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Only Angels Have Wings

1939, Adventure, 2h 1m

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A two-fisted adventure tale set in South America, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS stars Cary Grant as the tough-talking head of an air freight service operating in the dangerous Andes Mountains. Jean Arthur co-stars as a vacationing showgirl competing with Rita Hayworth for Grant's affections. A potent combination of humor, romance and action, the film was directed by Howard Hawks, the legendary director responsible for Red River, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, and the original Scarface. A triumph of casting, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is one of the best examples of Columbia chief Harry Cohn's skill in developing talent. Cary Grant had just been released from his contract with Fox when Cohn, sensingthat the handsome leading man was poised for stardom, turned him into Columbia's most durable star. Jean Arthur was an unexpected veteran of 50 films before Cohn "discovered" something in her that previous studios had overlooked. Teaming her with director Frank Capra, he created one of the finest comediennes in Hollywood history. And Rita Hayworth, Cohn's personal protegee, was a pure product of the studio system. Groomed for stardom from the first, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS offered her a chance to learn from the best in the business. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Genre: Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Howard Hawks

Producer: Howard Hawks

Writer: Howard Hawks , Jules Furthman , William Rankin , Eleanore Griffin

Release Date (Theaters): May 12, 1939  original

Release Date (Streaming): Jun 5, 2013

Runtime: 2h 1m

Distributor: Columbia Home Video, Columbia TriStar Home Video

Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation

Sound Mix: Mono

Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

Cast & Crew

Geoff Carter

Jean Arthur

Rita Hayworth

Judith 'Judy' MacPherson

Richard Barthelmess

Barthelmess

Thomas Mitchell

John 'Dutchy' Van Reiter (as Sig Rumann)

Victor Kilian

Sparks (radioman)

John Carroll

Gent Shelton

Allyn Joslyn

Don "Red" Barry

Tex Gordon, lookout

Noah Beery Jr.

Joe Souther

Milisa Sierra

Lily, Joe's girl

Lucio Villegas

Dr. Lagorio

Forbes Murray

Mr. Harkwright, mine operator (uncredited)

Cecilia Callejo

Felice Torras, Geoff's lady friend (uncredited)

Pat Flaherty

Mike, head mechanic

Pedro Regas

Howard Hawks

Jules Furthman

William Rankin

Eleanore Griffin

Dimitri Tiomkin

Original Music

Manuel Álvarez Maciste

Joseph Walker

Cinematographer

Viola Lawrence

Film Editing

Lionel Banks

Art Director

Robert Kalloch

Costume Design

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Critic Reviews for Only Angels Have Wings

Audience reviews for only angels have wings.

Hawks emphasizing character over plot has the effect of enhancing the danger of the flying sequences. You're just never sure who is going to survive.

Cary Grant leads a tight ensemble of mail pilots in the Andes Mountains for whom frequently bad weather conditions turn every regular day of work into a dance of death. Somehow Jean Arthur gets off the boat and gets involved with the guys first and then with Grant. Much of this doesn't make sense or add up and yet the presentation is so atmospheric and well done that damned if one doesn't hang around for the ride. Rita Hayworth, in her first A picture, sizzles even then.

It's a film about adventure and romance, but what we really have here is a study on the nature of death by director Howard Hawks. A lone adventuress (Jean Arthur) steps off the boat in a tiny South American banana port, and makes quick friends with some lonely american pilots working for the local mail company. It's a friendship that ends all too suddenly and all too violently. But where she would shed tears for a soul lost to dust, his fellow pilots choose to sing songs and even laugh it off, as death could come for any one of them at any time. The dashing head of the crew (Cary Grant) is perhaps the most cavalier of the group, but then, he has to be, as he's the one who sends them out (possibly to their deaths). She's attracted to him, and he to her, not as some flighty dame, but as a real woman who knows how to value life. But it becomes her task to convince him that she won't try to change him like his last love (Rita Hayworth) did, and he must make the effort to want something, to want her, for more than a passing fancy. He, who never owns so much as a book of matches, feeling it's too much of a commitment. In the face of the constant threat of death, maybe this all seems unimportant, or maybe it's the only thing that IS important. Maybe that's the heart of the matter, the issue of what this life is all about and what are we doing here and why are we doing it. There is a scene towards the end of the movie, a pilot is going on "one last flight", and it's one he must make alone. It's the elephant in the room, the fact that everyone knows, but no one wants to say aloud. That we all must one day die, and that we will die alone. The light will die within us and the mystery of death will finally be revealed. It may be wrong to fixate on our ultimate fate, but it's more wrongful still to deny that fate completely. Only Angels Have Wings is a microcosm of all our own little lives put together. We push forward and persevere in our work and loves in spite of our own mortality, because to do otherwise would be to negate our whole existence in the first place.

This is probably my favourite Cary Grant movie of the thirties. Jean Arthur, another favourite actor, stars alongside him in this. The movie combines adventure, drama, romance, and a bit of comedy. I loved this movie, and I highly recommend it.

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Only Angels Have Wings review – a likable, garrulous Cary Grant romance

T here’s drama, intrigue, laughter and thrills in this rereleased 1939 movie directed by Howard Hawks. It is an eccentric and entertaining movie soap-opera about a rackety airfreight company in South America, whose daredevil pilots risk life and limb getting the mail and other commodities back and forth across the Andes. Cary Grant plays the airline manager Geoff Carter, wearing an bizarrely exotic white outfit with broad-brimmed hat. Jean Arthur plays showgirl Bonnie Lee, a spirited gal who finds herself stranded with Carter and his employees on a stopover, where she becomes entranced by the boys’ soldierly swagger. Richard Barthelmess is a pilot with a terrible secret, whose wife (Rita Hayworth) just happens to be Carter’s ex-fiancee: a twist whose essential outrageousness is cheerfully taken as read. It’s a garrulous, effervescent movie – not my favourite Hawks picture, but very likable all the same. The vision of a tough but idealistic American abroad looks a little like Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, and that romantic pilot on the brink of eternity may put you in mind of the beginning of Michael Powell’s A Matter of Life and Death. It takes wing.

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Only angels have wings.

