About

For years, a group of professors have been toiling away in solitude compiling the definitive encyclopaedia. Realising they are hopelessly out of date on modern slang, the youngest of the academics, Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), seeks out the fabulously named nightclub performer Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) to fill in their blanks.

Propelled by a selection of Hollywood all-stars behind the camera – with Howard Hawks directing, a script from Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland lensing the picture – Ball of Fire is an incandescent screwball joy.

Ball of Fire will screen from an imported 35mm preservation print, courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.