Only Angels Have Wings

Director: Howard Hawks
Screenplay: Jules Furthman
Stars: Cary Grant (Geoff Carter), Jean Arthur (Bonnie Lee), Richard Barthelmess (Bat MacPherson), Rita Hayworth (Judy MacPherson), Thomas Mitchell (Kid Dabb), Allyn Joslyn (Les Peters), Sig Ruman (Dutchy), Victor Kilian (Sparks), John Carroll (Gent Shelton), Don “Red” Barry (Tex), Noah Beery Jr. (Joe Souther), Manuel Álvarez Maciste (The Singer), Milisa Sierra (Lily), Lucio Villegas (Doctor)
MPAA Rating: NR
Year of Release: 1939
Country: U.S.
Only Angels Have Wings Criterion Collection Blu-Ray
Only Angels Have WingsHoward Hawks’s Only Angels Have Wings followed directly on the heels of his screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938), which at the time was an unmitigated disaster (although it has since been recognized as one of Hollywood fiercest and funniest comedies). It is not surprising, then, that he returned to the adventure genre for his next film, although the spark and speed of the screwball mentality clearly stuck with him. Only Angels Have Wings is a delight in the way it borrows from both genres, between which Hawks had successfully alternated all throughout the 1930s, thus supplying drama and suspense via the dangers of flying in remote South America with the humor and romance of opposites attracting.

The films takes place in Barranca, a fictional South American port town that appears to be constantly shrouded in mist (all the better to emphasize its alluring exoticism). Cary Grant, in the second of his eventual five collaborations with Hawks, stars as Geoff Carter, a hard-nosed, experienced pilot who oversees the operations of a tiny airline company that operates out of Barranca, mostly carrying mail and supplies to nearby regions. It is dangerous work because of the mountainous terrain, treacherous weather, and faulty equipment (because the company is barely solvent, their airplanes are mostly cobbled together from spare parts). The company is actually owned by “Dutchy” Van Ruyter (Sig Ruman), who also runs the bar and hotel out of which the airline operates, but it is really Geoff who calls the shots, overseeing a motely group of pilots whose occupation requires a devil-may-care attitude (to get in and out of Barranca, they have to navigate through a high pass in the sharp Andes Mountains). The operation is also under stress because they are trying to land a permanent contract, which requires them to safely deliver airmail for six months without fail, a feat they are only days away from accomplishing.

Normal operations are thrown off-balance by the arrival of several new characters and the death of one of the pilots. The first to arrive is Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), a chipper showgirl who gets off a passenger boat for a brief respite but ends up staying in Barranca because she is so taken with Geoff. Geoff, however, is largely unavailable, as his hazardous occupation and commitment to the airline and the men who operate it leaves little room for romance, much less long-term romantic commitment (his refusal to commit to anything other than his profession is symbolized in the fact that he never carries his own matches). It is little surprise that Bonnie is so taken with Geoff, since he is played by Grant when he was, as Pauline Kael put it in her lengthy essay “The Man From Dream City,” at the high peak of his “romantic glamour … his glamour was now a matter of his resonances from the past, and he wore it like a mantle.” Grant also seemed to be everywhere; in 1939 and 1940, he made this film, Gunga Din, His Girl Friday (another collaboration with Hawks), My Favorite Wife, and The Philadelphia Story, all of which are now viewed as classics.

The next to arrive are Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) and his wife, Judy (Rita Hayworth in one of her first roles). Bat’s real name is Kilgallen, and he is immediately recognized by the other pilots because of his infamy for having bailed from a crashing plane before securing the escape of his mechanic, thus causing his death. If that weren’t bad enough, the man who died was the younger brother of Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell), one of Geoff’s most trusted and seasoned pilots. And, to add even more complication, Judy was previously involved romantically with Geoff, but broke it off because she couldn’t deal with the stress of loving someone who might die every day, a stress that Geoff exacerbates in her new relationship by giving Bat only the most dangerous jobs.

From an auteurist standpoint, Only Angels Have Wings is a quintessential Hawksian film. Thematically speaking, it celebrates the camaraderie of a group of exclusive male professionals, the betrayal of whom constitutes the greatest possible sin. Although Geoff is the film’s hero, exemplifying as he does the best traits of professionalism and dedication, to the point that he can appear cold and ruthless to those who don’t understand his line of work, Bat is the film’s dramatic center. His betrayal of the pilot’s profession by allowing his mechanic to die means that he must be punished by social isolation before he can redeem himself by acting heroically in a similar situation. The female characters exist largely on the sidelines as adjuncts to the masculine world to reinforce the importance of what the male characters do, largely by fearing for their lives or grieving their loss or stewing in romantic frustration.

