Goodness gracious great Balls of Fire

Imagine Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a dash of sex appeal and you have "Ball of Fire," Howard Hawks' subdued screwball comedy from 1941. Our group came to the following conclusions about this film:

WHAT STRIKES YOU AS DISTINCTIVE, CURIOUS, SURPRISING, OR UNEXPECTED ABOUT “BALL OF FIRE”?
• It’s considered the last substantial screwball comedy released prior to WWII.
• It inspired a remake years later as the musical “A Song is Born”, also directed by Howard Hawks; many of the shots, sets, costumes, and actor mannerisms closely resemble those in the remake.
• It features a wealth of talent from Hollywood’s golden age—including director Howard Hawks, producer Samuel Goldwyn, cinematographer Gregg Toland, co-writer Billy Wilder, stars Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper, and a cameo by Gene Krupa.
• Toland shoots the professor in deep focus, as was his pioneering trademark style; the result is that they are depicted as harmonizing well together, with each having equal importance to their group.
• Cooper is an interesting, if not offbeat casting choice—he’s not known for playing a stuffed shirt bookworm intellectual; instead, he was often cast as a populist everyman who made up in looks, bravery and honesty what he lacked in the brains department.
• It’s actually a modernized retelling of “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs,” only told in reverse in that the girl is educating the 7 men
• It’s loaded with coded adult content in its language and situations: consider how Sugarpuss is a strip tease dancer who shows off her legs and attractive figure, how she and others use suggestive lines and double entendres like “Once I watched my big brother shave,” “this is yum-yum,” and “brother, we’re going to have some hoy toy toy,” “Shove in your clutch,” and “I figured on working all night.”
• This is certainly less frenetic and slower-paced as a screwball than Hawks’ other two previous outings “Bringing Up Baby” and “His Girl Friday.” Hawks remarked that the tone was more subdued here because, he said in an interview: “…it was about pedantic people. When you've got professors saying lines, they can't speak 'em like crime reporters. So we naturally slowed up - couldn't do anything about it. Also, it was a little bit further from truth and a little more allegorical. It actually was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - with the striptease dancer as Snow White. It didn't have the same reality as the other comedies and we couldn't make it go with the same speed."

HAWKS WAS KNOWN FOR RECYCLING AND BORROWING ELEMENTS FROM FILMS HE HAD ALREADY DIRECTED OR THAT HE REMADE
• He directed His Girl Friday, a remake of The Front Page
• He helmed the classic western Rio Bravo, then remade it first as El Dorado and then as Rio Lobo

OTHER FILMS BY HOWARD HAWKS:
• Scarface
• Only Angels Have Wings
• Bringing Up Baby
• His Girl Friday
• Sergeant York
• The Big Sleep
• To Have and Have Not
• Red River
• The Thing from Another World
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
• Rio Bravo