Calling Barranca: Howard Hawks and Only Angels Have Wings

Steyn Online ^ | 6 Aug 2022 | Rick McGinness

[Rummyfan]

Joseph McBride's 1982 collection of interviews with Howard Hawks, the director says that he wanted to get the rights to Ian Fleming's Bond series, but that he was scooped by Cubby Broccoli, his former assistant director. When I read that, I spent twenty giddy minutes trying to imagine the alternate universe where Howard Hawks produced or even directed From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I'm still not sure if it would have been a better place, but the closest we ever got to seeing that world is his 1939 adventure film Only Angels Have Wings.

The movie came out in Hollywood's magic year of 1939, alongside The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, Of Mice and Men and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but also near the beginning of a winning streak of pictures by Hawks that included Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Sergeant York, Ball of Fire, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep and Red River. You can't complain about a film made by one of Hollywood's greatest directors, in the middle of the studio system's creative renaissance, but it's often overlooked in the context of both Hawks and Hollywood.

It's a drama, it's a romance, it's a comedy, but most of all it's a fantasy, set in probably the most resolutely Hawksian place the director ever created. It's a soundstage world, filled with characters, themes and events drawn from Hawks' own rather incredible life, and the two hours you spend there is among the best escapes from reality a movie can offer.

[Rummyfan]

The Calling Baranca line was later used in some Looney Tunes cartoons.

Love this flick...... you can never go wrong with Howard Hawks and Cary Grant.

[ought-six]

Howard Hawks was a great director.

[jocon307]

Very interesting, thanks for posting!

[Sans-Culotte]

This movie is the first in a series of Hawks films (this one, To Have and Have Not, Rio Bravo) that essentially told a similar story. They all feature a tense situation and a new girl who comes along and she says much of the same dialog in each film. All three involve writer Jules Furthman. I've always felt that Only Angels Have Wings was the worst of the three (but they are all good), mainly because I didn't find Cary Grant rugged enough for the lead as opposed to Bogie and the Duke in the other two films. That picture of Grant in that broad-brimmed hat looks gay as hell IMO.

My wife and I have been on a Bogie kick lately and watched Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and To Have and Have Not this past week. I may give the Blu-ray of Only Angels Have Wings a spin next. Haven't watched that one in years.

[Borges]

This is one of Hawks’ three straight late 30s films with Cary Grant (the others are Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday) that may be the best American films of those years. If you throw in Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth than Grant was in the four best American films of the late 30s.

[Sans-Culotte]

This is one of Hawks’ three straight late 30s films with Cary Grant (the others are Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday) that may be the best American films of those years. If you throw in Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth than Grant was in the four best American films of the late 30s.

I'm actually a big fan of Cary Grant, but I did not quite find him rugged enough for this particular film. I like the other films you mention except for Bringing Up Baby (also Hawks). I found it to be ridiculous and over the top even for a screwball comedy. Katharine Hepburn came off as someone doing a spoof of her on a Carol Burnett or SNL skit. I know it is considered one of the great comedies and I feel I should like it, but I just don't care for it. However, I loved The Awful Truth. I think I developed a crush on Irene Dunne after seeing it.

I will watch Only Angels Have Wings again this week and see if I change my mind about Grant in it.

[IrishBrigade]

‘...mainly because I didn’t find Cary Grant rugged enough for the lead...’

the pants he wore in the movie with the belt hitched up near his nipples didn’t help...

[Borges]

BUB is such a perfectly constructed farce. It goes from day into night, tameness into wildness, order into chaos;

[minnesota_bound]

Director Howard Hawks:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001328/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Most of the leading men today, the younger men especially, are a little bit effeminate. There’s no toughness.
Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood don’t compare with John Wayne.

[ought-six]

“Most of the leading men today, the younger men especially, are a little bit effeminate. There’s no toughness.
Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood don’t compare with John Wayne.”

Different generations. However, I don’t think anyone would seriously consider Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood to be in any way effeminate.

[ought-six]

“My wife and I have been on a Bogie kick lately and watched Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and To Have and Have Not this past week. I may give the Blu-ray of Only Angels Have Wings a spin next. Haven’t watched that one in years.”

In my opinion Humphrey Bogart is the best actor America has produced. While he was very good in a good many movies, his performances in “African Queen” and “Treasure of Sierra Madre” were just superb. I credit some of that to John Huston, who directed both.

[dfwgator]

Bogart’s best moment was in The Caine Mutiny, at that moment that Queeg realized he just sank himself after his rant about the Strawberries.

[ought-six]

“Bogart’s best moment was in The Caine Mutiny, at that moment that Queeg realized he just sank himself after his rant about the Strawberries.”

Yes, that was great. Still, I think his descent into madness in “Treasure of Sierra Madre” was brilliant. And his portrayal of the drunken skipper of the African Queen was priceless.

[JohnnyP]

I have a crush on Irene Dunne as well. And I think Bringing up Baby is a scream.