• 100 Slant Magazine Zach Campbell Slant Magazine Zach Campbell The other reason why Hawks's film can't be approached as a pure sociological interrogation is that it's, quite visibly, a Hollywood production with certain inescapable commitments to entertainment convention. This isn't to downgrade the movie, though, as there's a reason why Hawks and other Old Hollywood filmmakers have become so revered.
• 100 The A.V. Club Mike D'Angelo The A.V. Club Mike D'Angelo The film offers genuine intrigue and excitement.... But its ultimate power derives largely from its unusual ethos, which celebrates pragmatism at the expense of emotional behavior while simultaneously acknowledging just how profound a pragmatist’s emotions can be.
• 100 Total Film Neil Smith Total Film Neil Smith One of [Hawks'] finest pictures: a swoony saga of fatalistic flyboys and the women who try to keep their feet on the ground.
• 100 The New Yorker Michael Sragow The New Yorker Michael Sragow Hawks weaves brawny romance and humor and a man’s-man sort of heartbreak into his tribute to the ideal of vocation.
• 80 CineVue Ben Nicholson CineVue Ben Nicholson Grant is absolutely superb as the impassive Geoff.
• 80 Time Out London Tom Huddleston Time Out London Tom Huddleston This isn’t quite tense or funny enough to become the masterpiece some Hawks lovers claim. But it is smart, incisive and often very funny.
• 80 TV Guide Magazine TV Guide Magazine Only Angels Have Wings is a powerful character study, and director Hawks and his fine, predominantly male cast carefully develop the personalities of an interesting collection of characters. Though much of the dialogue is predictable, the story is strong, the acting is outstanding, and Hawks's cameras move with fluid grace through the confining sets.
• 80 Variety Variety In Only Angels Have Wings, Howard Hawks had a story to tell and he has done it inspiringly well.
• 80 The Guardian Peter Bradshaw The Guardian Peter Bradshaw It is an eccentric and entertaining movie soap-opera.
• 60 The New York Times Frank S. Nugent The New York Times Frank S. Nugent When you add it all up, Only Angels Have Wings comes to an overly familiar total. It's a fairly good melodrama, nothing more.
• See all 10 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Only Angels Have Wings

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Only Angels Have Wings Review

15 May 1939

121 minutes

Only Angels Have Wings

Expanded from Howard Hawks's story, `Plane from Barranca', this is essentially a glorifed B movie that has somehow acquired a reputation for pulp artistry and technical virtuosity. Having been an aviator and plane designer before turning to movies, Hawks was returning to familiar ground that he had already explored in The Air Circus, The Dawn Patrol and Ceiling Zero. Screenwriter Jules Furthman had also been here before, having set a similar story onboard a Singapore-bound ship in China Seas. But this was the first time that Hawks had worked with Cary Grant on a non-comedy and he succeeded in bringing out a cynical romanticism, laced with bitter self-pity, that the star was never to rediscover elsewhere.

    Only Hawks could have made such a thrilling adventure within such claustrophobic confines and he alone could have turned such a collection of clichés and caricatures into a riveting study of physical and psychological courage.

    The air mail operation provided a typically Hawksian environment, in which real men went about their business with a passion and professionalism that got them through the perils of their reckless missions and the pain of isolation and loss. Emotions are mostly kept under wraps, but Hawks's fascination with macho decency and flawed heroism enabled Grant and his crew to mourn Noah Beery Jr., retain Thomas Mitchell as a team member despite his failing sight, and give Richard Barthelmess's coward a second chance, after he baled from a crash that killed his mechanic.

    Barthelmess himself was being afforded another opportunity to prove that he still had the dash and charm that had made him a silent idol. But his is the only weak contribution from a sterling ensemble (that made light of the dime dreadful dialogue) and he never again landed a major lead. The film did, however, launch Rita Hayworth's career and also reinforced Jean Arthur's reputation for plucky loyalty.

     But this was always Hawks's picture, with its celebration of stoic pragmatism and unflinching cameraderie epitomising his cinematic credo. But there's more humanity on display here than anywhere else in his canon.

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Only Angels Have Wings

• 4 out of 5 stars
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Time Out says

Sick of CGI? Yearning for the good old days of practical effects? Then take a trip to the BFI Southbank for this glittering restoration of Howard Hawks’s punchy 1939 flyboy drama, where the cutting edge of movie technology is a toy plane bouncing down a cardboard runway between rows of papier-mâché palm trees. We’re in the fictional South American city of Barranca, where daredevil mailman Geoff Carter (Cary Grant, bullish and Brylcreemed) is facing the closure of his beloved air-transport business. Enter Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), a dame with a sharp tongue, a dark past and her sights set firmly on our fiercely independent hero. Will Geoff seize this chance at a brighter future – or will he push that rickety crate too far and die in a ball of flaming balsa wood? Like much of Hawks’s finest ‘serious’ work, ‘Only Angels Have Wings’ uses its paper-thin plot as an excuse to mount a scalpel-sharp analysis of men under pressure: bitching, blaming and refusing to back down. First and foremost it’s a film about professionalism and dedication, and how those admirable qualities can be used as an emotional smokescreen. Landing somewhere between the macho grit of ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘Red River’ and the pistol-crack romcom repartee of ‘His Girl Friday’ and ‘Bringing Up Baby’, this isn’t quite tense or funny enough to become the masterpiece some Hawks lovers claim. But it is smart, incisive and often very funny – and was there ever a better character name than Bat MacPherson?

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 15 May 2015
• Duration: 121 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Howard Hawks
• Screenwriter: Jules Furthman
• Jean Arthur
• Richard Barthelmess
• Rita Hayworth
• Thomas Mitchell
• Allyn Joslyn
• Victor Kilian
• John Carroll
• Noah Beery Jr

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Only Angels Have Wings

• Blu-ray edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• April 10 2016

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Electrified by the verbal wit and visual craftsmanship of the great Howard Hawks, Only Angels Have Wings stars Jean Arthur as a traveling entertainer who gets more than she bargained for during a stopover in a South American port town. There she meets a handsome yet aloof daredevil pilot, played by Cary Grant, who runs an airmail company, staring down death while servicing towns in treacherous mountain terrain. Both attracted to and repelled by his romantic sense of danger, she decides to stay on, despite his protestations. This masterful and mysterious adventure, featuring Oscar-nominated special effects, high-wire aerial photography, and Rita Hayworth in a small but breakout role, explores Hawks’s recurring themes of masculine codes and the strong-willed women who question them.

Picture 9/10

Extras 7/10

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Criticwire Classic of the Week: Howard Hawks’ ‘Only Angels Have Wings’

Vikram murthi.

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Every now and then on the Criticwire Network an older film gets singled out for attention. This is Criticwire Classic of the Week . “Only Angels Have Wings” Dir: Howard Hawks Criticwire Average: A-

Honor. Loyalty. Bravery. These words are never explicitly spoken in Howard Hawks’ “Only Angels Have Wings,” but they make up the driving ideology that defines the group of pilots who fly for the small, cash-strapped Barranca Airways. The pilots carry mail from Barranca, a fictional South American port town, through a dangerous high pass in the Andes mountains, constantly risking their lives by flying into dangerous weather conditions, but do it anyway out of a sense of duty. But the beauty of “Only Angels Have Wings” is that Hawks never sentimentalizes that notion for a second. The pilots do their job with an eager determination because they’re Professionals and it’s The Job. There’s no other reason more important than that one.

In fact, the most endearing, poignant quality of “Only Angels Have Wings” is its lack of saccharine sentimentality, which Hawks introduces in the very first sequence. We open on Joe (Noah Beery, Jr.) and Les (Allyn Joslyn) waiting by the port to see if there’s a new pilot that has disembarked. Instead, they find the beautiful blonde Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), a cheery entertainer who’s in town from Brooklyn. After Joe and Les each try to buy her a drink and a dinner, Joe is called up to the skies by hard-bitten manager Geoff Carter ( Cary Grant ). Once he’s in the air, Geoff gets word that there’s no visibility and that Joe should have never left Barranca. Geoff tries to tell Joe to stay in the air until the skies clear, but Joe tries to land anyway wanting to take up the dinner with Bonnie. On his way down, Joe hits a tree and crashes badly. Bonnie is guilt-ridden and sick with grief, while the rest of the pilots take a moment to collect themselves, and go back to singing and carousing. “Haven’t you any feelings?” Bonnie asks them. “Don’t you realize he’s dead?” “Who’s dead?” Geoff replies. “Joe!” she responds. “Who’s Joe?” the pilots shout back in unison. Both Hawks and screenwriter Jules Furthman aren’t reveling in cruelty or callousness, but simply illustrating the actions and traditions of the group in question. Hawks frames the pilots in tight shots to convey their closeness, but as Furthman demonstrates, once one gets lost in the field, there’s no sense in dwelling on it because one of them may be next. There’s an existential anxiety underneath the entire film that gets elided at every turn by the demands of The Job. When asked why he flies, old-timer “Kid” Dabb (Thomas Mitchell) shakes his head and says, “I’ve been in it 22 years… I couldn’t give you an answer that’d make any sense.”

Though “Only Angels Have Wings” feels decidedly plotless and meandering, it’s only because its humane, lived-in qualities obscure the subtle structure holding the entire film together. Hawks uses two outsiders, Bonnie and disgraced new pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), as twin lenses to understand the values and machinations of The Group. Though the other pilots warm up to Bonnie nicely, she has difficulty winning over Geoff, who shares in their mutual attraction but doesn’t want to get too attached because of a previously broken heart and the dangers of his profession. Though Geoff explicitly states he’d never ask a woman to do anything, Bonnie stays anyway in the hopes that Geoff will muster up the decency to ask her to stay. Meanwhile Bat shows up in Barranca to an initial warm welcome, until everyone realizes he’s the pilot who jumped out of a plane on its way down leaving his mechanic, Kid’s brother, to die alone. Geoff gives him the job but under the condition that he fly the most dangerous missions to prove his loyalty. “Only Angels Have Wings” is built upon the acceptance of these two outsiders into the stability of the group, and the narrative demands that Geoff eventually confess his allegiance to Bonnie and that Bat prove his mettle. Though these two outcomes are “predictable,” it’s the way that Hawks and Furthman draw out the emotional and narrative beats that allow them to feel vital and somehow unexpected.

The film also features some of the most dazzling flying sequences ever put on film. Hawks captures both the claustrophobia of the cockpit and the terror of the open air as the pilots go about their mission. The scene of Joe’s deadly crash landing plays out with the utmost tension as its shot from the perspective of those on the ground, with Joe’s disembodied voice coming from the intercom. When the plane eventually loses a wing and flips on its side like a piece of plastic, we only get a quick shot of Joe in the cockpit on its way down, as if Hawks was sparing both the audience and Joe of the harrowing nature of death from above. Hawks shoots all of the flight scenes almost documentary-style, drawing drama from the realism itself. In fact, Hawks uses real single engine monoplanes that were actually employed by pilots at the time of filming, providing a more realistic weight to the entire film.

