Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writer:

Jules Furthman (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 May 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure | Romance

Tagline:

Powerful as a tropical storm!

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Old Flame | South America | Port | Based On Story

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Cary Grant	...	Geoff Carter
Jean Arthur	...	Bonnie Lee
Richard Barthelmess	...	Bat Mac Pherson
Rita Hayworth	...	Judy MacPherson
Thomas Mitchell	...	Kid Dabb
Allyn Joslyn	...	Les Peters
Sig Ruman	...	Dutchy (as Sig Rumann)
Victor Kilian	...	Sparks (radioman)
John Carroll	...	Gent Shelton
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Tex (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
Pat Flaherty	...	Mike

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' - Only Angels Have Wings (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)
Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings (USA) (complete title)
Plane No. 4 (USA) (working title)
Paraíso Infernal (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
SOS Feuer an Bord (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Avventurieri dell'aria (Italy) [it]
Endast änglar har vingar (Sweden) [sv]
Feuer an Bord! (Austria) [de]
Flugpioniere in Not (West Germany) [de]
Kun engle har vinger (Denmark) [da]
Monon oi angeloi ehoun ftera (Greece) [el]
Sólo los ángeles tienen alas (Spain) [es]
Seuls les anges ont des ailes (France) [fr]
Vain enkeleillä on siivet (Finland) [fi]

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

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Near the end of the film, Bonnie (Jean Arthur) says to Geoff (Cary Grant), "I'm hard to get, Geoff, all you have to do is ask me." This line would, of course, be more famously re-utilized by director Howard Hawks and screenwriter Jules Furthman in their later film, To Have and Have Not (1944), spoken this time by Slim (Lauren Bacall) to Steve (Humphrey Bogart).

Goofs:

Factual errors: When McPherson takes off with the patient, the chimney smoke shows he's taking off with the wind instead of against the wind. Taking off against the wind would increase his relative speed and help him take off.

Quotes:

Bonnie Lee: They must love it. Flying, I mean.
Sparks, radioman: Why do you think they come down to this kind of a place?
Bonnie Lee: It's like being in love with a buzz saw.
Sparks, radioman: Not much future in it.
Bonnie Lee: What is there about it that gets them?
Sparks, radioman: I'm not a flier myself. Hey, you'd better ask the Kid. Miss Lee. Mr. Dabb.
Bonnie Lee: How'd you do?
Sparks, radioman: She wants to know why you like flying.
Kid Dabb: I've been in it 22 years, Miss Lee. I couldn't give you an answer that would make any sense. What's so funny about that?
Bonnie Lee: That's what my dad used to say.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Honey West: Whatever Lola Wants.... (#1.6)" (1965)

Soundtrack:

Some of These Days

The last great World War I film

This movie makes much more sense when you put it in the context of early talkie World War I flying movies like Hawks' Today We Live or The Dawn Patrol or

Dieterle's The Last Flight (starring, not coincidentally, Richard Barthelmess). By 1939, with another war looming, audiences were long since sick of such tales, but by resetting the tale at a South American airport (where Cary Grant runs a mail service which is in danger of losing its contract), it was just barely possible to come up with a credible situation where Grant could again order his flyers to their deaths, and where death would be greeted with the callousness that

comes from knowing you're probably next and your best friend will eat your

steak for you. The reviewers who say Grant doesn't play it serious enough here are exactly missing the point-- his seemingly breezy, actually brittle facade IS the Lost Generation attitude, straight out of The Sun Also Rises.

This is one of the great tough romances, whose real romance is with death itself, which needless to say makes it several steps darker than Hawks' superficially similar To Have and Have Not, let alone Rio Bravo (which reproduces its main

characters almost exactly-- Grant as John Wayne, Arthur/Angie Dickinson as the woman trying to get into the boy's club, Barthelmess/Dean Martin as the guy

with a guilty past of failure, and Mitchell as the guy who age is catching up with/ Walter Brennan, old age fully caught up). In gleaming black and white on the DVD, the foggy, fake studio set and the silver skies might be the dreams of a pilot in the instant before his crash. Too grim a bite of caviar for the general, perhaps, but a testament for a generation that saw more than it could put on film, and one of the greatest works of art to sneak out of the studio system under

disguise of glamorous entertainment.