The importance of male connection in the film is exemplified in the fact that Bonnie learns how to love Geoff properly by asking Kid how he loves him: “Just stick around,” he tells her. In Hawks’s world, the romance between men and women, necessary as it is, is nevertheless secondary to the trust, commitment and camaraderie among men; for Hawks, male friendship is the ideal human relationship. This is, of course, quite politically incorrect in today’s climate, as it reduces the women to either wide-eyed supporters or dangerous distractions for the male characters, although it is really not so different from most Hollywood movies; it just stands out now because Hawks is so brazen in pronouncing it (perhaps he was trying to make up for the female-centric Bringing Up Baby, which made Grant into an impotent caricature). However, Jean Arthur acquits herself quite well in going toe to toe with Grant; their scenes have the kind of zip and sizzle that characterized the best of Hawks’s zany comedies (interestingly, Hawks was frustrated with Arthur’s performance because she refused to do what he wanted her to do and instead relied on the persona she had already perfected).

Hawks, who was a master of shifting among genres—he made adventures, romances, comedies, westerns, gangster films, mysteries—was a truly alchemic director, one who was able to take base materials and make them feel like gold. Only Angels Have Wings was close to his heart for a number of reasons. First, he was himself an aviator, having served in the Signal Corps and later the Army Air Corps during World War I. He had already made a number of aviation adventure films, including The Dawn Patrol (1930) and Ceiling Zero (1936), both of which now feel like test runs for Only Angels Have Wings. Secondly, the story in Only Angels was based on people he knew, which were fictionalized through the typewriter of his favorite screenwriter, Jules Furthman, who had started writing scenarios for movie studios in 1915 and eventually wrote five of Hawks’s films, including The Big Sleep (1946) and Rio Bravo (1959).

Throughout the film Hawks is constantly shifting tones even as he makes it feel entirely consistent; when the characters break out into song around a piano, it feels like something they would do in that moment, rather than a self-conscious moment of incorporating a piece of a musical. We can see how confident Hawks was in the film and its emotions in the fact that he didn’t commission a musical score for emphasis; instead, he fills the soundtrack with roaring planes and crackerjack dialogue. The characters are bold, larger than life, but their emotional grounding keeps the film from scattering. Grant’s Geoff may be a near caricature of stoic machismo, but he isn’t without a sense of humor or, as it turns out, real emotions. Hawks isn’t so much of a man’s man that he isn’t willing to let his hero cry, and Only Angels Have Wings is all the better for it.

Only Angels Have Wings Criterion Collection Blu-Ray

Aspect Ratio1.37:1
AudioEnglish DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 monaural
Subtitles English
Supplements
  • Audio excerpts from a 1972 conversation between Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich
  • Video interview with film critic David Thomson
  • “Howard Hawks and His Aviation Movies” featurette
  • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1939
  • Trailer
  • Essay by critic Michael Sragow
  • DistributorThe Criterion Collection
    SRP$39.95
    Release DateApril 12, 2016

    VIDEO & AUDIO
    Criterion’s new high-definition presentation of Only Angels Have Wings, which was transferred at 4K from the original 35mm camera negative and digitally restored, looks phenomenal, making it a no-brainer replacement for Sony’s previously available 2006 DVD. The black-and-white imagery is beautifully rendered with strong detail and a heavy presence of grain. It is clear when stock photography was used, as the image is much softer in such instances, which underscores how clean and sharp the rest of the film looks. Much of the narrative takes place either at night or inside dark interiors, and black levels and shadow detail are outstanding. The transfer also handles the film’s constant use of fog and mist without any noticeable artifacting. The monaural soundtrack was transferred at 24-bit from the original 35mm soundtrack negative and digitally restored, which keeps the spitfire dialogue crisp and displays some decent depth in the sound effects, which include planes roaring and soaring, and, in some instances, crashing, and burning.
    SUPPLEMENTS
    There are more than two hours of supplements included. Although there is no audio commentary, there are 20 minutes of audio excerpts from a 1972 conversation between Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich, in which Hawks discusses the film’s origins and its production (most of this interview ended up in Bogdanovich’s 1997 book Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Legendary Film Directors). Film critic David Thomson provides additional historical and critical perspective in a 18-minute video interview. My favorite supplements was “Howard Hawks and His Aviation Movies,” a 20-minute featurette in which film scholar Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt discuss the film in terms of its historical placement as an aviation film at a time when flying was still new and exciting and how the film’s various special effects, including 1/20th-scale miniatures and matte paintings, were mixed with live-action aerial photography. The featurette includes some alternate takes of the miniature work and aerial shots that weren’t used in the film, which is a nice bonus. Also on the disc is the entire 1939 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Richard Barthelmess, and Thomas Mitchell and hosted by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille and a trailer.

    Copyright ©2016 James Kendrick

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    All images copyright © Columbia Pictures / The Criterion Collection

    Overall Rating: (3.5)




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