Last night I watched some of A Song is Born on TCM. Overall, it's an unnecessary remake of Ball of Fire. I'll grant you that Danny Kaye has more talent than Gary Cooper, who's main function in the original is mostly to be tall and wooden. But the rest of the cast in Ball of Fire really outshines the remake. Esp. Barbara Stanwyck v. Virginia Mayo. Not even a close contest and if you don't get that, yr doing it wrong.
But the one area where A Song is Born stands out is the music. Yes, Ball of Fire has the Krupa/Stanwyck "Drum Boogie" number which can hang w/ anything in A Song is Born. But the remake's got Louis Bellson, Mel Powell, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong. And that's a lot of musical firepower. There's one particularly excellent small combo number featuring Hampton and Goodman (who actually plays one of the professors, complete w/ bad rug and cheesy moustache).
Tonight I went over to the Nasher to see Shaft, which was showing as part of their "Birth of the Cool" series. As always, a fun fun movie.

I tell you, that cat Shaft is a bad motha...
Shut your mouth!