Built on one of the screwiest setups in screwball-comedy history, Ball of Fire follows Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), a moll on the run who hides from the law by ingratiating her way into a mansion with a team of professors writing encyclopedia entries. Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), the expert in English, finds her especially helpful in his research of slang (he also admits, in one of Cooper’s standout scenes, that despite his best efforts he admires her ankles). Stanwyck has Cooper on a string (as she did Henry Fonda in the even more entertaining The Lady Eve) and he’s a delight while dangling (if not entirely believable as a bookish stiff). Stanwyck is in her amusingly manipulative element—I love her quick response when he says he wants to “clarify” their relationship: “Have we got one of those?”—and costume designer Edith Head provides her with some wonderful weapons, including a showgirl dress that sparkles amidst the dusty library and a morning robe adorned with feathers. Other collaborators include screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, as well as Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland. There’s nothing visually ostentatious here, but he does nail the scene in which Sugarpuss—having just been told by Bertram that her hair is distracting when the sun hits it—purposefully takes a few steps back to stand near a glowing window. Oh, and the director? None less than Howard Hawks, who knew almost every genre and the screwball romantic comedy in particular (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).
(8/17/2022)