ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (Howard Hawks, 1939)

date watched: May 12, 2009
location: At home. My private copy of the "Cary Grant Box Set."

1939 was certainly a good year for Hollywood. Among the achievements are Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming), Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra). By this point, Hawks was already an established director, with works like Scarface (1932) and Bringing Up Baby (1938) to his credit. According to Todd McCarthy's book on Howard Hawks, Only Angels Have Wings was one of twelve titles to represent the United States at the first-ever Cannes Film Festival, set to upon on September, 1939. Who knew Hawks was an international player from early on!

Unlike the original story, which spans a few weeks, Hawks's film takes place over a little over twenty-four hours. Hawks is able to edit judiciously, and to my eye, there's nothing that could have been left out or added in.

The interesting thing about this film is that the love story between Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) and Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), and to add, his past with Judy MacPherson (Rita Hayworth), are only secondary to his real "love story" with "the kid" (Thomas Mitchell). Even though Geoff never carries his own matches (possibly a defensive act), he still gets burnt twice, something Bonnie has the guts to point out. First, he lets the love of his life, Judy, take off with another flyer (MacPherson, played by Richard Barthelmess). Next, he makes the mistake of letting his devoted friend and "brother," Kid, take the reigns of the plane on a unauspicious night. These same sacrificial acts will be echoed three years later, in Curtiz's hit, Casablanca. As a Cary Grant fan, I'm sorry that Bogart got to be so heroic, as Rick Blaine--after all, Grant is number two on American Film Institute's "Greatest Male Star of All Time," AFTER Bogart. Tant pis.



Hawks, knowingly or unknowingly, had taken a jab at the "male weepie," which, in my opinion, reaches its dramatic height in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986). If ever you want to see the second greatest male star of all time cry (or at least BEGIN to cry), just watch Only Angels Have Wings. It's actually quite unsettling, to tell you the truth.