Rating: 
Summary: A Forgotten Classic, Glad Someone Recommended It!
Review: First off, if you like Howard Hawks in general, or To Have and Have Not, you will love this movie. To have and have not lifts its entire plot line and much of its dialogue from this, perhaps even finer, movie. Cary Grant is hard-bitten, amoral, and cold as ice in this movie. And he's great! Way better than when he's acting suave or zany in other movies. The flying scenes have aged far better than similar special effects in other movies, and the dialogue, sexual tension, and machismo still crackles. I could imagine Barranca existing sixty years ago, and I imagine that it still exists in modern form today. The plot line is fairly bare, a bunch of down on their luck pilots disagree, fight, and try to get by in a jungle port. (Barranca, where the film takes place, is one of the greatest sets I've ever seen. Maybe the best black and white set with the exception of Rick's cafe americain ever). There's a vengeance plot line, an unrequited love, and a floundering airline mixed in. It sounds like too much, but the combination works just right. The gray, noirish atmosphere really adds to the feeling of depression-era despair and hope. Really, really good.
Rating:
Summary: A Forgotten Classic, Glad Someone Recommended It!
Review: First off, if you like Howard Hawks in general, or To Have and Have Not, you will love this movie. To have and have not lifts its entire plot line and much of its dialogue from this, perhaps even finer, movie. Cary Grant is hard-bitten, amoral, and cold as ice in this movie. And he's great! Way better than when he's acting suave or zany in other movies. The flying scenes have aged far better than similar special effects in other movies, and the dialogue, sexual tension, and machismo still crackles. I could imagine Barranca existing sixty years ago, and I imagine that it still exists in modern form today. The plot line is fairly bare, a bunch of down on their luck pilots disagree, fight, and try to get by in a jungle port. (Barranca, where the film takes place, is one of the greatest sets I've ever seen. Maybe the best black and white set with the exception of Rick's cafe americain ever). There's a vengeance plot line, an unrequited love, and a floundering airline mixed in. It sounds like too much, but the combination works just right. The gray, noirish atmosphere really adds to the feeling of depression-era despair and hope. Really, really good.
Rating:
Summary: A "Casablanca" level classic from the Golden Age of flying.
Review: Hollywood has made some fine aviation movies in the last 20 years: Battle of Britian; Blue Max; Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. But they can never equal the handful of great films of the dozen or so years ending with the Second World War. Wings; Hell"s Angels and Dawn Patrol are unremakable monuments to a different age and a very different paradigm and Only Angels Have Wings may be the greatest of them all. 1930s audiences didn't see pilots as boys next store run through flight school. Pilots were special and it was he essence of their specialness to fly. They flew behind unreliable engines, in deadly weather, low over murdeous terrain and they were not afraid. In this 1939 production, Jean Arthur, stopping briefly in a South American banama port, confronts that specialness in a group of airmail fliers and their Chief Pilot, Cary Grant. The clash of the imperaives of flying against the equally powerful imperatives of friendship, loyalty, grief and passion make this movie great. Arthur is initially appalled to watch Grant send one after another of his pilots through a deadly mountain pass in an effort to establilsh an airline. Yet, she and the audience quickly recognize Grant's essential decency. Only Angels Have Wings was produced and directed by Howard Hawks and features a stong suporting cast, including Richard Barthelmess as a pilot achiefing redemption in a fiery crash and Thomas Mitchell as a veteran aviator at the close of his career. The flying sequences by the celebrated Paul Mantz are impressive and sometimes breathtaking such as he scene of a Ford Trimoter spinning down through the clouds. If you have any interest inf flying or the prewar era, like a good story or just want to watch a superb actor and actress, this is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Testosterone poisoning
