Good concept, poorly executed.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A well made film that has a cast of familiar faces. The film is a forerunner of the television show "The Big Bang Theory" and the much lesser known show "Dweebs". In fact this film also seems a derivative of Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion".In this film a man needs to o update his chapter in a forthcoming encyclopedia chapter on modern slang. The encyclopedia writer Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) ventures into a chic nightclub. Inside, he meets the snarky burlesque performer "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). Fascinated by her command of popular jargon, Potts invites her to stay with him. But, unknown to Potts, she is the fiancée of a mobster. Now 90% of this film works. However the cast is so great that even the 10% part that doesn't work you hardly notice.

Howard Hawks' emblematic screwball comedy germinates from the wheeze of Billy Wilder when the latter was still in Germany, it is the quintessential coupling of the pedantic and the sultry, Gary Cooper plays Prof. Bertram Potts, a grammarian who is leading a group of eight scholars compiling and collating an encyclopedia, when a sultry nightclub performer Sugarpuss O'Shea (Stanwyck) takes shelter in their residence in NYC, who indeed is the gun moll of mob boss Joe Lilac (Andrews), the rest is written in the stone although it takes a tortuous route to reach its feel-good finish line. Less loquacious and rapid-fire than Howard's BRINGING UP BABY (1938), BALL OF FIRE points up the mine of vernacular in lieu of verbal rebuttal between the opposite sexes, it is during Prof. Potts' field trip to collect current lexicon of slang when he is swept off his feet by a bling-bling Sugarpuss, performing DRUM BOOGIE with Gene Krupa and his orchestra, accentuated by the bandleader's killing drum solo and an ingenious miniature encore with matches. They are two different kettles of fish, a stuffy bachelor vs. a pragmatic siren, a mismatch rarely can make their way out in real life, and that's what enthralls even today's audience, to watch something profoundly absurd but innocuously entertaining without its story being dumb-ed down or defamed by crass jokes pandering to the lowest common denominator is almost too good to be true.Also, the star appeal is in high voltage, Cooper is not just a too handsome specimen in a button- down suit, he also makes the shtick of doing everything with proprieties look effortless and goofy; an Oscar-nominated Stanwyck benefits from an earthier temperament and layers of inner conflicts deviled by her sapio-sexual conversion, is at her best when she retains her phlegm before impishly doling out her "yum yum" to a gawky virgin, which catches him unawares. Another fount of joy comes from the riff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as the other 7 professors grows an unanimous affinity to Sugarpuss, to the dismay of the stern housemaid Miss Bragg (Howard), and among them, the only widower is the botanist Prof. Oddly, Richard Haydn brings about a love-ably prissy mannerism that steals the limelight in the well-orchestrated crunch when the group has to outmaneuver Joe's two pistol-wielding henchmen.In short, considerably more accessible and more laid-back than BRINGING UP BABY, BALL OF FIRE excels in conflating different genre fodder (comedy, musical, gangster) into a helluva ride of a modern fairy-tale, and runs away with our affection on a moment's notice.

After patiently sitting through 1941's "Ball Of Fire" - I found that I could not believe that the likes of that total zero-charisma actor, Gary Cooper, was actually considered to be one of that era's top, male, Hollywood stars.In my opinion - This drab, stuffy doofus (with his unconvincing performance) almost single-handedly brought this potentially promising (but decidedly contrived) Rom/Com (that involved a gangster's ho with a heart of gold) down a few, good notches by his dreary presence.In fact - Upon watching "Ball Of Fire" - I've now made up my mind to avoid ever viewing another picture with the likes of this totally irksome lunkhead, Cooper, in it, ever-ever again.... Hey! I ain't kidding here.Put plain and simple - Gary Cooper was utterly awful. He had absolutely no appealing screen-presence, whatsoever - (Unless, of course, you happen to like watching a clueless jughead who barely appears to be able to remember his lines).I'll bet you that this pathetic-excuse-for-a-leading-man actually required cue-cards in order to get himself through his roles.... (Sheesh!)

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.