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Editorial Review Product Description
Only Angels Have Wings exemplifies the complex, taciturn male bravado common to the films of Howard Hawks. Unfairly lumped into the genre of the airborne drama, it is one of Hawks' more neglected films. An experienced pilot himself, Hawks based Angels on real people and events from his time spent on the airfields; his brother was killed in a plane crash. Cary Grant plays the courageous, fatalistic lead, and Jean Arthur is the typical Hawksian heroine, strong with a subversive, gender-bending edge. Supporting player Rita Hayworth became a major Hollywood star after Angels. The film would receive a wartime update as 1942's The Flying Tigers. ... Read more Customer Reviews (32) 
A flying drama.
I mistakenly bought this movie under the impression that it was a romantic comedy.And to my surprise it turned out to be quite a dramatic film about the hard life of fliers in Barranca, South America.Cary Grant is a very cold-hearted manager of a primitive airline business that flies the mail out.He doesn't flinch when his fliers die and is as much of a bean counter as any disgraced Enron exec.Jean Arthur's role is more of a side note to the film.However, she does what she can with it.As she portrays a showgirl looking for work who lands in Barranca for a brief stay that turns out to be delayed for a week.She falls in love (goodness only knows why) with the hard-hearted Cary Grant and tries her best to both emulate his sternness and to try to break through his tough exterior.Since Cary Grant's character has the most male chauvinist views on love, she never really breaks through his exterior but for some reason or another is still madly in love with him.Now the really interesting parts of the film are seeing a glimpse of what life was like for the fliers in an era of practically zero flight regulation.And seeing a little bit of Latin America during that time.So the movie has worth, but just be prepared for a serious dramatic film.And not a romantic comedy!P.S.Rita Hayworth makes one of the grandest entrances onto the screen in this film.Wow!Can she make her presence known.
Very good****
No foul words, no suggestive themes, no cursing the name of God.A very atmospheric story, some sad events and some full of hope.
REALLY 'WAY OVER-HYPPED
This year, 2009, is the 70th anniversary of the release of this movie. For collectors, it has some historical value. It certainly shows that filmmaking has leapt ahead light years in that time. Everything - writing, direction, sets, effects (little model plane n miniature sets) , acting, et al, all provide a benchmark for motion pictures' advance.
But "Hands down, Only Angels Have Wings is one of the most buoyantly entertaining movies in the American cinema" is absolutelyNOT true. Of course, it has Grant, Arthur and Hayworth on the marquee`. But the plot, performances anddirection are not 'the most' of anything. In perspective, perhaps the least. For Grant, from that time, his TOPPER work, and any number of other vehicles are incredibly better.
My three stars rating is out of respect for the talents involved and the historical perspective;
if not for sentimentality or academic aspects, one or two stars would more appropriate.
This isn't a movie to see again or pass around/recommend to friends. Unless you are a film-history buff, look
elsewhere for a 'razor-sharp example of action-oriented films' of Howard Hawks or any director of any epoch.
See this movie and soar!Don't see this movie and ...
If you don't think this is a great movie .... YOU SHOULD FALL OUT OF AN AIRPLANE!
Once he became a star, Cary Grant insisted that the girl should puruse *him,* rather than the other way around.And that's exactly what Jean Arthur does in this movie.
Opening with her arrival at a private airfield in some South American banana republic, Jean Arthur goes into a bar, starts playing the piano, makes friends with everybody, and for the rest of the movie *throws* herself at Cary Grant.(Wot a guy!)
Oh, sure, a few people crash or nearly crash in the airplane sequences, but who cares -- the chemistry between Cary Grant and Jean Arthur is irresistible.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you: there's an awful lot of drinking in this movie.
... A pilot crashes -- "Have a drink."
... Thomas Mitchell is grounded because his vison is failing -- "Have a drink."
... Rita Hayworth still has a torch for Cary Grant -- "Have a drink."
... Cary Grant gets shot in the arm by Jean Arthur, but she didn't really mean it -- "Have a drink."
Drink-drink-drink.There's more drinking in this movie than at Toots Shor's bar mitzvah.And he wasn't even Jewish.(Rim shot: ba-da-bing-bing!)
When you see this movie and tell all your friends how great it is --and I know you will -- I mean, it's either that or falling out of an airplane right? -- when you see this movie pay particular attention to Jean Arthur's nose.Jean Arthur has one of the most interesting noses in movie history. ...
Had she fixed her nose, which is a teeny-weeny bit too big, Jean Arthur might have qualified as a legitimate "glamour girl."But she didn't fix it, which I think was very shrewd on her part.That little, yet readily noticeable imperfection typifies what makes her so ingratiating to audiences in general and men in particular --she's *approachable,* she's *vulnerable.*And yet she's strong, liberated; full of you-know-what and vinegar.
(That's right, friends, here at "Sal's Full Service Movie Reviews" you not only get opinions on acting, you get piss & vinegar reports, too.)
In most of her major successes, Jean Arthur was "the-gal-who's-a-pal" to the male lead, and this gave her a great advantage over other attractive actresses back then.For example, Rita Hayworth, a world class dish if ever there was one, is also in this movie and like other glamour girls it's impossible for her to connect with Cary Grant as anything more than a one-dimensional sex symbol.And this limits Hayworth's appeal to men; and, I imagine, women as well.
