Expert: Barbara L. Baker - 3/3/2007

Question
When I was younger, maybe 7 or 8 years old my sister and I watched this movie on TV. I don't remember much about it, but I'm hoping you can help. I would say this movie is a romantic comedy, it's very old, black and white. There is a woman, a tall woman, who is running from something, I'm not sure what, and she ends up in this house with maybe 6 or 7 men - musicians or scientists or both maybe. All of these men are very short. The man who is sort of "in charge" and the woman fall in love - I remember he had to stand on a box to kiss her and the morning after he was so head over heals he did things like stir his coffee with a pickle, he shuffled his toast like playing cards, and his speech was somewhat backwards. Whoever this woman was running from found her and the men tried fighting the people that were after her - I remember them hitting one of the "bad guys" with a drum over his head. I know this is kind of sketchy but it's all I remember and I absolutely loved this movie. I have searched any website I can find and have gotten no where, mainly because I don't really know what I'm looking for. If you could help at all I would be incredibly grateful. Thank you.

Answer
Dear Beth:  This is probably one of two screwball comedy films made by Howard Hawks in the 1940s.  I'm not exactly sure which one because I've not seen either film, although your idea that they are musicians would fit the remake better than the original (however, that group of men are more like scientists).  

The first film is the classic "Ball of Fire" made in 1941, where gangster moll Barbara Stanwyck hides out with a bunch of male lexiographers who are trying to update their dictionary with modern slang.  From clips I've seen of this film, they are very similar to nerdy scientist-types.  The film starred Gary Cooper as the youngest, most naive and nerdiest of the group of men. She agrees to help them with slang terms because she is on the run from her previous boyfriend, whom she intends to testify against, and she needs a place to hide out.     

The film was remade a few years later as "A Song is Born"(1948), this time starring Danny Kaye as leader of a group of musicians who want to update their sound.  Again they find a gangster's moll on the run (Virgina Mayo), and wind up sheltering her and some of her musical friends. It is filled with more musical numbers than the original, but winds up in the same type of place (a confrontation with the mobsters, etc.).   The physical behavior you describe--talking backwards, stirring coffee with a pickle, etc. would be things Danny Kaye was quite adept at doing.

Both films are versions of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and are available on DVD.  Perhaps if you check out the descriptions on the Internet Movie Data Base you'll be able to know for sure which is the one you watched with your sister.  Good luck!