Only Angels Have Wings
Short description
A traveling entertainer, Bonnie Lee, breaks her journey in a small South American port town and becomes involved with the pilots of a struggling air freight company. Its tough-minded head, Geoff Carter, keeps his men flying mail and cargo across the Andes, where sudden weather and dangerous terrain make every trip a gamble. The arrival of a pilot with a troubled past adds further strain to the group, while Bonnie's presence unsettles Carter's guarded routine. The company's survival comes down to whether he will accept a contract that puts his crews at greater risk.
Howard Hawks directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Jules Furthman. It was the fourth of the nineteen features Hawks directed in chronological order, coming between Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday. Cary Grant plays Carter, with Jean Arthur as Bonnie, and the cast includes Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell and Allyn Joslyn among forty-seven credited performers.
Released by Columbia Pictures in May 1939, the adventure drama runs 121 minutes. Its critics' rating of 8.8 out of 10 from thirty-two reviews is higher than the audience scores of 7.6 on IMDb from around seventeen thousand votes and 7.3 on TMDB from several hundred. The worldwide box office of about one million dollars was modest, though the film has held up with audiences over the decades.
What's left behind the scenes
- Richard Barthelmess (1895-1963) had scars from an infection contracted during plastic surgery. They could only be concealed with heavy makeup, but Hawks convinced the actor not to wear makeup because the scars suited his character. He also instructed that his character be made shorter, further emphasizing his feelings of inadequacy.
- Except for the rain, the scene of the character's death performed by Thomas Mitchell (1892-1962) is an exact reproduction of the scene of the pilot's death that Howard Hawks once witnessed firsthand.
- Rita Hayworth (1918-1987) couldn't manage to play drunk, so the director instructed Cary Grant (1904-1986) to dump a bucket of water over her and then dry her hair, and try again.
- Director Howard Hawks (1896-1977) personally knew a pilot who parachuted from a burning plane. His second pilot died on impact, and he was ostracized by other pilots for the rest of his life.
- The film is based on the true story of a romantic couple Hawks met in Mexico while scouting locations for the film “Viva Villa!”, ultimately directed by Jack Conway.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