But “Only Angels Have Wings” is a Hawks classic because of its warm, inviting qualities. There’s the camaraderie between the gang of pilots and the solemnity of their jobs coupled with the rousing, joyous fun they have on the ground. There’s Rita Hayworth in the small role of Judy, Bat’s wife and Geoff’s old flame, who steps onto the screen with the charisma of a movie star. There’s the small character details, like how Geoff never carries his own matches because he doesn’t want a supply of anything. But most importantly, its the sense of purpose that it gives the pilots. When Kid is slowly dying from a broken neck, he mentions with awe that he’s not scared because it’s just something new, like when he first flew solo. Flying is the raison d’etre for all of these guys, even if none of them can explain why they do it. But if you truly have a purpose in this life, even if it’s to risk your neck to deliver the mail, you never need to explain it. It comes through all on its own. More thoughts from the web: Jonathan Rosenbaum , DVD Beaver Honest and profound hokum may sound like a contradiction in terms, but I can’t think of a better way to describe Howard Hawks’ unlikely yet beautiful and thrilling masterpiece (1939) about daredevil pilots in a remote South American port who risk their lives delivering the mail across a threatening mountain pass. The sense of void and impending, meaningless death that surrounds and encloses all the banter, braggadocio, and risk-taking makes this seem like the most existential of Hawks’ adventures. Cary Grant — once described by Dave Kehr in this film as “the high priest of some Sartrean temple” — is the group’s fatherly boss, Thomas Mitchell his best friend, Jean Arthur the showgirl who sticks around because of her love-struck devotion, and Sig Ruman plays Dutchy, the uncle type who runs the bar connected to the small airport. The uncannily expressive silent star Richard Barthelmess plays the returning pilot who once caused the death of a copilot due to cowardice, and Rita Hayworth plays his newlywed wife, an old flame of Grant’s. The precise sense of ethics governing all the interactions between this motley crew is as striking as the artificiality of the settings. Read more . Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader Howard Hawks’s 1939 film represents the equilibrium point of his career: the themes he was developing throughout the 30s here reach a perfect clarity and confidence of expression, without yet confronting the darker intimations that would haunt his films of the 40s and 50s. The setting is a South American port where a group of fliers, led by Cary Grant, challenges the elements nightly by piloting mail across a treacherous mountain range. This all-male existential ritual (Grant almost seems the high priest of some Sartrean temple) is invaded by an American showgirl (Jean Arthur) who stops off for a steak and remains, fascinated by the heightened, heady atmosphere of primal struggle. The film’s moral seriousness (which sometimes approaches overt didacticism) is balanced by the usual Hawks humor and warmth, and as Grant and Arthur are drawn into a romance, the film moves toward a humanistic softening of its stark premises. Read more . Peter Labuza , Cinephiliacs/Letterboxd Along with “Rio Bravo,” the quintessential Hawks movie for not only its rhythmic patterns, attention to a very subtle structure in its mise-en-scene, but always carrying a certain existential weight to  why the hell are we doing this?  that always remains unanswered, unchecked, and unwritten. But as in all the great Hawks, there is the group, a certain social democracy that remains a base ideology that could never be challenged. It’s both the tragedy and the greatness of the American ethos. Read more . Michael Sragow, The New Yorker Howard Hawks’s stirring tale of a fledgling airmail service that traverses the Andes from a strip in a South American banana port is the ultimate workplace dramedy. Hawks weaves brawny romance and humor and a man’s-man sort of heartbreak into his tribute to the ideal of vocation. The risky job of lifting mail over and through the mountains becomes a crucible of character, group feeling, and sexual loyalty. Cary Grant delivers a robust, carnal performance as the flyboys’ boss, and Jean Arthur is skittishly charming as an entertainer waiting for a boat out of town; Grant emits an electric charge when he starts to take her seriously. Read more . Tom Huddleston, Time Out Like much of Hawks’s finest “serious” work, “Only Angels Have Wings” uses its paper-thin plot as an excuse to mount a scalpel-sharp analysis of men under pressure: bitching, blaming and refusing to back down. First and foremost it’s a film about professionalism and dedication, and how those admirable qualities can be used as an emotional smokescreen. Landing somewhere between the macho grit of “The Big Sleep” and “Red River” and the pistol-crack rom-com repartee of “His Girl Friday” and “Bringing Up Baby,” this isn’t quite tense or funny enough to become the masterpiece some Hawks lovers claim. But it is smart, incisive and often very funny – and was there ever a better character name than Bat MacPherson? Read more . Frank S. Nugent, The New York Times The brew stirs slowly, as is the way with two-hour shows, tending toward silly romanticism in its dialogue, but moving splendidly whenever the plot’s wheels leave the ground and take off over the Andes. Few things, after all, are as exciting as a plane in flames, or the metallic voices of a pilot in a fog-shrouded plane and the chap in the radio room, or a screaming power dive, or the wild downward swoop of a plane taking off from a canyon’s rim. Mr. Hawks has staged his flying sequences brilliantly. He has caught the drama in the meeting of a flier and the brother of the man he killed. He has made proper use of the amiable performing talents of Mr. Grant, Miss Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Mr. Barthelmess, Sig Rumann and the rest. But when you add it all up, “Only Angels Have Wings” comes to an overly familiar total. It’s a fairly good melodrama, nothing more. Read more .

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Review:  - by Eric Jeff Carter is a "man's man", strong, handsome, and supremely confident; he is a dream for women and a curse for men. As the boss of a South American air-mail carrier Jeff is hard on his men and harder on himself, doing those jobs that no one else will dare. When showgirl Bonnie Lee shows up on a cruise ship stop-over, the boys vie for her attention. So much so, that her "dinner-date for steak" gambles recklessly on a landing and comes up short; paying with his life. This is how Bonnie learns that there is no room for sentiment in this line of work, and, where she begins to love/hate Jeff. Burned by an ex-wife who couldn't handle his lifestyle and ran-out on him, Jeff "wouldn't ask any woman" to do anything for him. This is too bad for Bonnie who finds she is hopelessly in love with Jeff and can't seem to leave him even when he tells her to. Crashing into all this is Bat MacPherson and his wife, Judy, who just happens to be Jeff's ex. Bat comes with a lot of baggage and immediately stirs things up when Jeff's best friend, Kid Dabb, recognizes him as the coward who ditched Kid's brother in a fiery plane crash. So, Kid wants to kill Bat, Bonnie wonders about Judy and Jeff, and Jeff is desperately trying not to care about anything. How this tense situation is resolved will have you alternating between tears of laughter and dread.

IMHO, this is the toughest character that CG plays. Like the stoic hero from a Hemingway novel, Jeff Carter lives on his own terms. I found this character to be powerfully electric, even inspiring. This man GETS THINGS DONE! It is small wonder that Bonnie instantly falls for this man, and in the initial meeting you can feel the immense attraction that Bonnie feels for Jeff even though she is being actively pursued by the boys. CG looks handsome (as always) and almost dangerous; like a glorious, sun-drenched diamond that you know is too hot, but you can't help wanting to grab. Jeff is played to perfection with just enough charisma tempered with a detached coolness. Jean Arthur portrays Bonnie wonderfully, instilling a sense of worldly showbiz experience and, at the same time, showing her indecision about Jeff. In the dialogue, CG and Arthur work well off each other, and the scene at the piano with CG singing "PEANUTS!!" while Arthur is playing is a classic. Flying in with additional good performances are, Sig Rumen, the kind-hearted proprietor, Thomas Mitchell who steals many a scene as Kid Dabb, and, in her big-screen debut, Rita Hayworth as Judy MacPherson, Jeff's ex. It is CG's rapid-fire speech to Judy that is thought to be the origins of his trademark, "Jud-ay, Jud-ay, Jud-ay". Personally, I like to watch this movie as a contrast to CG's lighter comedies. Enjoy!

VARIETY Film Review - May 17, 1939 - by "Abel" - submitted by Barry Martin Columbia has a winner in 'Only Angels Have Wings.'  With a good name cast, including Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Rita Hayworth and Richard Barthelmess, it's certain for big returns.  Story has substance, movement, romance and a somewhat different aviation background.  

Not that flying the South American Andes hasn't been done on the screen before.  In fact, a 1937 RKO release, 'Flight from Glory,' even incorporated the situation of scapegrace aviators who turn up in the South American tropics due to some breach of proper flying decorum in their native U.S.  But the similarity ends there.

Here Cary Grant is boss of the kindly Dutchman's decrepit airline.  The crates are almost suicidal and Grant is No. 1 guy with the other tough boys because he'll take up the planes only when it's too hazardous for the others.  If the Dutchman can fly the mails regularly he's set for a juicy contract.  

Jean Arthur is introduced as an American showgirl en route to a Panama nitery engagement.  She's excellent for the assignment and segues into the hot-piano stuff plausibly when she is pleased to learn that the on-the-make boys, Joslyn and Beery, Jr., are Americans and not nondescript natives as they appear to be.  

Romance basis between Grant and Miss Arthur is predicated on an unyielding independence that he will never ask anybody or any girl to do anything for him.  Frankly telegraphing her romantic acquiescence if he'd relax a bit, Grant is adamant.  His ultimate capitulation is deftly depicted.

Sub-plot has Barthelmess coming on the scene with Rita Hayworth (one of the dancing Casinos family) as his wife.  Latter is the girl who made Grant dour.  Barthelmess is another disgraced aviator, but he more than vindicates himself with some very dangerous flying to a rescue job, and in another sequence when he's transporting nitroglycerine.

Baranca, the locale, is presumably in Ecuador.  This is the basic setting of this sub-tropical aviation romance where treacherous mountain crags, capricious rainstorms and the like do their utmost to worst the mail plane service.  The contrast of aeronautical speed against the sleep background has been effectively captured by director-author-producer Howard Hawks for fullest values.

His original story has been crisply screenplayed by Jules Furthman, whose terse, staccato dialog is a major feature of the behind-the-lens artistry.  Hawks had a story to tell, and he has done it inspiringly well.  

Every facet of 'Only Angels Have Wings' is big league.  The Grant-Arthur cynicism and unyielding romantics are kept at a high standard.  Thomas Mitchell's devoted aide is never permitted to become banal, and there are opportunities in plenty where it might so have been.  Rita Hayworth as Barthelmess' wife is likewise impressive.  She's a good-looking gal with an ah-voom chassis.  Barthelmess is perhaps a bit too deadpan in his performance, but the bitterness is made plausible by his past, due to an unheroic episode when he baled out of a crashing plane and permitted his pilot to crack up.  Barthelmess' new mechanic physiognomy fits the plot situation well.  Incidentally, here at the Music Hall, he was greeted with an individual salvo of applause.

All the performances are fine right down the line.  Melissa Sierra as Lily, the native girl stuck on Noah Beery, Jr., is vivid, as is Manuel Maciste, Mexican exponent of native music, who arranged some of the special Latin background music and who is an interesting screen face.  He's shown doing his guitar specialty in the bistro scenes.  Sig Rumann as the Dutchman, Victor Kilian, Allyn Joslyn, Lucio Villegas and Donald Barry are other histrionic standouts.  

NEW YORK TIMES Film Review - May 12, 1939 - by Frank S. Nugent - submitted by Barry Martin Howard Hawks, whose aviation melodramas must, we suspect, drive airline stock down from two to three points per showing, has produced another fatality littered thriller in "Only Angels Have Wings" (even the title is ominous) which opened yesterday at the Music Hall. This once, however, Mr. Hawks has charitably transferred his operations base to Ecuador, presumably having exhausted his local sources, not to mention the patience of the commercial transport people.

In Ecuador, in the banana port of Barranca, he has indulged himself and the vicarious adventures in the audience in a delightful series of crack-ups, close-shaves and studiously dramatic speeches. It is all very exciting and juvenile.

Barranca, says Mr. Hawks, is a sultry little spot boasting a general store and bar, a swampy landing field and Cary Grant as operations manager for a junky air line which must maintain a regular schedule for six months to obtain the mail subsidy. Flying conditions are rarely better than impossible. There are the Andes, there is a narrow pass with clawing crags and a group of pilots who seem to be proud targets for all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, chiefly of feminine origin.

We particularly marveled at one sequence in which a flyer, grounded by failing eyesight, breaks another's arm in a fight and soon is helping probe a bullet from the commander's shoulder. That is known as piling it on.

Not content with this fell set-up, Mr. Hawks, as author, has chosen to add a few dramatic and romantic complications. Miss Arthur enters the scene as a stranded showgirl, and a less convincing showgirl than Miss Arthur would be hard to find. Enter, too, Richard Barthelmess as a pilot with a black blot on his record and a wife, who, by some strange coincidence, used to be Mr. Grant's fiancée.

The brew stirs slowly, as is the way with two-hour shows, tending toward silly romanticism in its dialogue, but moving splendidly whenever the plot's wheels leave the ground and take off over the Andes.

Few things, after all, are as exciting as a plane in flames, or the metallic voices of a pilot in a fog-shrouded plane and the chap in the radio room, or a screaming power dive, or the wild downward swoop of a plane taking off from a canyon's rim.

Mr. Hawks has staged his flying sequences brilliantly. He has caught the drama in the meeting of a flier and the brother of the man he killed. He has made proper use of the amiable performing talents of Mr. Grant, Miss Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Mr. Barthelmess, Sig Rugmann and the rest. But when you add it all up, "Only Angels Have Wings" comes to an overly familiar total. It's a fairly good melodrama, nothing more.  

CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE Film Review - June 11, 1939 - by Mae Tinée - submitted by Renee Klish

Aviation Film Brings Praise from Critic

Good Morning!

Columbia should be mighty proud of "Only Angels Have Wings"!

It's an impressive piece of craftsmanship, chock full of all that makes for popular appeal and withal honest and informative.  Its warmly human side is given edge by the thrilling spectacle of dangers encountered while flying "crates" over the Andes mountains, through storm and stress of varied sorts . . . For the movie is, primarily an aviation film, back-grounded by a little banana port in South America, which serves as a base for a projected mail transport line.

Here you meet Geoff Carter, boss of the flyers.  A hard, just man, fondly called "Papa" by his pilots . . . Then arrives Bonnie Lee, a chorine, who, on a stopover in Barranca en route to Panama where she homes to find a job, meets and loses her heart to Geoff . . . The stopover becomes permanent . . .

"Kid" Dabb, Carter's right hand man, figures largely in the action, as does Richard Barthelmess.  The latter, returning to the screen after a long, long absence, contributes a moving bit of work as Bat McPherson - a fine pilot trying to make a comeback.  One cowardly act has caused him to be blacklisted by his fellows . . . With Bat is his young wife - who turns out to be the girl who had made a woman hater out of Carter.

"Dutchy," Dutch proprietor of hotel, bar, and general store, is Carter's partner and the two are endeavoring to establish a mail route inland over the Andes . . .

Pretty good set up for drama, what?

I never knew Cary Grant had it in him!  His Carter is one of the most intelligent characterizations I have ever seen.

Thomas Mitchell rings the bell as the Kid.  Strange role for them to hand him, but he knew what to do with it.  Mr. Mitchell is usually one of those dynamic district attorneys or something of the sort . . .

Jean Arthur plays Bonnie with her customary charm and pep.  A trifle too much repetition and sameness to her scenes with Geoff seemed to me the picture's only weakness.

Howard Hawks' direction of his own story was masterly.  Dialog and photography are aces.

"Only Angels Have Wings" is one of those long photoplays that you wouldn't mind having a little longer. [They're rare.]

THE WASHINGTON POST Film Review - June 3, 1939 - by Nelson B Bell - submitted by Renee Klish

There are so many elements of appeal in "Only Angels Have Wings" that it should engage the interest of every type of theatergoer.  There are adventure, comedy, romance, thrills and tragedy woven into the unique design of the story which Howard Hawks wrote, produced and directed for Columbia Pictures. 

The scene of the play is the small tropical banana port of Barranca, in South America where "Dutchy" is postmaster, hotel-keeper, restaurateur, bar man and proprietor of a flying field adjacent to his hostelry.  All manner of rickety crates take off and come down at this antiquated and ill-equipped contribution to the art of aviation.  The boss man of the field is a hard-boiled woman-hater, embittered by an earlier experience with a girl who found it impossible to adjust her personal selfishness to the life of an aviator.

Wide Range of Characters

So there comes to Barranca one foggy night a show girl, bound north from Valparaiso, for "shore leave" of only a few hours before her boat sails again.  This Bonnie Lee develops an infinite capacity for getting in everybody's hair, but proves, finally, to be the pivotal character around which an engrossing plot revolves.  There is double love interest in the story of "Only Angels Have Wings" - Geoff Carter, airport manager, and Bonnie fight their way to a peculiar sort of belligerent love and when Bat MacPherson, a renegade flier, comes to the field as a supply man, his wife proves to have been the girl with whom Carter originally was in love.  Further complications are projected by the fact that Kid Dabb, Carter's right-hand man, is the brother of the lad MacPherson abandoned to crash alone.  A fine clash of characters and personalities might be expected from all this.  That expectation is completely fulfilled.

Chief interest to many, however, will lie in the flying sequences and the grim business of keeping that little flying field in operation in the face of heavy weather, violent storms and depleted manpower.  This portion of the film has been handled with such skill as Howard Hawks alone seems to possess in the screen visualization of action that goes into the air.  There is never a moment during the long length of the picture - it consumes a full two hours - when interest of the tensest sort is permitted to subside.  There are causalities, catastrophes and tragic death scattered through the progress of events, but the film is in no sense depressing.  Excitement is its keynote.

Is Superlatively Acted

"Only Angels Have Wings" is acted with consummate skill.  Cary Grant and the husky-voiced Jean Arthur, in the costellar roles, are perfect foils each for the other in asperity, crisp speech and, at times, tumultuous action.  Thomas Mitchell, in the role of Kid Dabb, the grounded flier, who finally comes to disaster in an emergency flight in a blinding storm and wants to be alone when he dies, proves again that he is one of the most reliable character actors on the screen.

Richard Barthelmess, as the renegade, makes a splendid "comeback" and enacts a difficult role without flaw.  Rita Hayworth, as his wife, is almost equally effective. Sig Rumann, in the role of "Dutch," Allyn Josly, Noah Beery, Jr, and Victor Kilian are among others who do much for the picture's success.

THE WASHINGTON POST Film Review - June 17, 1939 - by Mary Harrisl - submitted by Renee Klish

Thrilling Film of the Air is Back at Met Grant and Arthur Star in Romantic Adventure Story

Though "Only Angels Have Wings," many of the players in this high-flying cinema show the pin-feathers of stars.  They're no cherubs nor seraphs.  They're the gallant generation of flying humans, inexorably devoted to the "bright face of danger," loving peril as a mistress, meeting gaily the Last Big Guess in sunshine or moonshine (latter preferred).

This latest contribution to the hard-boiled gaiety of aviating is definitely descriptive of reality.  The fliers are not decked out in fancy raiment, nor is the airport a place of futuristic luxury as envisioned by a scenario writer.  

Our heroes (many) and our heroines (two) are placed in the murky atmosphere of a South American banana port (and, often, there are no bananas), with the overhanging dangers of sudden death and too-long hangovers figuring as exemplary antidotes.

Stars Really Shine

Jean Arthur shines with table-cut brilliance in this one.  The little Arthur is a bit on the mental side, naturally, but she is mighty human and sweet as the little roving vaudevillian who suddenly goes nuts about Cary Grant and "can't do anything about it."

There's something almost Hemingwayish about the plot development of "Only Angels Have Wings."  Something honest and cold and warm-hearted, at the same time; something modern and primeval, giving the blush to Victorianism and Coolidgeism.

