Only Angels Have Wings

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 Ãlvarez Maciste, Milisa Sierra, Lucio Villegas, Pat Flaherty, Pedro Regas, Pat West, Vernon Dent, Tex Higginson, Al Rhein
Director: Howard Hawks
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Description

Holiday
Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter and having difficulties being able to spend the early years of his life on "Holiday."

Only Angels Have Wings
Jean Arthur is a stranded showgirl who sets her sights on Cary Grant in this rousing adventure tale of men who fly mail planes over the Andes.

The Talk of the Town
A charming fugitive, a beautiful teacher, and a stuffy lawyer, forced to become roommates, are rumor-mill fodder in this madcap romantic farce.

His Girl Friday
A classic comedy in which Rosalind Russell plays reporter Hildy Johnson, who, on the eve of her remarriage, is talked into one more assignment by her editor and ex-husband.

The Awful Truth
The screwball antics of a couple (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant) who can't stand being married, but can't stand seeing the other married to anyone else.

Customer Reviews:

Five of Grant's best in one attractive package.......2007-06-27

The problem with some DVD box sets is that there's usually a film or two included that you could very well do without or perhaps would not even like in your film collection. No such problem with the simply named "The Cary Grant Box Set" which includes five movies that are all among Grant's very best. That alone makes this a must-have for Grant fans. So the featurettes, the vintage replica movie postcards and the overall attractive packaging are bonuses -- significant ones at that.
The films feature such wonderful leading ladies as Jean Arthur (twice) Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne and the incomparable Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn appears in "Holiday" directed by George Cukor, a depression era film that skewers the upper class. Grant plays Johnny Case an up and coming young business man who thinks more of exploring life than of making money. He finds himself in love with the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur but it is soon obvious that he has more in common with the girl's sister. Lew Ayers turns in a memorable performance as the brother, a philosophizing drunk.
"Only Angels Have Wings" offers a very different Grant, this time playing a the leader of a crew of daring mail pilots in South America. Here Jean Arthur is the love interest though a lovely young Rita Hayworth offers competition. Thomas Mitchell is part of a stellar cast directed by the great Howard Hawks.
"Talk of the Town" is to me one of the most underrated films of all time. Grant is Leopold Dilg a labor activist framed for a factory bombing. After escaping from jail he hides out in the bucolic summer home of an old childhood friend played by Jean Arthur. The catch is that she's renting the home to one of America's leading legal minds a supreme court candidate played by Ronald Coleman. There is comedy, the inevitable romance and a good deal of politics in this surprisingly thought provoking film directed by George Stevens.
Grant is again directed by Hawks but this time in a classic screwball comedy in "His Girl Friday." This remake of "Front Page" introduced the concept of rapid fire overlapping dialogue, principally between Grant and co-star Russell who play a former husband and wife team that doubled as a newspaper reporting dynamic duo. Grant would like them back together again but Russell and a would-be second husband played by Ralph Bellamy have other ideas. Grant is diabolical and hilarious as he manipulates events around a forthcoming execution in an effort to get the girl and the story. Among the laughs, "His Girl Friday" also has a points to make about corruption, media and justice.
"The Awful Truth" starring Grant and Dunne is straight screwball as the two stars play a divorcing married couple that maybe doesn't really want to separate. Leo McCarey directed this fast paced romp, poor old Ralph Bellamy is again Grant's hapless foil.
In the unlikely event I'm sent to a desert island that has a DVD player and can only bring a few DVD sets, this one is coming with me. In any event this box set should find itself on the the shelves of any Cary Grant fan.

Cary Grant Collection.......2007-06-21

No actor epitomizes classical Hollywood cinema like the ultra-suave, thoroughly professional Cary Grant, the leading man's leading man. This box set collects Grant's greatest hits of the late '30s-early '40s, right after he jettisoned his stifling Paramount contract to become a free agent for Columbia and RKO. Acting opposite Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell in the set's three uproarious screwball comedies ("Truth", "Holiday", and "Friday", respectively), Grant shows off his inimitable flair for witty, machine-gun repartee. Only the riveting "Angels" and more cerebral "Talk" (opposite the incomparable Jean Arthur) demonstrate why Hitchcock, among others, found the gentleman star such an appealing straight man. If you adore Cary Grant the way I do, this set is a must-have.

Creme de la Cary........2007-04-15

The idea of putting a collection of a screen star's films is always a great idea, but most of the time it doesn't follow through (Exhibit A: The James Stewart Signature Collection. As much as, well, everybody loves Jimmy Stewart, did we really need "The Cheyenne Social Club"??). That is hardly the case here. Included are essential Cary Grant films, both classic (His Girl Friday), underrated (Only Angels Have Wings) or unreleased (Holiday), his breakthrough role (The Awful Truth), and a charming social comedy (The Talk of the Town).

*THE AWFUL TRUTH: Jerry (Grant) and Lucy Warriner (Irene Dunne) both think that they have caught each other in infidelity (He returns home from a "business trip" from Florida with oranges from California, She comes back arm in arm with her French voice teacher), so they divorce each other, with 90 days until the thing becomes final. In those 90 days, she dates a sweet, bumbling oil man from Texas (Ralph Bellamy, who made a career out of playing the guy who loses the girl to Cary Grant, see HIS GIRL FRIDAY), and he romances an heiress. As their divorce's final date gets closer and closer, they realize that they're not ready to let each other go...leading to screwball results. This is the film that established Cary as a genuine star, a romantic leading man. His rapport with Irene Dunne is magical, and she's hysterical, especially towards the end when she tries to embarrass his stuffy fiancee's family by pretending to be his boozy sister "Lola Warriner." But beneath the laughs lie a deep understanding of marriage and the melancholy of love, leading to one of the cleverest ending shots in history.

*HIS GIRL FRIDAY: Undoubtably the funniest, fastest film ever made. Ace reporter Hildy Johnson (the brilliant Rosalind Russell) just wants to quit the newspaper business and settle down with a safe (re: dull) fiance Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) in Albany. But her ex-husband/boss/editor Walter Burns (Grant) won't let her go that easily. Russell is probably the only woman who could go shoulder-to-shoulder with Cary Grant, in a way that even Katharine Hepburn and Irene Dunne couldn't have topped. She delivers each of her lines with precise timing, and proves that, like all great Hawksian women, she is "just one of the guys." This was the third collaboration between Grant and Howard Hawks, the versatile director of "Bringing Up Baby", "Scarface", "Only Angels Have Wings" and "The Big Sleep." They made 5 films together, 4 screwball comedies and one action-adventure/drama (ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS). This is the best of their screwball comedies, and Cary Grant's on-screen persona as a lovable rogue who gets the girl by being the crueller of the two and always indirectly asking her to stay, is at his best here. This film is a must-have for any film buff.

*THE TALK OF THE TOWN: Although this is the least flashy of the set, it's a nicely made comedy of social manners directed by George Stevens. Leopold Dilg (Grant) is a political activist who is framed for arson and murder. He hides out in the summer house of Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), a teacher as well as Leopold's childhood sweetheart. But Nora has rented out the house to a stuffy candidate for a seat on the Supreme Court, Professor Lightcap (Ronald Coleman). After Leopold has introduced himself to the professor as Joseph the Gardener, Nora and Leopold must convince the professor to help Leopold out. The dialogue about social conflict hasn't aged very much and translates well today. Though the love triangle is a little bit stale, all three actors make their roles lively and believable. Jean Arthur particularly has nice chemistry with Grant.

*HOLIDAY: Johnny Case (Grant), a fun-loving man with a joie de vivre, thinks he has met the love of his life in Julia Seton (Doris Nolan), a woman he knows little about other than that he loves her. When he goes to meet her family, he realizes that she belongs to a very rich family of bankers, whose matriarch is particularly stuffy and wants his daughter to marry into another rich family. Johnny also meets Julia's siblings, the alcoholic Ned and independent-thinking Linda (Katharine Hepburn). As the film continues, Johnny and the audience find out just how much Julia is like her father, someone who only cares about money, and we see that Johnny is really a much better match for Linda. But will he follow his brain or his heart? (Little hint: if you actuall think that Cary Grant will ride off into the sunset with someone named Doris Nolan, you've never seen a movie.) Slight predictability aside, this is a sparkling gem. Johnny doesn't want to work all his life; his plan is to save up enough money to spend his days in relaxation and on holiday, then go back to work when he's figured out what he's working for. This type of thinking would become a hit in the 60s, so it's incredibly surprising to see it shown in a movie from 1938. Katharine Hepburn is wonderful in her signature role, and independent woman with a heart full of love underneath it all. I liked how even though you know that Cary and Katharine will end up together, you see genuine chemistry, especially in their body language, between Cary and Doris Nolan. Her flaw isn't initially obvious, unlike how you see a mile ahead that Meg Ryan and Bill Paxton aren't a match in SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE, or Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway in MANHATTAN. This film was ahead of its time in so many ways, and if not for the lack of sex, violence and today's modern stars, I'd confuse it for a romantic comedy made from today.

*ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS: Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur again) is on her way back to New York, just passing through a small Columbian town Barranca, home to a group of tough-shelled pilots who fly mail to hard-to-reach places. The leader of these pilots is Geoff Carter (Grant), who has the toughest shell to crack. He never has attachments to anybody, probably due to the frequent deaths of friends. This is shown in the first twenty mintues of the film, when the death of a pilot devestates Bonnie but the gang acts as though nothing has happened. It doesn't take her long to become just "one of the guys", and she decides to stay. Another unexpected visitor comes in the form of Bat Kilgallen--MacPherson, a pilot shunned for previously jumping out of a crashing plane, leaving his engineer to die...the man he left to die was the brother to Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell), Geoff's best friend. Also along for the ride is Judy MacPherson, Geoff's ex-love. As tensions both personal and sexual start to rise, we are entertained by a nifty script with numerous memorable quotes, excellent performances and some spectacular flying scenes which aren't cutting-edge by today's standards but nonetheless thrilling. This is a great role for Grant, as a stoic man who gradually unravels the veil to reveal a sad and broken man, something he would do 7 years later in NOTORIOUS. Jean Arthur makes another great Hawksian woman, probably the most vulnerable of them all. Her chemistry with Grant is sweet (just look at the scene where he scoops her up in his arms, thinking her leg is hurt) and natural. An underrated film for both Grant and Hawks, this was a big hit in 1939, considered the golden age of cinema. This film is usually passed over for films like GONE WITH THE WIND and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON among others, but this melodrama comes off as a standard action film and ends up becoming a revealing character study. If only Michael Bay could take notes from this film...

You won't find a better collection of Cary Grant films in a better boxed set. Included are 10 postcards from his films (Represented for each is film is one picture of him and his leading lady, the other is a copy of the original poster), plus the box package has some swank photos of Cary and some of his greatest quotes ("Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."). Don't we all, Cary. Don't we all...

Great Early Cary Grant Movies........2007-03-19

This collection is very good. You have some of Cary Grants best screwball comedies, and a couple of his best dramatic work. The movie Holiday is making its debut on DVD. You also get to see how Cary Grant became a major force in Hollywood. This is worth every cent you pay for it. These are all genuine classic movies.

Thanks, Universal.......2007-01-04

I've been waiting for two of these for years. I gave this five stars for the movies alone. All are clean and easy to watch. Universal did a first class job there. However they then put them in a cardboard case which I don't like. A little more spent on regular plastic cases and cover art would have made this better. That being said I would have paid twice the price as it is.

Average customer rating:

Only Angels Have Wings
Classic Cary
Great atmosphere, dialogue -- If you liked To Have and Have Not...
Grant risks life and limb to avoid commitment
When Men Were Men, and Women Weren't

Only Angels Have Wings
Starring: Cary Grant , Jean Arthur , Richard Barthelmess , Rita Hayworth , and Thomas Mitchell
Director: Howard Hawks
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

Romantic Adventure | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Adventure | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Talk of the Town
The More the Merrier
The Awful Truth
I Was a Male War Bride
Gilda

ASIN: B00000JRW5
Release Date: 1999-08-31

Amazon.com essential video

Hands down, Only Angels Have Wings is one of the most buoyantly entertaining movies in the American cinema. It is also a razor-sharp example of the action-oriented films of Howard Hawks, the wide-ranging auteur who would go on to make To Have and Have Not and Red River. This one is set in Barranca, a South American port city swathed in perpetual night fog, where a band of mail pilots struggle daily to get their planes through a treacherous mountain pass. They don't care about the mail so much as they live by the rules of adventure, professionalism, and friendly rivalry. Cary Grant is the leader of this daredevil group, a man who won't be pinned down to anything except his own code of stoicism. ("I don't believe in laying in a supply of anything," he says, which may be why he's always asking people for matches to light his cigarettes.) His cool style is tested by the arrival of a wisecracking blonde (Jean Arthur) and an ex-mistress (Rita Hayworth); Rita's now married to a pilot (Richard Barthelmess), disgraced by a single act of cowardice. Hawks always got great mileage from throwing a bunch of colorful characters together in an enclosed space, where death could strike in a moment. The great secret about Hawks is that although his feel for action was crackling, he was really more interested in the way people exchanged sidelong glances or lit each other's cigarettes--there's a lot of both in Only Angels Have Wings. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Only Angels Have Wings.......2007-06-21

Elements of drama and romance co-mingle with the serious business of men being men in this involving, exciting adventure story. Grant stretches his screen persona effortlessly as a tough guy with little humor and no polish, and Arthur makes a spunky love interest. Hayworth looks particularly stunning in a pivotal early role, and Thomas Mitchell also shines as Kid Dabb, a loyal older pilot who's losing his bearings. This heroic outing soars.

Classic Cary.......2007-05-28

Cary Grant and Jean Arthur at their best. Great supporting cast sometimes overwhelm the "stars" but these two manage to steal the show. It don't get no better than this!! Look for very young Rita Hayworth in minor role.

Great atmosphere, dialogue -- If you liked To Have and Have Not..........2007-02-07

You may not know this nifty action adventure drama by Howard Hawks, but odds are good it will seem familiar to you. That's because many of its characters and story elements (and some of its dialogue!) got recycled in later pictures of his like To Have and Have Not and Rio Bravo. A witty drama about Hemingway-esque men flying mail in South America and their on-the-edge lifestyle, it features many excellent actors in rather uncharacteristic roles: Cary Grant as swaggering pilot, Sig Ruman (Schultz from Stalag 17) as a bartender, Rita Hayworth as Cary's old flame and Thomas Mitchell as his mentor.

I take away a star because, try as he might, Grant is just too miscast to play this part well. He doesn't exude the Hemingway-style hero like Bogart did and winds up overplaying it.

Grant risks life and limb to avoid commitment.......2006-12-18

A small South American airport with a minuscule fleet of aging aircraft specializes in high-risk flights with dangerous cargo in areas where landing is nearly impossible. This becomes a stopover for aimless Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) who strikes an attraction for the commander of misfits, Geoff Carter (Cary Grant). His apathy toward possessions or emotions and commitment to nothing but his desire at the moment make him a difficult catch. When ex-heartthrob Judy MacPherson (Rita Hayworth) arrives with her estranged daredevil husband Bat Kilgallen MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) Bonnie resorts to less-than-subtle means to warm the cold-hearted man who daily tests fate.

Meager props and grainy filming detract from a movie that apparently kept the cutting room floor clean. Viewers might wish sharp shears were more plentiful. Perhaps because of the pace, it is not one of the finer Grant classics but worthy of a private afternoon showing to pass 2 hours. Jean Arthur's humor is the redemption for this story. Look for this film at a bargain price.

Movie quote: "I'm hard to get, Geoff. All you have to do is ask me."

When Men Were Men, and Women Weren't.......2006-06-24

Howard Hawks fashioned Jules Furthman's good screenplay into a true screen classic of male comaraderie and the women who must choose to accept it and love without attempting to change it. Hawks had Martinique as the setting for "To Have and Have Not" but showed his preference for exotic locales early on by setting "Only Angels Have Wings" in the South American port of Barranca. It makes a colorful backdrop to an even more colorful story of what it is to be a man.

The banana boats are coming in and Geoff (Cary Grant) is sending the mail out by plane in dangerous conditions in order to keep afloat his rag-tag outfit of pilots, living dangerously and liking it. They all wear guns but it's the weather that's more likely to take them down.

This is made clear early on when Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) hits the port for a short layover and attracts the good-natured attention of a couple of Geoff's pilots, one of whom Bonnie will see go down in flames just a few hours later. It is only then that Bonnie, already attracted to Geoff, will get a glimpse of real men and what their world is like.

Hawks shows the suspicion men who've been with a woman or two often harbor towards every female in a telling scene when Bonnie takes a momento from the fallen pilot's belongings and Geoff scoffs at her greed. Only moments later when she gives it to the young Mexican girl who adored him does he give Bonnie a few points, and then only in surprise.

Arthur is terrific here trying not to let her emotions show so she can live in Geoff's world. When a new pilot with a checkered past shows up (Richard Barthelmess), with Geoff's old flame in tow (Rita Hayworth), Bonnie realizes just how serious Geoff is about never asking anything of a woman. There is a ton of male adventure filling the screen in the meantime.

There are dangerous flights with nitro, daring flights for doctors, and Hawks even allowing a female into the act when Bonnie wings Geoff by accident with his own pistol. She goes to pieces, of course, as in Hawks' world, men were men and women weren't. I've never met a guy who doesn't love this film and perhaps that's why. Hawks adds his own spin on the romantic touch with the flip of a coin saying everything Geoff cannot put into words.

Grant is great here and Arthur sparkles. The rest of the cast is excellent, with Thomas Mitchell especially memorable as Geoff's best friend. Any male who wants to hang out in a bar with their pals and not talk about what every man already knows by virtue of their kind, will love this one. You'll wish there were a few girls like Arthur still out there too. Just a fantastic look at good men, jaded about women, but still needing them. Another masterpiece from director Howard Hawks.

Only Angels Have Wings [PAL, Region 2, Import]

Average customer rating:

Only Angels Have Wings [PAL, Region 2, Import]
Starring: Cary Grant , Jean Arthur , Richard Barthelmess , Rita Hayworth , and Thomas Mitchell
Director: Howard Hawks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Only Angels Have Wings exemplifies the complex, taciturn male bravado common to the films of Howard Hawks. Unfairly lumped into the genre of the airborne drama, it is one of Hawks' more neglected films. An experienced pilot himself, Hawks based Angels on real people and events from his time spent on the airfields; his brother was killed in a plane crash. Cary Grant plays the courageous, fatalistic lead, and Jean Arthur is the typical Hawksian heroine, strong with a subversive, gender-bending edge. Supporting player Rita Hayworth became a major Hollywood star after Angels. The film would receive a wartime update as 1942's The Flying Tigers.

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