Jean Arthur, on the other hand, scores both ways -- she can sexually excite a man and, at the same time, befriend him.(Quick: name three actresses who can do that!)Howard Hawks, the director, along with the movie's screenwriter, understood this, so that in addition to playing to her strong suit, her "pal-relationship" with men, they made sure Arthur got a great deal of sexual attention at the beginning of the movie from the various on-the-make flyers who fall all over each other to make a good impression, hoping to get a date with, as they put it, "the blonde."
This duality on Jean Arthur's part -- her appeal to men on a sexual basis as well as a friendship basis -- may have particular relevance to Cary Grant's well-known bisexuality.For example, as much as he tries, in this movie as well as other "action movies," Cary Grant just can't be a tough, hard-bitten guy in the mold of a Humphrey Bogart or a Jimmy Cagney or a Paul Muni -- all appealing leading men but all of whom, unlike Grant, did movie after movie and rarely if ever established "chemistry" with their co-stars. ...
In other words, Cary Grant's bisexuality may be the underlying reason why the chemistry he created vis-a-vis his leading ladies is so appealing.While, at the same time, his bisexuality, as it manifested itself in his acting, made it difficult for him to fill in the macho requirements of an action movie such as this one.So that Jean Arthur's "butch-palness"-cum-"blonde-heterosexuality" makes you forget about Grant's inadequacies as a legitimate cinema tough guy.In short, because Arthur can hold her own with the boys, Grant can be tough with her, but not necessarily with the other male actors in the movie, as a Bogart or a Cagney would be.
It's not for nothing that Grant rarely appeared in action movies such as this one, not quite pulling off the macho part of the role.
Katherine Hepburn, too, possessed this "butch-heterosexual duality" -- with Grant, more than any other actor she worked with, facilitating that duality.Think about how natural and spontaneous the scenes are between Cary Grant and his most famous "butch-heterosexual" leading ladies: Katherine Hepburn, Jean Arthur, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne.After a while the audience suspects that they are having as much fun sparring with each other as they would have copulating with each other.
("Copulating" -- the way I come up with 'em, huh?)
Hepburn, rumored to be a lesbian, manifests her pal-relationship with Grant in a masculine way (quick, bossy, thin-lipped); whereas Jean Arthur, whose screen persona is just as liberated as Hepburn, balances her "sex-with-friendship" relationship without losing her femininity.
Notice, how smoothly and how effortlessly Cary Grant connects with Rosalind Russell's masculinity in "His Girl Friday," another of hiscollaborations with Howard Hawks.
Contrast this with the scenes between Cary Grant and Rita Hayworth in "Only Angels Have Wings."Rita Hayworth is lightyears more glamorous than Kartherine Hepburn or Jean Arthur or Rosalind Russell -- but there's no chemistry at all between her and Cary Grant.You can immediately see this in the way Hayworth is costumed; with sexy, shiny, tight-fitting clothes; and with the way the camera leeringly and unabashedly follows her rear-end, step-by-step up a flight of stairs.
Whereas you sense in Jean Arthur (costumed in a no-nonsense tailored suit) a sexually-charged, independent woman; but also someone who doesn't take herself nearly as seriously as either Rita Hayworth *or* Katherine Hepburn -- this being the main reaosn why I prefer Jean Arthur over Katherine Hepburn.
Grant bossily tells Arthur what to do in several scenes, and Arthur objects!But when Grant continues, abruptly cutting off her objections, she retreats -- but not because she's weak or unassertive, rather because she instinctively senses that she's as emotionally strong as Grant is, maybe stronger.
See this movie and see if you don't agree.
And if you *don't* agree, Ga bless ya and I wish ya a lotta luck.
great pace and dialogue and sweetly old-fashioned
This 1939 flick provided perfect entertainment for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Shot in black and white, it nonetheless featured stunning photography (especially for the time) of small, fragile planes soaring over Andean peaks which brought home the danger and romance of those days of aviation.
Cary Grant plays a man trying to run an aerial mail service in some South American country (Barraca!). The technology of the time is amusingly crude. To check the weather, he posts a man in a hut atop a mountain pass to radio down when the clouds are clearing. When a plane gets lost in the fog and tries to find the runway, the ground crew shines a light up into the air and listens to engine noise and then tries to guide him home -- unsuccessfully.
It's a dangerous business and when pilots die, which they often to, the rest of the crew cope with the stress by pretending the dead man never existed. Grant himself, we learn, has been burned by love and is determined not to let another woman pin him down.
In one jarring scene, a plane loaded with explosives is ordered to turn back when the weather changes and drops its cargo on a bunch of condors to get rid of the pesky creatures. Conservation and respect for other creatures was clearly a concept that hadn't yet taken hold.
Jean Arthur strolls off a boat for a night in the town, falls in love with Grant and spends the rest of the movie trying to lure him. She's feisty and witty with a soft center. Rita Hayworth has a secondary role which consists mostly of looking sexy.
The dialogue crackles and sparkles and the movie moves along at a seering pace. Don't think too much about the plot -- it's as ramshackle as the planes these guys fly.
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