Return of the fabulous Dick Barthelmess to the screen is the big news of "Only Angels Have Wings."  Not that stars Cary Grant and Jean Arthur don't do a swell job.  They are splendid all the way.  But Barthelmess brings in the quality of imagination in his role of the flier who has been a rotter and then goes over the deep end to redeem himself.  His portrayal is infinitely touching.  He is like a dead man who strives to come to life in his pathetic endeavor to appear like a man, in the face of universal contempt.

Mitchell Scores Again

But to Thomas Mitchell go other great laurels in addition to those he has already garnered this year.  Ol' Tom, as in "Stagecoach," gives you a characterization that will twist your heartstrings into sailors' knots.  He rates the biggest "Oscar" of Hollywood's year, and one studded with star sapphires.

LOS ANGELES TIMES Film Review - May 11, 1939 - by Edwin Schallert - submitted by Renee Klish

Most fascinating and engrossing of air pictures since "Test Pilot" is brought to the screen in "Only Angels Have Wings," story of aviation pioneering in South America.  Howard Hawks production for Columbia, it rates top tributes and superlatives.  It carries interest every foot of the way, is human in its drama and romance, and nicely touched up with comedy.  Unusual besides in atmosphere and setting, which is nothing lightly to be passed over.

PERFORMANCES SUPERIOR

Cast headed by Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, who are starred, plus Richard Barthelmess, perform excellently, and in the case of Grant and Barthelmess differently from heretofore.  Miss Arthur's role is a type she has made familiar, and rings manifestly true from that standpoint.  It is good casting.

One can pick out various other players of interest, notably Thomas Mitchell as the friend of Geoff Carter (Grant), SIg Rumann, John Carroll, Noah Beery Jr. and Allyn Joslyn, while Rita Hayworth adds a glamour note besides a very good portrayal.

WEATHER MENACE

Grim menace of fog, bad weather and dangerous passages through the mountains pervade the story from the early scenes which witness the death of an aviator who attempts to land through the mists against orders.

Miss Arthur as the heroine, an entertainer, who more or less happens on the scene, stays on fascinated by the life, and by the cynical Grant.

Attitude of the men over the death of one of their group, their effort to forget the whole terrible business are vividly brought out in episodes well marked in their psychology.  

Barthelmess enters the picture, only to be made an outcast because of an act of cowardice while flying.  He is given the most dangerous flights.

WELL CHOSEN ELEMENTS Ingredients are well put together and the picture has quality due to personnel and production values.

The catastrophe ensuing when an attempt is made to go through the pass in the mountains in bad weather is a spectacular technical achievement, and the death of Mitchell following is moving.  Even the musical embellishments are well chosen.

In fact, "Only Angels Have Wings" comes pretty near to being a perfect film of the type, rich in romance, realism and thrills, all very convincingly dealt with.

Review Click here to read Susanna's review of "Only Angels Have Wings"

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Could Only Angels Have Wings be the greatest Hollywood movie of all time?

Cinephiles frequently cite 1939 as Hollywood’s greatest year, rattling off an impressive list of widely beloved classics: Gone With The Wind, The Wizard Of Oz, Wuthering Heights, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, and so forth. Rarely mentioned, however, is Howard Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings, a stealth contender for the single greatest Hollywood movie of all time. That this glorious amalgam of romance, adventure, melodrama, and musical doesn’t have a loftier reputation is to some degree understandable—even more than most of Hawks’ films, it’s an ode to pragmatism and professionalism, dismissing almost any powerful display of emotion as a distraction from the task at hand and/or an admission of weakness. That sensibility only appeals to a very particular mindset… but for those viewers, Only Angels Have Wings achieves a seismic force that conventionally open-hearted movies can’t hope to match. With any luck, its forthcoming release as part of the Criterion collection will yield new converts.

The film’s first half-hour alone constitutes a dazzling tour de force of shifting dynamics. Initially, it appears to be an “exotic” variation on the fast-talking romcom, as showgirl Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) disembarks a ship in the (fictional) South American port of Barranca and immediately has a couple of mail pilots (Allyn Joslyn and Noah Beery Jr.) competing for her affections. When their boss, Geoff Carter (Cary Grant), insists that work come before pleasure, one of them winds up crashing his plane in his eagerness to keep his date with Bonnie, who’s subsequently appalled when Geoff and the other men show no outward signs of grief at their friend’s death. The movie turns heavy, only to soon lighten up again, as Bonnie talks to some of the locals and begins to understand what purpose this stoic behavior serves. Before long, she’s performing a jaunty number on the saloon’s piano, and in no particular hurry to get back on her ship, even though Geoff’s best friend, Kid (Thomas Mitchell), warns her that she’s setting herself up for heartbreak.

That’s more than enough for a whole feature, but it barely even scratches the surface of what happens in Only Angels Have Wings. While Bonnie seems like the protagonist for a while, she’s really just our point of entry into the film’s offbeat community; the primary set—a combination saloon-restaurant-office run by Sig Ruman’s blustery Dutchy—serves as a stage upon which multiple dramas and crises play out. The burgeoning love affair between Bonnie and Geoff gets puts aside for long stretches so that Hawks can turn his attention to Kid’s failing eyesight (which threatens to ground him—something he perceives as akin to death), or to the tiny airline’s newest pilot, Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), who has an ignominious history that puts him in conflict with Kid and a wife (Rita Hayworth, pre-stardom) who once dated Geoff. Hawks flits effortlessly back and forth among all of these strands, equally interested in everyone. One of the movie’s best jokes sees Geoff abruptly stop in the middle of a conversation, walk across the room, and throw open a door, causing an eavesdropping Bonnie to fall inside—it’s a slapstick moment, but it’s also a puckish reminder that wheels are turning outside of the frame at every moment.

The film offers genuine intrigue and excitement—including the pilots’ climactic, death-defying effort to save the airline by demonstrating that they can reliably deliver the mail even in treacherous weather. But its ultimate power derives largely from its unusual ethos, which celebrates pragmatism at the expense of emotional behavior while simultaneously acknowledging just how profound a pragmatist’s emotions can be. In particular, the resolution of Bonnie and Geoff’s relationship (which is also the final scene of the movie) eschews romance in a way that, paradoxically, makes the gesture in question achingly romantic. That’s par for the course in a film that’s built on internal contradictions, repeatedly engineering massive upheavals and then watching the characters blithely pretend that nothing of note has occurred, even as they die inside. One could carp that this represents a warped, toxic notion of masculinity (not an uncommon criticism of Hawks), but that would require ignoring the tenderness in Kid’s voice when he talks to Bonnie about Geoff, or Geoff’s willingness to give Bonnie what she needs from him even as he makes it appear that he’s withholding it (in order to protect himself from a potentially disastrous surge of unaccustomed vulnerability).