Review: I know this review will earn me boos, hisses, and "not helpful" votes, but my wife and I (both lovers of old movies) watched this a few nights back and frankly, we were baffled. Howard Hawks has made his share of movies with "men's men", but these characters are the most opaque and wooden I've ever seen! They are air-freight pilots delivering to the treacherous Andes mountain area, led by the normally charming (or at least interesting) Cary Grant. When the first pilot takes to air in the film (Noah Beery, I believe), you can hear in the inflection of his voice over the intercom that he seems resigned to his fate--the fog's closing in, and he's doomed to crash. Indeed he does, as do a number of the other pilots that follow in the film. The job doesn't seem to have any merits above its risks, and Jules Furthman's turgid script doesn't give us any hint as to why these men would risk their lives doing this job. It's implicit that flying IS their life, and there's this hunger that is satisfied only through this activity. But it's a tenet of the movie and a credo of the men that nothing needs to be explained, it's a man thing, and one just needs to move on. So what we get for "entertainment" almost borders on parody, as mission after mission goes awry, and the tight-lipped toughies muddle through. For romantic interest, there's Jean Arthur as an itinerant showgirl who almost immediately falls in love with Grant, though he "wouldn't force a girl to do anything she didn't want to" and no woman has been able to cope with the stress of living that close to death (though, in the film, Grant never actually gets up in a plane); there's also Rita Hayworth, one of his exes, who's now with McPherson (Richard Barthelmess), a pilot who bailed and let his partner die in a previous air accident. He of course, gets to redeem himself, and at the end gets to nurse a beer with the guys, cradling it in his burnt and bandaged hands. Hayworth also tries to seduce Grant, to no avail. Eventually the girls fall into line (acting appropriately stoic), and Arthur decides to hang around after Grant, in his typical off-handed way lets her know he loves her (via a two-headed coin)--but he loves flying more. I couldn't fathom this movie or this closed society; the story is slow and repetitive and the actors have been directed to suppress every bit of charm or life they have within them (you can see it trying to escape from Jean Arthur)--it's all very morose, banal and a trial to sit through. As a rule, I don't give one-star reviews--but I can honestly say I hated this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Dated Hollywood Heroics
Review: I wanted to like this movie, but I thought it was so dated as to just about cancel out the strong story line and how the story was crafted into a movie. I like Cary Grant a lot, but here he was the no-nonsense, grim, man-among-men leader that, to my mind, played to none of his strengths. Richard Dix could have done almost as well up to the last three minutes. (Okay, I'm exagerating.) Jean Arthur was a strong, strange actress who could hold her own with any lead actor. Here she's reduced to waiting anxiously for Grant to glance at her and to holding back the tears while she stands by her man. The subplot involving Rita Hayworth and Richard Barthelmess becomes tedious after a while. Thomas Mitchell, who seems to be in every movie made between 1935 and 1945, played Thomas Mitchell again. (Sometimes he could be great.) It seemed to me that the tensions were self-evident; nothing was unexpected given the premise of the movie...unlike a movie with a similar premise, Wages of Fear, where your socks were scared off every time a truck approached a pot hole. Most people seem to love this film. I dunno. There are a number of older movies that have held up well over the years. Even many which, while dated, still retain a great deal of charm. I can see how this movie would have been a hit when it came out. For me, it just seems dated.
Rating:
Summary: "I'm hard to get."
Review: Nightclub entertainer, Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) steps off her ship and on to the small South American island of Barranca. She's supposed to get back on the ship and continue her journey in just a few short hours, but she runs into a couple of lonely Americans, and she agrees to have a drink with them. She goes to a small cantina with the men, and the cantina serves as a holdover spot for the American pilots who hang out there waiting for the order to take the next plane in the air. The cantina's owner, Dutchy and Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) manage a motley crew of pilots who deliver the post. This delivery is hampered by terrible weather conditions, and the pilots hang around the cantina waiting to hear the news that the weather has cleared and that they can fly.
"Only Angels have Wings", directed by Howard Hawks, is a tribute to the love of flying. Even the romance between Bonnie Lee and Geoff Carter takes second place to the flying sequences. Bonnie Lee is befuddled by Carter's drive and addiction to the air, and while she claims to understand, it's quite obvious that she doesn't--and she starts hanging around the cantina too.
