Only Angels Have Wings (1939) on Netflix
Passed19392h 1mAdventureDramaRomance
Bonnie Lee, a traveling entertainer, steps ashore at Barranca, a South American port. She meets Geoff Carter, who runs a small airline flying mail over the Andes through fog and storms.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.6/1017,668 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Barranca Airways carries mail out of Barranca, a South American port, through a high pass in the Andes. The company is barely solvent, and its owner, Dutchy Van Ruyter, is working toward a government contract that requires months of dependable service. Geoff Carter, the chief pilot and manager, takes his planes up in fog and storms, and the work has already killed some of his men. A performer on her way to Panama, Bonnie Lee comes ashore from a banana boat and stays in Barranca, drawn to Geoff although he holds himself apart and calls the flying a matter of luck. Kid Dabb, a veteran pilot, is the friend closest to him. A new flyer, Bat MacPherson, reaches town with his wife, Judy.
Cast
- Manuel Álvarez Macisteas The Singer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Howard Hawks cast faded silent-film star Richard Barthelmess as pilot Bat MacPherson despite permanent X-shaped scars under both eyes from a botched plastic surgery. Barthelmess normally hid the scars with heavy make-up, but Hawks wanted to use them for the character.
- Hawks first cast Dorothy Comingore as Judy MacPherson, but studio head Harry Cohn was grooming another starlet and backed her agent's demand that Hawks screen-test Rita Hayworth, who ended up in the role.
- Only Angels Have Wings was picked as one of 12 American films for the first Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was canceled because of events leading up to World War II.
- The film was Rita Hayworth's breakout role and made her a major Hollywood star, landing her on the cover of Look magazine after its success.
- Howard Hawks wrote the story after being inspired by the stoic aviation personnel he met in Mexico while scouting locations for Viva Villa! years earlier; the script outline was first written by Anne Wigton under the title Plane No. 4.
- In 2007, a prop model of the Hamilton aircraft used in the film's simulated flying scenes turned up on the U.S. version of Antiques Roadshow; its owner screen-matched it and confirmed its authenticity.
