Episode 567: Ball of Fire (1941)

Special Guest: Joseph McBride
Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Maitland McDonagh

We are kicking off a month of screwball comedy discussion with a look at Howard Hawks’s 1941 film Ball of Fire. Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, the film stars Gary Cooper as one of an octet of professors who are writing an encyclopedia. Cooper is writing an article on slang only to find that he’s very deficient. In an effort to bolster his research he comes across Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). The moll of a vicious gangster, she’s on the lamb and holes up with the professors. And, of course, hilarity ensues.

Kat Ellinger will be around all month. Maitland McDonagh guest hosts on this episode and Professor Joseph McBride dishes about his books on director Howard Hawks.

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Listen to "Episode 567: Ball of Fire (1941)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Ball of Fire on DVD
Buy A Song is Born on DVD
Buy Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride
Buy Focus on Howard Hawks by Joseph McBride
Subscribe to Maitland McDonagh's substack

Music:
"Drum Boogie" - Gene Krupa

Watch:

Symphony in Slang from Lee Presson on Vimeo.

Episode 443: Double Indemnity (1944)

Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, Keith Gordon

Noirvember 2019 wraps up with Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). With a screenplay co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler and based on a story by James M. Cain, the film is one of the seminal works of film noir. It stars Fred MacMurray as fast-talking Walter Neff, an insurance agent who gets played for a dope by a dame. The dame in question, Phyllis Dietrichson, is played by the one and only Barbara Stanwyck. The two cook up an insurance scam to pay off big after they bump off her husband.

Keith Gordon and Kat Ellinger join Mike to discuss Double Indemnity, its 1973 TV remake, the adult adaptation Eruption (1977), Body Heat (1981), and the Body Heat/Double Indemnity mash-up, Jism (2003).

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 443: Double Indemnity (1944)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Double Indemnity on Blu-Ray
Buy Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Buy Body Heat on Blu-Ray
Buy Jism on DVD
Read more about Dispatches from Elsewhere

Music:
Soundtrack by Miklos Rosza

Watch: