The Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines-Cary Grant’s Only Angels Have Wings

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Only Angels Have Wings, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, directed by Howard Hawks

Kids from the generation of ’68, my generation that came of age in the 1960s, were animated the exploits of guys who explored the outer reaches of space, the astronauts (and in the beginning it was only guys under something like the same principal as in track where women were thought to be organically incapable of running more than about one hundred yards and were protected against any longer distances by stern old men. Didn’t those old gophers get a surprise when the women could outrun them.)  Every kid, every guy kid measured himself against those daredevils, dreamed dreams if only for a moment of taking that big lift-off into the unknown to see if they had the “right stuff.” That same premise applies to the subject of the film under review, legendary director Howard Hawk’s Only Angels Have Angels, for an earlier generation who dreamed of flying airplanes. Of fulfilling the old ancient Icarus dream of flying to the heavens. Most of us were not around to witness the feat when Charles Lindberg crossed the Atlantic solo from New York to Paris and survived he was thereafter treated as a hero (whatever his later isolationist politics).        

Of course nowadays with computers practically running the modern jet (it is estimated that the pilot only “controls” the plane for something like three minute of the flight) there is little swashbuckling thrill to the profession (and overall that is to the good for nervous passengers) but back in the 1930s in the outback with vintage airplanes held together by wire and guts that was a different story. And that is where our story gets some traction. See Geoff (Cary Grant) and Dutchy are running a small airmail run business down in some unnamed “banana republic” (literally- the opening scenes show a dockside unloading of mucho bananas, okay). Except they are in trouble since that wire and guts only takes you so far when you are losing pilots and mail to the horrible weather conditions and whatever else Mother Nature can throw at you.

But Geoff is a hard guy, a guy who has been around and has taken a few hard knocks in his life and he will not let the operation go under without a fight. And in the end it does not go under thanks to the Kid (a fellow pilot) and Bart who had left the Kid’s brother high and dry one time but who in the end whether to satisfy his wife Judith (played by fetching Rita Hayworth, fetching at that time, later in Gilda she would be, ah, let’s leave it at alluring) proved he too had the right stuff.  Nice story for swell guys who had guts and glory written all over them.

Wait a minute, wait a minute that is just the cover story, the story for kids who want to dream about flying in tough spots. Here is the real story, what the hell this one had handsome Cary Grant in it so it could not only be about “hail fellows, well met.” Yes, there is a dame involved. Two actually since the aforementioned Judith left Geoff high and dry when he refused to ground himself so she would not worry at night whether he was coming back. Judith took Bart on the rebound and Geoff was soured on women for good. Well, not quite for good because Bonnie (played by Jean Arthur) a gal down on her uppers finds herself coming off the boat in that unnamed banana republic and as one thing leads to another she falls, falls hard for hard guy Geoff. What is a woman to do in such a situation? Well use her pluck, her charms and her pouts to lure the hard guy in. And guess what (remember this is 1930s black and white film Hollywood) it turned out that Geoff was kind of stuck on her despite his better judgment. (I still think when Rita showed up with old Bart I would have taken another at her but that is just my druthers). This is not the best of Cary Grant or Jean Arthur but the film proved to be a lot more interesting than I expected so worth a watch.