Ball of Fire

1941 · directed by Howard Hawks

Rating

81/100

Hit

yes

A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang—and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

Ball of Fire (1941), directed by Howard Hawks, rates 81/100 — a hit. See how its director, cast and crew rate across their careers.

Cast

• Gary Cooper
• Barbara Stanwyck
• Oskar Homolka
• Henry Travers
• S.Z. Sakall
• Tully Marshall
• Leonid Kinskey
• Richard Haydn
• Aubrey Mather
• Allen Jenkins

Crew

• Gregg Toland — Director of Photography
• Daniel Mandell — Editor
• Alfred Newman — Original Music Composer
• Billy Wilder — Screenplay
• Charles Brackett — Screenplay
• Howard Hawks — Screenplay

More from Howard Hawks

1. Bringing Up Baby (1938) — 93/100 · hit
2. Rio Bravo (1959) — 85/100 · hit
3. His Girl Friday (1940) — 84/100 · hit
4. Red River (1948) — 84/100 · hit
5. Scarface (1932) — 83/100 · hit
6. The Big Sleep (1946) — 83/100 · hit

How these numbers work: Methodology