Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Barthelmess, Allyn Joslyn, Rita Hayworth, Sig Ruman, Noah Beery Jr., Victor Kilian, John Carroll, Milisa Sierra, Pat Flaherty, Pedro Regas.

Wry, fatalistic Grant (often seen wearing an unflattering wide-brimmed hat) runs a small airmail company in South America with a handful of fellow stalwart pilots, tackling dangerous assignments to land a lucrative contract. His business—both personal and professional—hits a snag with the arrival of a handful of acquaintances new and old, including a plucky entertainer (Arthur) who’s just passing through…unless she’s given a good enough reason to stay. Though not his best work, this is arguably Hawks’ most archetypal, a snappy and sardonic recognition (nay, commemoration) of the mythos of masculinity through outlooks and relationships with other men and, when time allows, the women what’s worth fightin’ fer. Grant’s big kahuna is too macho to ever confess love to Arthur (no, no, the closest he comes to disclosure is a trick coin), Barthelmess’ disgraced pilot is irredeemable until he can prove his mettle in another dangerously sticky situation, an ex-flame played by Hayworth is little more than a pawn for the players and a trophy for the winner, and so on—anyone thinking about writing a tiresome treatise on the “bro code” will need to footnote this picture repeatedly. Instead of mothballing this Golden Era staple for its outmoded behavior, however, it brews high drama in a cauldron of cynicism and camaraderie, a masquerade ball of pulp novel idealism as staged by movie stars who work best as characters and character actors who could have been stars. Sure, the pacing flags in the middle and a couple plot turns are more than a little forced (nothing could ever stop one of these bold flyboys from carrying out their duty…except for an errant gunshot, good grief!), but the collaborative effort can’t be touched, and too many other scenes pop to gripe. Somewhat fittingly, this was one of the films that was intended to represent the U.S. at the first Cannes Film Festival, but then the “fog” of reality moved in (the events leading to World War II) and the festival was scuttled.

84/100