.jpg/200px-Ball_of_Fire_(1941_three-sheet_poster).jpg)
Ball of Fire
Ball of Fire (also known as The Professor and the Burlesque Queen) is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The Samuel Goldwyn Productions film (originally distributed by RKO) concerns a group of professors laboring to write an encyclopedia and their encounter with a nightclub performer who provides her own unique knowledge. The supporting cast includes Oscar Homolka, S. Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, and Dan Duryea.
Plot
A group of professors, all bachelors except for one widower, have lived together for some years in a New York City residence, compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. The youngest, Professor Bertram Potts, is a grammarian who is researching modern American slang. The professors are accustomed to working in relative seclusion at a leisurely pace with a prim housekeeper, Miss Bragg, keeping watch over them. Their impatient financial backer, Miss Totten, suddenly demands that they finish their work soon.
Cast
- Addison Richards
- Allen Jenkins
- Aubrey Mather
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Charles Lane
- Dan Duryea
- Dana Andrews
- Eddy Chandler
- Elisha Cook Jr.
- Gary Cooper
- Gene Krupa
- Henry Travers
- Kathleen Howard
- Kenneth Howell
- Leonid Kinskey
- Mary Field
- Oskar Homolka
- Otto Hoffman
- Pat Flaherty
- Richard Haydn
- S. Z. Sakall
- Tully Marshall
- Will Lee
More details
| author | Billy Wilder Charles Brackett |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | New York City |
| director | Howard Hawks |
| editor | Daniel Mandell |
| genre | comedy crime |
| keywords | car crash conga conga line financial backer force grammarian linguist mob boss new jersey quiz slang |
| musicBy | Alfred Newman |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score Academy Award for Best Sound Academy Award for Best Story |
| producer | Samuel Goldwyn |
| productionCompany | Samuel Goldwyn Productions |
| publisher | RKO Pictures |
| theme | crime comedy romantic comedy screwball comedy |