Only Angels Have Wings Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Richard Barthelmess, Thomas Mitchell Director: Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks was a US Army Air Service pilot during the first world war and he brought insight and empathy to this under-appreciated black-and-white classic.
Only Angels Have Wings centres on a commercial airline delivering mail in a mountainous region of South America. The drama surrounds the tight-knit group of fliers who defy death every day.
The cast rises to the brilliant script full of snappy dialogue, delivering performances that don't look dated even 70 years later. On its release it was billed as '1939's greatest screen adventure', but it's the richness of the characterisations that takes it to great heights. A romantic subplot is weaved in seamlessly and the comedy exchanges are unobtrusive, a tribute to Hawks' versatility.
Stars Cary Grant and Jean Arthur play against type. Grant (known for romantic leads) is Geoff Carter, the hands-on, tough-guy manager of the small airline. Arthur (a comedienne) is Bonnie Lee, a perky piano player stopping over on her way to the US, who falls for Carter.
Hawks reveals this world through Lee's eyes as she arrives in the port town of Barranca (set in an unspecified South American country, but filmed on studio sets). She is soon charmed by two airmen vying for her attentions, but within 10 minutes one of those pilots, Joe Souther (Noah Beery), dies in a fireball after taking too many risks trying to make it back for a dinner date with Lee. Carter had tried to talk Souther through the obscured pass, while others listened.
It's one of several scenes during which the stilted language of airline radio-speak conveys a tension all its own.
