Only Angels Have Wings Entertaining, Though Dated

 

 

 

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Directed by Howard Hawks

Columbia Pictures, 121 minutes, Not-rated

★★★ ½

 

The Wright Brothers took off in 1903, an above-the ground journey that lasted 56 seconds. There is a very American quirk of assuming that once something is proved possible, progress occurs at the snap of the fingers. When Howard Hawks directed Only Angels Have Wings three decades later, air flight was still in a state of infancy. Many airplanes were still built of fabric stretched across a light frame, all were propeller- driven, and crashes were so prevalent they ceased being newsworthy. This is the era of flight under analysis in Only Angels Have Wings, a good film though decidedly dated.

 

Another thing to bear in mind is that the film starred Cary Grant and Jean Arthur as its principals. Rita Hayworth was included, but this was her first major role and Arthur was then much more famous. The best way to watch Only Angels Have Wings is to keep these things in mind. The other is not to burst out laughing when you first see Geoff Carter (Grant) looking like a cowboy in drag in his oversized hat, flight jacket, and gun holster.

 

This film is set in an unnamed South American country, probably Chile as a port city and the Andes figure into the plot. A cargo boat enters a harbor to unload and refuel. Among those going ashore is Bonnie Lee (Arthur), who is totally comfortable with the wolf whistles, cat-calls, and swarming young men offering to buy her a drink. She heads off with two flyers vying to take her to dinner; one, Joe, loses out when he is called to fly cargo and mail for Barranca Airways, which only flies when their spotter in the Andes wires that the mountain pass is safe. Bonnie is in the bar with others, including airline manager Geoff and bar owner/Barranca backer “Dutchy” Van Ruyster (Sig Ruman*), when Joe returns in a gale, crashes, and dies. Geoff is practically the only person not in mourning for Joe, which outrages Bonnie Lee. She soon learns that sudden death isn’t unusual in the air freight business and that Geoff isn’t impressed by her histrionics or the shape of her legs. He and Dutchy are running a seat-of-the-pants operation and Geoff is more interested in being a flyer short.

 

What are these Americans even doing in such a remote place? In keeping with numerous films of the 1930s/40s–think cowboy movies or (later) Casablanca–most of them are running from something: the Depression, alcoholism, restlessness, broken hearts…. Quite a few simply love the thrill and danger of flying. Geoff falls into the bad romance category and has sworn off of (sorry!) “dames.” He’s a man of habits so particular you suspect OCD, though nobody then knew that term. His family are the boys in the airline and at the bar. Bonnie Lee thinks he’s a heartless creep, but she’s  definitely physically attracted  to him and wants to know his story. He finds her a noisy pain in the old runway, but Dutchy spills the beans on his past.

 

Five years earlier, the screwball comedy It Happened One Night won so many Oscars they almost had to order an emergency run of little golden castrati. It set the standard for plots involving two people who can’t stand each other as a prelude to romance, but let’s add few other things. One is the trope of the old guy, beloved by all, who has been hiding his failing eyesight, before Geoff grounds him.

 

The only serious applicant for the new flyer is “Bat” Mac Pherson (Richard Barthelmess),  a former bombastic hotshot involved in an incident in which he bailed out of a plane and left his partner to die. The circumstances didn’t matter; to Geoff and the rest of the boys, Bat is a rat and no one wants him. He arrives to shoulders colder than the Antarctica swim team. He also shows up with his new wife, Judy (Hayworth), who just happens to be the gal that done Geoff wrong. Judy begs Geoff to give Bat a chance. How? One of the cleverest uses of a Chekov’s gun places Geoff and Bat in the same plane during a howling snowstorm in the Alps. And with that, I’ll leave you hanging in midair!

 

Rob Weir