Ball of Fire (1941) on Netflix
Approved19411h 51mComedyRomance
For years eight professors have compiled an encyclopedia in a New York house. The youngest, grammarian Bertram Potts, needs modern slang. Nightclub singer Sugarpuss O'Shea needs a place to hide.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.7/1016,223 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Eight professors have lived and worked for years in a New York house, assembling an encyclopedia of all knowledge. A prim housekeeper, Miss Bragg, keeps watch over them, and their backer, Miss Totten, now wants the work finished. Bertram Potts, the youngest and a grammarian, handles modern American slang. A garbage man who talks in current street language asks their help with a quiz, and Bertram sees his own knowledge is out of date. He goes out to gather how people really speak and takes an interest in the talk of nightclub performer Sugarpuss O'Shea. She refuses to help him until she needs somewhere to stay out of sight, because detectives want to ask her about Joe Lilac, the mob boss she is with. Bertram objects, Miss Bragg threatens to quit, and Sugarpuss moves in.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ball of Fire (1941)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard were both offered the role of Sugarpuss O'Shea and turned it down; Lucille Ball was nearly cast until Gary Cooper recommended Barbara Stanwyck, who took the part.
- In the "Drum Boogie" number, bandleader Gene Krupa performed the song onscreen with his band and, in an unusual twist, also played it on a matchbox using matches as drumsticks.
- Co-writer Billy Wilder had decided he needed to direct his own screenplays to protect them from studio interference, so Howard Hawks let him study directing on the set of Ball of Fire; Wilder directed his own films from then on.
