writers_reign Billy Wilder clearly had a penchant for fairy stories and having fashioned Cinderella into Midnight he turned his attention to Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs a couple of years later and came up with Ball Of Fire in which the seven dwarfs were compiling a dictionary of Slang. Ball of Fire appeared in 1941 and Howard Hawks remade it seven years later with the dwarfs now engaged in compiling a history of Jazz complete with musical examples. For reasons mostly unfathomable Benny Goodman was given a speaking part as one of the Professors whilst the actors are supplemented by the likes of Charlie Barnet, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Mel Powell, Lionel Hampton and Buck and Bubbles. Whilst light years short of Wilder's script this does have the merit of the real jazz musicians to compensate for the acting of Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran, woefully inadequate replacements for Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Dana Andrews.

naprn7 Best Movie with History of Music and such incredible talent! Goodman, Golden Gate Quartet, Louis Armstrong, T. Dorsey, C. Barnett, Louis Belson (drummer), Mel Powell, Hampton.laughs, songs, hysterical characters like Monty and Joe with their accents and their slang..I have seen movie about 10 x and never tire of it!!we need to value this era with the intro of jazz, jump, jive, swing and re bop!Any student of Music should view this film to hear and appreciate the classic music styles and their introduction into our culture.

endymionng Saw this a couple of times when I was a kid in the late 70'ies and then again recently... it still holds up very well - mainly because of the fantastic display of all the jazz greats... but it is also downright sexy at times. People who complain that this is a remake doesn't get it. It is a totally different movie when it is about music instead of slang. Actually I am somewhat baffled that this has not been remade again with various rock musicians instead of the jazz displayed in this one. It would be a cheap hit movie I guarantee it... - but you have to pick some musicians who can tone down the "rock" ego. Lets see: Tom Hanks as the professor, Scarlett Johansson as the girl. One of the other professors should be a guitarist proficient in both classical, jazz and rock guitar such as Vai, Sattriani or Malmsten.

drednm Long, dull remake of BALL OF FIRE by the same director (Howard Hawks) just 7 years after the original Gary Cooper/Barbara Stanwyck starrer. Why? Danny Kaye mercifully doesn't do his accent schtick patter songs here but he doesn't do anything else either. Plus he can't act. Virginia Mayo does better and tries to inject some life into this DOA turkey. The only time the films has a spark of life is from the music.Such major musicians as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell, Tommy Dorsey, Louie Bellson, Charlie Barnet, and supporting actors like Esther Dale, Mary Field, and Hugh Herbert spark some interest, but the story is too familiar, the ending is excruciatingly drawn out, and the story is almost a scene for scene remake of the better, earlier film.WHY?