View source for Ball of Fire

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[[File:Ball_of_Fire_movie_poster.jpg|frame]]
'''''Ball of Fire''''' is a 1941 screwball comedy film about eight professors who are trying to compile the world's largest encyclopedia. Realizing his books on slang are out of date, English Professor Bertram Potts ([[Gary Cooper]]) leaves the communal library/house where they work to find research material. There he meets burlesque dancer Sugarpuss O'Shea ([[Barbara Stanwyck]]), who needs a place to hide from the cops so she can't testify against her boyfriend: mobster Joe Lilac ([[Dana Andrews]]). She stays with Potts and uses his affection of her to her advantage. Naturally, she [[In Love with the Mark|falls in love with the mark]] and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

From a script by prolific Hollywood writer [[Billy Wilder]] and directed by [[Howard Hawks]] with a score by [[Alfred Newman]]. Nominated for three [[Academy Award]]s, including best actress and best story. Named to the [[National Film Registry]] in 2016.

{{tropelist}}
* [[Adorkable]]: Bertram [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: the professors and Bertram, when it comes time [[Took a Level in Badass|to take a step up]].
* [[Burlesque]]: If they ever remake this film Sugarpuss will probably be a stripper.
* [[Camp Straight]]: Professor Oddly is a rather mannered and slightly effeminate old gentleman (presumably due to having come of age in a more formal era), but he's the only one of the professors to have any previous romantic experience with women.
* [[Expy]]: The other seven professors for [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|the seven dwarfs]].
* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Even in heels, Sugarpuss needs to stand on a couple of reference books to kiss Bertram.  It's ''very'' obvious on the theatrical lobby poster which serves as the page image.
* [[More Dakka]]: The gangsters' machine guns.
* [[Oblivious to Love]]: Bertram at first.
* [[Serious Business]]: Making damn sure that encyclopedia is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. This was, mind you, before Wikipedia.
* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: All of the professors.
* [[Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace]]: While these exact words aren't said, Bertram and his friends do have to break up Lilac's wedding in the climax.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' might qualify, despite premiering [[Setting Update|66 years after the film.]]
** Also the 1983 [[Dan Aykroyd]] comedy ''[[Doctor Detroit]]'', about a nerdy professor getting involved with prostitutes.
* [[Totally Radical]]:  It's a deliberate attempt to avert the 1941 version of this trope that sends Bertram Potts out into the real world.

{{reflist}}
{{AFI's 100 Years 100 Laughs}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Screwball Comedy]]
[[Category:Films of the 1940s]]
[[Category:The Forties]]
[[Category:National Film Registry]]