Only Angels Have Wings. 1939. USA. Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Jules Furthman, based on a story by Howard Hawks. With Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth. 121 min.
In this definitive aviation drama, Howard Hawks achieves the point of equilibrium in his directorial evolution. The themes Hawks developed throughout the 1930s crystallize with perfect clarity and expressive mastery, not yet exhibiting the darker preoccupations that would haunt his films of the 1940s and 1950s.
Set in the fictional South American port of Barranca, the narrative follows a close-knit group of American mail pilots navigating treacherous Andean fog. Cary Grant's performance as the laconic Geoff Carter reveals largely unexplored dimensions of his screen persona---stoic, harsh, emotionally guarded. The film's tensions intensify with the arrival of entertainer Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) and disgraced pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) with his wife Judy (Hayworth in her breakthrough role).
Hawks distills weeks of narrative into twenty-four hours with remarkable economy, expressing through composition, objects, and gesture what lesser filmmakers would render with obvious sentiment. His technical virtuosity serves profound philosophical concerns: the integration of individuals into the group, the stoic denial of death (exemplified in the famous "Who's Joe?" exchange), and the existential affirmation of identity against an indifferent universe---qualities that led Robin Wood to justifiably term this "a completely achieved masterpiece."