The story is really amazingly gripping. The planes seem so ancient, and the equipment used is pathetic, but strangely enough, this does not make the film archaic or passe. These pilots fly with the crudest of equipment, but instead of seeming laughable, it makes the story much more exciting, while underscoring just how desperate these men were to fly--no matter the cost. Rita Hayworth stars as Judy Macpherson, Carter's old flame. Her role is blase--it's not one of the pin-up roles that Hayworth is best remembered for, and she still has her pre-electrolysis hairline. There's a nice chemistry between Jean Arthur and Cary Grant, and their characters complement one another. The film, however, makes it perfectly clear that there's a solid demarcation between the male and female worlds--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: This movie has it all....
Review: Only Angels Have Wings is a perfect example of an often ignored, but excellent, classic movie. Directed by Howard Hawks, and with a great cast, Only Angels Have Wings is half exciting adventure movie and half romantic comedy. The sense of setting and atmosphere is very good as well - you almost feel as though the movie transports you to the imaginary South American port town of Barranca. The movie describes the adventures of a group of pilots working in a very dangerous location - they are hemmed in by mountains, and constantly face bad weather conditions. More specifically, it focuses on Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), a chorus girl staying in the town, and her encounters with the tough boss of the business, Jeff Carter (Cary Grant). The cast is very good. Cary Grant, though not playing his usual role, is excellent as the tough boss, who only flys when it is too tough for anyone else. Jean Arthur is sweet and believable as the stranded chorus girl, and the supporting cast, including a very young Rita Hayworth (in her first A-movie) is perfect. Anyhow, if you haven't seen this hidden classic from 1939, what are you waiting for? The DVD is very good - the movie is very clear and sharp, and there are a few interesting special features as well (previews for other movies and old advertisement posters, for instance). But the movie alone is worth getting - it is a must have!
Rating:
Summary: Bat's Redeeption
Review: Only Angels Have Wings is a powerful character study of several courageous, hard living, slightly crazy pilots. Their job is to defy death by flying cargo in decrepit planes out of the banana republic of Barranca. Howard Hawks has assembled an impressive cast: Cary Grant plays Jeff Carter, the group's leader; Jean Arthur is Bonnie Lee, a stranded New York showgirl; Rita Hayworth is Grant's ex-girlfriend; and Richard Barthelmess is a guilt-ridden ace pilot who once bailed out of a plane leaving his mechanic to die in the crash. The film's most complex character is Barthelmess's Bat MacPherson. He knows he must redeem himself to win the fliers' respect: so he accepts assignments, most of them dangerous, without complaining. One time, while flying through a mountain pass during a violent thunderstorm, it appears the plane will crash. This time, though, Bat doesn't abandon it or the man with whom he's flying, Kid Dabb, the brother of the mechanic he let die in the crash years ago. Instead, he lands the plane."Could have jumped but didn't," Dabb tells Jeff and the others. "Buy him a drink, will ya?" Jeff buys Bat a drink. That the other pilots ask Bat to drink with them proves that he has won their respect and redeemed himself.
Rating:
Summary: Neal E.
