Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writer:

Jules Furthman (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 May 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure | Romance

Tagline:

Thrilling As Love Born Amid A Thousand Fabulous Adventures!

Plot:

While waiting for her boat, Bonnie Lee stops at a small airport in South America. The pilots there deliver...

Plot Keywords:

American Expatriate | American Abroad | Beautiful Woman | Airmail | Aviation

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Geoff Carter
Jean Arthur	...	Bonnie Lee
Richard Barthelmess	...	Bat Kilgallen - Mac Pherson
Rita Hayworth	...	Judith 'Judy' MacPherson
Thomas Mitchell	...	Kid Dabb
Allyn Joslyn	...	Les Peters
Sig Ruman	...	John 'Dutchy' Van Reiter (as Sig Rumann)
Victor Kilian	...	Sparks (radioman)
John Carroll	...	Gent Shelton
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Tex Gordon (as Donald Barry)
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Joe Souther
Manuel Álvarez Maciste	...	The singer (as Maciste)
Milisa Sierra	...	Lily - Joe's girl (as Milissa Sierra)
Lucio Villegas	...	Doctor Lagorio
Pat Flaherty	...	Mike

Also Known As:

'- Only Angels Have Wings' (USA) (alternative spelling)
Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings (USA) (complete title)
Plane No. 4 (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | UK:A (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | France:U (re-release) | USA:Approved (PCA #4942) | Germany:6 | Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Howard Hawks remembers: "[When the movie was released] a certain critic said 'It's the only picture Hawks ever made that didn't have any truth in it.' I wrote him a letter and said, 'Every blooming thing in that movie was true.' I knew the men that were in it and everything about it. But it was just where truth was stranger than fiction."

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Toward the beginning of the movie, when Tex the lookout radio guy says, "OK, it's open," you can see the whole mountain range in the background slightly shift to the right. (Apparently, somebody was moving the set backdrop or bumped into it while the scene was being filmed.)

Quotes:

Kid Dabb: [watching Geoff try to land a damaged plane] He's gonna try to land!
Mike: He can't make it.
Les Peters: Not with that tail all smashed up. Not in a million years.
Kid Dabb: Get set for the crash, Mike!
Bonnie Lee: Why doesn't he jump?
Kid Dabb: Why? Why should he? He's made of rubber, he is. He wants to hit the ground to see how high he can bounce!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rita Hayworth: The Columbia Lady (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Arkansas Traveller

It is all about respect

If you ever wondered what all the fuss about Howard Hawks was all about, this is the film to catch. It is a first-hand lesson in what the Hawks universe was all about, and it is unsurpassed entertainment from the word go. Two hours of undiminished tension, action-wise, sexually, whatnot.

New York showgirl Bonnie (Jean Arthur) is on a stop-over in small-town Barrance somewhere in South America. Here she meets Geoff (Cary Grant), the leader of a small band of mail pilots having to cross a perilous mountain pass on a daily basis, and casualties are to be expected. Within little more than ten minutes of screen-time the young man, who had asked Bonnie out to dinner, is dead in a spectacular crash scene, and from there on the plot and the action pick up space. Bonnie is dismayed by the way the dead pilot's colleagues seem not to care about his death, they just go about their business and pretend he was never there in the first place, so as not to be reminded of their own mortality. "Joe died flying", says Geoff. "That was his job. He just wasn't good enough. That's why he got it". Dismayed as she may be, though, Bonnie cannot leave, since she is falling in love with Geoff but fast.

In this confined space, made even more confined by the dense fog and pouring rain that characterize the local climate, the scene is set for one of Hawks' perceptive gatherings of a group of people to have us observe the dynamics of people interacting, different ethos at work in a seemingly laconic male environment, the love, the rivalry, the camaraderie. The fear. Further upsetting the close-knit community is the arrival of a new fryer (Richard Barthelmess in the best performance of his mature years) who has to prove himself doubly because once in his life he turned yellow. With him he has Rita Hayworth, Geoff's old girl-friend ...

This is quintessential Hawks, just in the way that Barthelmess' character has to strive to earn any ounce of respect from his peers. But in every frame it is a deserved classic, and great performances abound.

8/10