Thankfully, people are starting to come around. When Sight & Sound held its most recent poll in 2012, 11 critics (including this one) named Only Angels Have Wings one of the 10 greatest films of all time; only The Wizard Of Oz and Renoir’s The Rules Of The Game placed higher among titles from 1939. And that was before Hawks’ masterpiece got the Criterion stamp of approval, and the attention that inevitably follows. Check back again in 2022, and don’t be surprised if it’s inched its way even past Dorothy and Toto.

"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Only angels have wings.

US Release Date: 05-12-1939

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring ▸ ▾

• Cary Grant ,  as
• Geoff Carter
• Jean Arthur ,  as
• Rita Hayworth ,  as
• Judith MacPherson
• Richard Barthelmess ,  as
• Bat Kilgallen - MacPherson
• Thomas Mitchell ,  as
• Allyn Joslyn as

Rita Hayworth and Cary Grant in Only Angels have Wings .

Only Angels Have Wings is billed as an action/adventure film. It does have some aerial danger and decent effects for the time. However, it stalls several times with too much dialogue and far to much romantic interest and plot distractions.

Arthur plays a showgirl right off a boat in a South American port. She meets up with some fly boys and her few hour lay-over becomes several days, largely due to her interest in Grant, who runs the airport freight service. He and his pilots fly supplies, mail and occasionally people over the dangerous Andes Mts. One of the pilots, Arthur first meets, dies early on and she is struck by how the rest of the guys take his death.

To add more drama and a bit more romantic intrigue, a former, unpopular, employee shows up with his wife asking for a job. The wife, Hayworth, is an old flame of Grant's. Arthur is, of course, suspect and she has plenty of reason to be. Hayworth is gorgeous! This is one of her first roles of note and she makes Arthur disappear into the background like white wall paper.

I am a big Cary Grant fan but this is a role he should have never played. His character's personality is described several times. In one scene, Arthur says to Mitchell, "Say, isn't that girl the one he used to be in love with?" Mitchell responds, "Bonnie, when it rains, every third drop falls on one of them." In another scene, Arthur is talking to Grant about his independence, "No looking ahead; no tomorrows; just today." to which Grant says, "That's right!" Not only did Grant have a great screen persona but the guy could actually act. Here however, he ends up coming across a bit dull. The role of hard drinking, danger loving, cold hearted, love em and leave em Carter would have been better suited to the likes of Clark Gable or Humphrey Bogart.

Only Angels Have Wings is classic only for its stars and director Hawks. Hawks also co-wrote the screenplay. So I give him the blame for a movie that runs 2 hours and seems like three. He should have trimmed many talking scenes and centered more on the action and less on all of the many dramatic side plots.

With more action and less romance this would have been a great movie.

I agree that this is not a great movie but it is better than you give it credit for Eric. The weakest aspect is the lukewarm love triangle between Grant, Arthur and Hayworth. The relationship between Grant and Arthur seems completely contrived and they have very little chemistry together. The sparks do fly between Grant and Hayworth but they get very few scenes together.

Rita Hayworth looks stunning and this is the movie that put her on the map. It is also the movie that created a myth about Cary Grant. For years whenever an impressionist did him they would say, “Judy, Judy, Judy.” Grant never actually uttered that line but Hayworth’s character is named Judy and he does say her name several times in his unmistakable voice.

The true emotion in the story is between the men, especially in the friendship between Grant and Mitchell, who, by the way, was having one hell of a year in 1939. Besides Only Angels Have Wings , he appeared in Gone With the Wind , Stagecoach , Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Hunchback of Notre Dame . It was also nice seeing Richard Barthelmess in a comeback role as the disgraced pilot. He had been a well known star during the silent era making his movie debut in 1916 and hitting his peak in several D. W. Griffith pictures opposite Lillian Gish.

The best parts of the movie are the action scenes. The planes flying between peaks in the Andes Mountains hold up fairly well and they provide moments of real tension. Howard Hawks had been a flyer during the first world war and he claimed that all of the action sequences in this movie had been things really experienced by him or someone he knew.

If the romance had been trimmed by completely eliminating the Jean Arthur character and having the love triangle be between Grant, Hayworth and Barthelmess this could have been a 4 star classic. Too bad. Oh and Eric, I see your point about this being more of a role you would expect Gable or Bogart to play but I think that Grant is just fine in the part. He could be a tough skirt chaser when a role called for it.

Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings .

You're both crazy.  Sure Hayworth is hot as hell and would of course become the much bigger star, but they should have cut her part completely.  Not only does she do a poor job of acting, the love triangle isn't needed at all and never really goes anywhere.  Jean Arthur's character is all the romance angle that is needed since as you said Patrick, the real story is the camaraderie between the pilots, particularly between Jeff and Kid.

Although it did take a bit of getting used to seeing Grant play the serious tough guy, I thought he did a great job.  I still prefer him in lighter roles, but he shows he's got range here.  Gable would have played the part too cocky and who would have ever believed that Bogie could get one woman to love that ugly mug of his, let alone two?   

I also disagree with you Eric that this movie feels too long.  I actually thought the pacing was pretty brisk.  It does run nearly two hours, but apart from Hayworth's part, I didn't think there were any superfluous plot points.

The best moments are definitely the flying scenes, although much of the drama during those scenes takes place on the ground.  When Grant is trying to talk down the plane at the beginning of the movie, for example, the plane isn't shown until the end.  You just hear it overhead and the pilot's voice on the radio and yet it's one of the tensest scenes in the  movie.  It's an effective piece of direction by Hawks, as is the rest of the film.  You give him blame Eric, but I think he did a great job.

This is a much better movie than you give it credit for, Eric. 

Photos © Copyright Columbia Pictures Corporation (1939)

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

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