121 min – view video trailer
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur
Genres: Drama
IMDB 7.7 / Amazon 4.2 / Tomatometer 100%
Oscars: Nominated for 2 Won 0
At a remote South American trading port, the manager of an air freight company is forced to risk his pilots’ lives in order to win an important contract. IMDB 7.7 from over 6,261 users
Hands down, Only Angels Have Wings is one of the most buoyantly entertaining movies in the American cinema. It is also a razor-sharp example of the action-oriented films of Howard Hawks. A band of mail pilots struggle daily to get their planes through a treacherous mountain pass. They don’t care about the mail so much as they live by the rules of adventure, professionalism, and friendly rivalry. Cary Grant is the leader of this daredevil group, a man who won’t be pinned down to anything except his own code of stoicism. His cool style is tested by the arrival of a wisecracking blonde (Jean Arthur) and an ex-mistress (Rita Hayworth); Rita’s now married to a pilot, disgraced by a single act of cowardice. Hawks always got great mileage from throwing a bunch of colorful characters together in an enclosed space, where death could strike in a moment. The great secret about Hawks is that although his feel for action was crackling, he was really more interested in the way people exchanged sidelong glances or lit each other’s cigarettes–there’s a lot of both in Only Angels Have Wings. Amazon 4.2 from over 41 users
Virtually a textbook example of Howard Hawks’ “macho” mode, Only Angels Have Wings takes place high in the Peruvian Andes. Cary Grant heads a ramshackle airmail and freight service, forced to fly in the most perilous of weather conditions to the most treacherous of destinations. Facing death on a near-hourly basis, Grant and his flyers have adopted a casual, all-in-day’s-work attitude towards mortality. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 100% Audience 79%
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-vDLCOzhk]