Review: Only Angels Have Wings is one of those many hidden treasures, one that was never really discovered... but will always be remembered. Taking place in a South American port of call for local Bananna Boats-Barranca- in which a Dutchman, John van Rider (The Dutchman) who runs almost everything in town, owns an air mail service that-despite hazardous and blinding weather- always sends its mail (and pilots) out on time, so that new planes can be bought, which will help weather conditions. As I have mentioned, the weather is harmful, and many who are emplyed by the Dutchman are killed at one point or another. Out of the small gang of pilots (including John Carrol as Jent Shelton, in a minor but excellent role), one stands out; Cary Grant, who plays Jeff Carter, a once sensitive and caring man who was turned into a cynical, unhappy chappy after a harsh breakup. Running the airline, Jeff only goes out when he thinks it might be too hard for anyone else. Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur, in one of her first large roles)has just gotten of a Northbound boat to cool off for a couple of hours before the ship has loaded some bannanas and is ready to set out to sea. On the shore, she is met by two pilots who (after some trouble) manage to "get" her. Heartless Jeff sends one out for a delivery, contrary to a deal made between the two. Bonnie is shocked by Jeff's behavior. After deciding to come back when the fog is too much to bare, the pilot attepts a dangerous landing resulting in his death. Bonnie is shocked by how easily and rudely the bunch takes it. However, she is explained to by two members of the band, including Jeff's veteran flier best friend Kidd (played by Thomas Mitchell in perhaps one of his best roles) that they must do that or te feelings balled up inside them would be too much to bare. So Bonnie cheers up and joins the group. The next day, when Jeff gtes back from a delivery, he is surprised to find that Bonnie purposely missed her boat ride. He informs her in a rather cruel manner that she has to go on the next boat. Just when everything seems perfect, a new pilot, McPherson (a great role for Richard Bartelmess) and his wife Judy arrive, (Rita Hayworth, in her career starting film) and two rather astonsihing revalations are made. After, the pilots try again to lead a happy life, though, as they discover, it may be rather difficult. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is perhaps one of the ten best films to this day, although widely ignored. The performances, direction, and sharp dialougue are equivalent to a solid five of today's so-called best films. Cary Grant is amazing, and as always, was ignored by the Acadamey Awards, as was everything about the film. Even among other films such as Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Gunga Din, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and other outstanding films, Only Angels Have Wings is this viewers favourite. My Secind Favourite Grant Film, and top ten worthy film of any kind, Only Angels Have Wings is a powerful, sad, hilarious, cynical, and brilliant film.
Rating:
Summary: One of Hollywood's Hidden Treasures!
Review: Only Angels Have Wings is one of those many hidden treasures, one that was never really discovered... but will always be remembered. Taking place in a South American port of call for local Bananna Boats-Barranca- in which a Dutchman, John van Rider (The Dutchman) who runs almost everything in town, owns an air mail service that-despite hazardous and blinding weather- always sends its mail (and pilots) out on time, so that new planes can be bought, which will help weather conditions. As I have mentioned, the weather is harmful, and many who are emplyed by the Dutchman are killed at one point or another. Out of the small gang of pilots (including John Carrol as Jent Shelton, in a minor but excellent role), one stands out; Cary Grant, who plays Jeff Carter, a once sensitive and caring man who was turned into a cynical, unhappy chappy after a harsh breakup. Running the airline, Jeff only goes out when he thinks it might be too hard for anyone else. Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur, in one of her first large roles)has just gotten of a Northbound boat to cool off for a couple of hours before the ship has loaded some bannanas and is ready to set out to sea. On the shore, she is met by two pilots who (after some trouble) manage to "get" her. Heartless Jeff sends one out for a delivery, contrary to a deal made between the two. Bonnie is shocked by Jeff's behavior. After deciding to come back when the fog is too much to bare, the pilot attepts a dangerous landing resulting in his death. Bonnie is shocked by how easily and rudely the bunch takes it. However, she is explained to by two members of the band, including Jeff's veteran flier best friend Kidd (played by Thomas Mitchell in perhaps one of his best roles) that they must do that or te feelings balled up inside them would be too much to bare. So Bonnie cheers up and joins the group. The next day, when Jeff gtes back from a delivery, he is surprised to find that Bonnie purposely missed her boat ride. He informs her in a rather cruel manner that she has to go on the next boat. Just when everything seems perfect, a new pilot, McPherson (a great role for Richard Bartelmess) and his wife Judy arrive, (Rita Hayworth, in her career starting film) and two rather astonsihing revalations are made. After, the pilots try again to lead a happy life, though, as they discover, it may be rather difficult. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is perhaps one of the ten best films to this day, although widely ignored. The performances, direction, and sharp dialougue are equivalent to a solid five of today's so-called best films. Cary Grant is amazing, and as always, was ignored by the Acadamey Awards, as was everything about the film. Even among other films such as Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Gunga Din, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and other outstanding films, Only Angels Have Wings is this viewers favourite. My Secind Favourite Grant Film, and top ten worthy film of any kind, Only Angels Have Wings is a powerful, sad, hilarious, cynical, and brilliant film.
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