ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) ***1/2 It's a great Howard Hawks film, and I think it's about an advanced level of growing up where you become more open to self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, and forgiveness of those who haven't reached your level. I say "I think" because I'm one of those ones who haven't reached that level, and I can only wonder what it looks like from up there. It's film that's going to inspire very different reactions: technicians are going to find a lot wanting, I'd imagine; it never really calms down enough for anyone to measure what the ambiance is (atmosphere is hot and tempestuous to match the weather); people like me who want a damn good story and characters to identify with and root for and look up to as embodiments of human ideals are going to get really excited about it all (did I mention it's a Howard Hawks?). Cary Grant is the centerpiece, has the best lines, best scenes, I guess he gets it the most, whatever it's about. But he ain't the only one. Richard Barthelmess is, I guess, the initiate, probably has the toughest role and is flawless in it. Thomas Mitchell and Sig Ruman are two sides of the soul of the thing (fearless and friendly), and the two outstanding leading ladies-Rita Hayworth and Jean Arthur, don't represent anything much different, in a spiritual sense, than a two headed-coin that ensures that you win...their difference is their placement on Cary's path down that ray of light that we call time. She looks like far, she looks like here, she's someone else, she's something else, two separate entities with unique dynamics and individual fates...somehow beyond explanation the same. Yea, metaphysical off-ramps....
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