125. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

Girl gets off boat at Barranca, a banana port in South America, she meets up with a group of fliers who fascinate her, particularly Cary Grant. Tragedy follows tragedy and she falls in love with firm but fair Cary Grant, they end up staying together.

Review

Wow, this was the best flying film I've ever seen and I've seen Top Gun. This film, however is pretty incredible - the casting and acting is stellar and the script is just amazing. The lines are fast and witty, the music is good and each character is very much fleshed out.

Even though Jean Arthur and Cary Grant are the central couple here, the film is very much one of those ensemble affairs. Each secondary character has a past, a story to tell and is relevant to the film, they are all fleshed out in an extreme way. The only exception to this rule is Rita Hayworth, who is just a ham... she was the producer's "protege", if that's what you want to call it.

There are also a couple of pretty amazing flying sequences, and because the characters are so well fleshed out they are even more thrilling because you care for what happens. Actually, if you are interested in aviation at all this is a pretty interesting film to see, how different flying was in them days and how daring pilots had to be in those conditions. A really amazing and expertly made film that you should really watch, so get it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) is a movie directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. While somewhat contrived in its plot twists, it is generally regarded as being among Hawks' finest films, particularly in its portrayal of the professionalism of the pilots, its atmosphere, and the flying sequences.

The plot of the film was copied almost exactly in the 1942 film Flying Tigers. The tone of this film inspired the 1983 television series Tales of the Gold Monkey.

A pretty funny film about women in Howard Hawks films, the scenes with Jean Arthur are from Only Angels Have Wings: