Only Angels Have Wings

Considered by many to be a peak achievement in the storied career of producer-director Howard Hawks, this delightful adventure saga about mail pilots flying the treacherous routes above the Andes remains remarkably entertaining. Cary Grant stars as the no-nonsense honcho, whose life is complicated by the arrival of two women. Jean Arthur plays the saucy showgirl en route back to the States, and Rita Hayworth is his ex-lover who arrives with husband Richard Barthelmess, a veteran aviator seeking a second chance after being disgraced for cowardice.  Long-time Hawks collaborator Jules Furthman wrote the script from a story by the director, and the cast was full of great character actors such as Thomas Mitchell (whose astounding resume that year also included GONE WITH THE WIND, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and STAGECOACH, for which he won an Oscar®), Noah Beery Jr., Allan Joslyn, Sig Rumann, Victor Kilian, and John Carroll.  It was the young Hayworth, heretofore toiling away in B-pictures, who caught the critics' eye, and ANGELS provided a giant leap toward her becoming Columbia's most important star of the decade.