball of Fire is light and entertaining comedy. Maybe it does not belong to classics, but is certainly enjoyable to watch.

GManfred This is a movie about 40's slang. Gary Cooper is an English professor, one of group of eight professors charged with compiling an encyclopedia and has come to realize that his compilation of contemporary slang is incomplete. From their cloistered abode he decides to go out among the proletariat and see how they talk. He recruits several candidates to meet in his study, and his recruitment efforts stop at Barbara Stanwyck, a nightclub singer named Sugarpuss O'Shea."Ball Of Fire", though somewhat dated, is great fun and part of it is recognizing all the old-fashioned slang expressions included in the script - a sparkling masterpiece written by the team of Chas. Brackett and Billy Wilder, who together wrote a slew of them. There are many comic characters in the cast, among them Richard Hadyn, S.Z. Sakall, Leonid Kinsky and Allen Jenkins.As you might expect, Barbara Stanwyck is the dynamic force that makes the picture go. It revolves around her, and also around Gary Cooper, but, as has been noted, he was limited and not as accomplished an actor as she was. But the contrast between her sassy, world-wise floozy and Cooper's nerdy bookworm is what makes this picture one of the best and it is a bridge between 30's screwball comedy and the more premeditated, cerebral brand of 40's comedy , exemplified by Preston Sturges's films.

David_Brown There is really nothing wrong with this film, from the directing to the acting, to the script. Spoilers Ahead: What makes this film work is the obvious chemistry between Stanwyck and Cooper, particularly in the scene in the bungalow where Potts (Cooper) confronts Sugarpuss (Stanwyck) with the truth that she essentially played him and the other professors for fools, and you see her face in the darkened room referring to herself as a tramp. If anyone has ever watched Stanwyck you know she is the kind of woman to quote Miss Bragg (Kathleen Howard) in this film "That causes the destruction of empires.", and for Stanwyck to give even an inch is unusual. Equally unusual is Cooper to end up with the kind of woman that is not ideal. In fact, of his films (That did not co-star Stanwyck They appeared 3 times together ) I can only think of 3 other times this happened. 1: "Desire" (Marlene Dietrich) 2: Vera Cruz (Sara Montiel), and 3: Along Came Jones (Loretta Young (A film very much like "Ball of Fire" with Young (Even more than Cooper) really cast against type). What really makes this film is the supporting cast, which is unusually strong: Allen Jenkins, Dan Duryea, Dana Andrews, Oskar Homolka, and Henry Travers. A special note goes to Gene Krupa who played "Drum Boogie" on a matchbook (He actually did it for fun, and it was later added to the film). If someone is a Cooper, and (or) a Stanwyck fan it should be a must see. If someone is unfamiliar with Stanwyck, and wants to see why she was great, this is an excellent place to start.

TheLittleSongbird I had heard so much about Ball of Fire, with people saying how wonderful it was. After finally seeing it, I really have nothing other than to echo these sentiments. The film looks wonderful, the costumes and settings look lovely and the cinematography doesn't look at all dated. The music is jaunty with an endearing touch of romanticism, the story is an updated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and a scintillating one it is too, Wilder's direction is spot-on and the screenplay is witty and hysterically funny. I loved the performances too, Gary Cooper is gawky and very lovable and Barbara Stanwyk is alluring with a genuine sense of comic timing. Henry Travers, Richard Haydn and Dana Andrews are wonderful in support. Oh and fans of Stanwyk will get a treat from her performance of Drum Boogie with percussion king Gene Krupa. Overall, a great movie if there ever was one. 10/10 Bethany Cox