Barbara Stanwyck/Gary Cooper‏ – “Ball of Fire”

by richibi

Barbara Stanwyck has never been for me
a favourite, more testosterone mostly than
her leading men, but when a cousin asked
about a New Year’s Eve gift recommendation
for his wife, for whom she is a favourite, how
could I resist 
 
this perfect little treasure, “Ball of Fire“, is
what I found, with Gary Cooper no less, who’s
always had testerone enough indeed for
everybody, even as an academic and
milquetoast grammarian
 
 she is a gangster’s moll  
 
the script is scintillating, he corrects someone’s
split infintives, not once but several times, how
could I not love it 
 
she was nominated for an Oscar in what appears
to have been, for its display of female icons, a tight
year, but for this movie Gary Cooper wasn’t even
mentioned  
 
he won the Oscar that year instead for “Sergeant
York“, indisputably probably deserving it 
 
 
incidentally, “Ball of Fire“ is a riff on “Snow White 
and the Seven Dwarfs“, these reorganizations in
art are not uncommon nor unusual, fairy tales and
Biblical references for instance resound always
especially profoundly in reinvented updates
 
here Prince Charming is already living with the
dwarves, Snow White is at the very least scarlet,
but it all ends up the same, of course, utterly ever
charming 
 
 
have a happy, and prosperous, new year 
 
Richard