|
New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.
Home | Archive | About | Blog | Lists | Links | E-mail me | Sign up for my weekly newsletter! | The Woman in Black *** The Grey *** Man on a Ledge *** Underworld Awakening ** Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos *** Haywire *** Beauty and the Beast **** Contraband *** The Divide * Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy **** The Devil Inside ** The Iron Lady ** A Separation *** Pariah ***1/2 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close *** The Darkest Hour ** War Horse **1/2 In the Land of Blood and Honey ** The Adventures of Tintin ***1/2 More Dream House Drive Frida The Magnificent Ambersons Malcolm X The Mill and the Cross The Moment of Truth Outrage The Piano The Thing To Kill a Mockingbird 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays More Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender Interview: Simon Curtis Interview: Werner Herzog Interview: John Cho Interview: Roland Emmerich Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball Interview: Nick Swardson Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson Interview: Lone Scherfig Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari Interview: Wayne Wang Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter' Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link) The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage Interview: Emma Roberts Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link) Interview: Tom McCarthy Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link) 2010: The Year's Best Films 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays Interview: Sofia Coppola Interview: George A. Romero The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009 My Top 100 Films [Updated] My Top 60 Directors [Updated] Christmas Movies Essential Halloween & Horror Movies Cult Movies Actress Interview Gallery More Features and Interviews Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis More Books Reviews A-C Reviews D-F Reviews G-J Reviews K-M Reviews N-Q Reviews R-T Reviews U-Z The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!
© 1997-2012 Combustible Celluloid |
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)FlyboysBy Jeffrey M. Anderson Buy Only Angels Have Wings on DVD
Cary Grant stars in Only Angels Have Wings as the captain of a dinky post office in South America, where pilots fly the mail to hard-to-get places. A lot happens in the movie, but the main plot concerns a bet made with some corporate folks; if Grant can get the mail through every day on time for a month, they can get re-funded. Their planes are falling apart, there are often storms, and we see at least one spectacular crash during the movie. The movie starts as Jean Arthur rolls into town, and she's followed by two of the pilots. She thinks they're creepy, until she finds out they're Americans, then she has dinner with them. One of the pilots has to make a run in the fog, and he dies trying to land. The rest of the pilots spend the night drinking and carousing. She doesn't understand at first why they don't mourn, but as the night goes on, she catches on that death is common there. It's a very intense sequence, and it's only the first half hour of the movie. Cary Grant, one of cinema's greatest actors, gives maybe his finest performance here. (It's hard to say, there are dozens.) If asked to picture Cary Grant, you may see him as a fop, trying to be funny, doing double takes, trying to con somebody. In Only Angels Have Wings, he's a tough guy, often cruel, holding his feelings on the inside, letting them out only at calculated moments, and subtly. The performance surpasses even the one he would give seven years later in Notorious. Howard Hawks, next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, was the greatest Hollywood director ever. (And like Welles and Hitchcock, he never won a Best Director Oscar.) Hawks had a style that Francois Truffaut dubbed "invisible directing," in that he made great movies with no apparent style. When you watch a Hitchcock or Welles movie, you know who the filmmaker is just by looking at a few scenes. With Hawks, the only signature was that of a great storyteller. (Only by watching many Hawks movies in a row can you begin to get a sense of his preferences.) Only Angels Have Wings is a lusty movie, an action-adventure, a manly-man movie, but also an emotional one. It is all the more special when you consider that the other four movies Grant made with Hawks were screwball comedies; Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, I Was a Male War Bride and Monkey Business. If I still haven't convinced you, the luscious sex-goddess Rita Hayworth is also in the movie, in an early star-making role. Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, Sig Ruman, Victor Kilian, John Carroll, Don 'Red' Barry, Noah Beery Jr., Manuel Alvarez Maciste, Milisa Sierra, Lucio Villegas, Pat Flaherty, Pedro Regas, Pat West |
| Home |
New Movies |
New DVDs & Blu-Ray |
Features |
News |
Search Reviews |
Classic Movies |
Film Books |
Gallery |
Links |
About |
Contact |