The early '40s was a hugely successful time for director Howard Hawks and his Ball Of Fire stars, Barbara Stanwyck & Gary Cooper. This isn't their crowning achievement (partly because it just isn't as funny as other comedies each of them made), but it's fun and the love story is certainly enjoyable. Hawks was talented enough to excel at making movies in nearly every genre, but he was always in his element when it came to the laughs. Cooper's typical stiffness works well for this nerdy grammarian too. The great Stanwyck though is a little inconsistent as the title character, who uses Cooper and his friends before falling for him (and for them). The inconsistency might be a script problem more than something Babs is failing to do. But while she was more suited to play a lying schemer in The Lady Eve that same year, she DOES help make this rom-com parable about the 7 dwarfs a screwball time at the movies. Ryan's going solo again in this 552nd yapfest of Have You Ever Seen, kids, so get ready to learn lots of details about a screwball comedy that has remained popular for over 80 years.

Sparkplug Coffee, kids! They sponsor us. They'll give you a 20% discount off your next order just by using our "HYES" promo code. Go to "sparkplug.coffee/hyes".

As for how to get in touch with us, there's email ([email protected]). You can tweet-ex too (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis). You can also comment on our YouTube page (@hyesellis) because we post all of our podcasts there. Rate, review, like, share, subscribe and all those things to help us get the word out there about our classic-movies chat show.