Search - Ball of Fire on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1941 DVD Release: 08/25/1998 Format: DVD - Black and White Edition: Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English, French, German, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 51 mins Studio: HBO Home Video Members Wishing: 7 Genres: Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Screwball Comedy, Crime Comedy See Also: Ball of Fire

Ball of Fire is a delightful retelling (by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" legend -- though strictly for grownups. Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors authoring an encyclopedia. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch. When gangster Andrews and his torpedo Dan Duryea show up to claim Stanwyck (Andrews wants to marry her so she can't testify against him), the professors save the day and it is Cooper who ends up with the beautiful Stanwyck. For the record, two of the "ancient" professors are Richard Haydn and O.Z. Whitehead, still in their mid-thirties (the others are S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinskey and Aubrey Mather). Producer Sam Goldwyn later remade Ball of Fire as a Danny Kaye musical, A Song is Born (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper - Prof. Bertram Potts
Barbara Stanwyck - Sugarpuss O'Shea
Oscar Homolka - Prof. Gurkakoff
Dana Andrews - Joe Lilac
Dan Duryea - Duke Pastrami
S.Z. Sakall - Prof. Magenbruch
Henry Travers - Prof. Jerome

Howard Hawks directs Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's updating of the classic -Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs tale, arriving on DVD from HBO Home Video. Presented in standard 1.33:1 full-screen and featuring an English Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack, this release also features additional audio in English Dolby Digital Stereo and in Spanish, German, and French Dolby Digital Mono with optional English, Spanish, and French subtitles. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide