In any and all respects, who do you like better?
Who's prettier, sexyer, has the better legs, better hair, sweeter smile etc.
Is this a gee-up?
But then again,beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Virginia Mayo from head to toe and she's pretty good in between.
I guess I voted.
Stanwyck :) Maybe before I saw BOF before ASIB.
Cut me some slack, Jack! Chump don' want no help, chump don't GET da' help!
Hodie,
LOVE your quote...there was nothing funnier in the movie AIRPLANE than Barbara Billingsley talking jive! You made my day!
As for Mayo vs Stanwyk...looks-wise, Mayo...talent-wise, even in this (these) movie(s), Stanwyk. She had the hardness to softness that the character required.
"A man's kiss is his signature" -- Mae West
Viginia Mayo over all...I always thought BS was great but looks to severe at times. Like she's mad.
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I have to give it to Barbara Stanwyck for fitting the part better. Virginia Mayo just seems too sweet to be a mobster's girlfriend. But, I'd take Danny Kaye over Gary Cooper any day. Gary Cooper (in this film only) acted like a cardboard cutout. His line readings were horrendous. I digress...
shareVirginia Mayo was a lovely performer but Stanwyk was genius in "Ball OF Fire". Her 'Drum Boogie' number was worth the price of admission. She was hard enough to make you believe she was manipulating Cooper, and when she fell it was a real turnaround. However, both actresses are really suited to their leading men, Stanwyk would have eaten Kaye alive and Mayo would have never gotten Cooper out of the library.
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Barbara Stanwyck all the way. Mayo was way too sweet to ever be really sexy, and definitely wasn't hard edged enough for this part. Stanwyck was really at her best playing a hard woman falling for a guy who was supposed to be a sucker; see The Lady Eve as well as Ball of Fire. Mayo was also used in the western remake of High Sierra, Colorado Territory. There too, she suffers by comparison to Ida Lupino. Mayo is better looking, but Lupino is a much better actress, and again, Mayo isn't really hard enough for the part. To be fair, Stanwyck had Gary Cooper to play against, and Lupino had the one and only Bogart. Mayo had Danny Kaye and Joel McCrea, both of whom are good, but neither of whom can measure up to the actor he's replacing. Mayo may actually be prettier than Stanwyck, but Stanwyck had the better body, and really, who would you rather be in the dark with? lol
shareI love them both. I think that BS playing off of Cooper and Mayo off of Kaye were fine. If you flipped them, I don't think it's as good.
We have the first movie to compare against, and that always makes any remake difficult to stand up to. If you allow ASIB to stand on its own, it's fine. Cooper and Kaye play their parts well and Barbara and Virginia and good as well.
If you remade it today, who would you cast?