Great Directors-Howard Hawks

Great Directors - Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks - Beginnings

Howard Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana in 1896.

He was a contemporary and long-time friend of John Ford who admired his work greatly believing that Hawks and not he deserved the Best Film Oscar in 1941 for Sergeant York (Hawks and Orson Welles were both overlooked in favour of Ford).

Hawks is something of an enigma in the history of motion pictures. A quick look through the list of movies he directed will show some incredibly popular movies; really good movies which were widely watched and most of which made good profits at the cinema at a time (1930s, 40s and 50s) when Hollywood movie studios were an industry; a money making machine.

I could start with Hawks silent career but in this hub, I prefer to look at some of his double-header movies - those films where the leading actor was teamed up with an equally interesting co-star. In Hawks movies, this was usually a 'smart talking broad'. Film Critic Naomi Wise coined the term 'Hawksian Woman' to describe this archetype and although Hawks was certainly no feminist he admitted that women he met like this were great 'in life and on screen'.

So here's to smart-talking broads and the man who brought them to the screen so wonderfully, Howard Hawks.

Twentieth Century (1934)

Henry Hawks was a director completely at home with a comedic script and moreover he trusted his actors. He believed that they could transform the words on the page and make people laugh.

Comedy is terribly hard to get exactly right but in the hands of John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, Hawks has his comedy delivered perfectly.

Lombard has long been considered one of the finest comedy actresses of her generation. Her comic timing is second to none and we can only guess at how her many talents might have developed had tragedy not intercedes. Barrymore is an actor who can turn his hand to anything and comedy is delivered with equal aplomb as any of his Shakespearean tragic performances.

Twentieth Century is a real screwball comedy which Hawks paces so wonderfully that the end will come all too soon but you will have laughed throughout the movie.

The script is from 2 accomplished playwrights, Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur (with Charles Mulholland) who had success with the play of the same name on Broadway. The script is perfect for the two main characters but has some good supporting roles which come to the fore when they are all trapped on the train, 'Twentieth Century'.

It may not have aged well - humour and what we all find funny has moved on but in its day - a triumph!

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Bringing Up Baby is a strange movie; it has 2 amazing stars in the leading roles, a leopard as a co-star. The scripts goes back and forth between gentle chat and rapid-fire argument. The settings are all over the place. It has screwball comedy written all over it and was released when those types of comedies were very popular and guess what? It was a flop!

Hawks later suggested the fault lay with him in making it too screwball - of making ALL the characters a bit too screwy. He felt, on reflection, that screwball comedies worked better when some of the characters were completely 'straight' characters - this gave a different pace to the scenes.

Bringing Up Baby has a lot of rapid-fire dialogue and as always, Hawks doesn't give the viewer time to laugh before the next gag is delivered - "if they missed it, they'll catch it the next time." was his response to someone complaining that because people were laughing so much they missed the next line.

At the time it was released Katharine Hepburn was going through a real low point in box office terms and punters were staying away in droves. But you can't keep a good Hawks film down and Bringing Up Baby is an amazingly popular 30s movie now. In fact, it is often held up as one of the best screwball comedies ever. Indeed, when one thinks of a later screwball comedy, 'What's Up Doc' starring Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Steisand, there are quiet a few similarities.

Bringing Up Baby star Katharine Hepburn was quite at home with Nissa, the leopard who played Baby but Cary Grant used a double in most of his scenes with her.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Only Angels Have Wings is one of Hawks most macho movies and is really a story of fly-boys, pilots who all know their last flight might be their last, living on the edge in every scene.

The dialogue can occasionally border on melodrama but as usual Hawks places a beautiful girl, Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) in amongst the guys and in true Hawks fashion, within a few hours she can smart mouth it with the best of 'em and becomes one of the guys in an environment which absolutely demands it.

Cary Grant once again gets a starring role as pilot Geoff Carter flying through the Columbian mountains delivering freight to areas normally cut off from the normal means of transport. He is a troubled soul, having lost his best friend in a recent crash who is also still sharing the same digs as the man who caused his death.

Hawks has Richard Barthemless as Bat McPherson, the villain of the piece, a man disliked by all the other pilots and also saddled with an unfaithful missus, played by Rita Hayworth in her first major part in a major movie. Bat McPherson is therefore the brunt of most of Grant's anger. In spite of this (or maybe because of this) Bat's wife makes a pass at Geoff Carter who realises he has actually fallen for Bonnie. Jean Arthur is excellent as Bonnie. Hawks had long admired Arthur, fresh from her successes in Mr Deeds Goes To Town (1936) and You Can't Take It With You (1938) and she doesn't disappoint here.

The movie's climax has one of the men taking one final, daredevil flight and Geoff Carter head out on his own mission to save him. On the edge of your seat yet?

Yes, Only Angels Have Wings is a bit of a melodrama but it has good actors, crackling dialogue and wonderful flight scenes in the mountains. Some of the scenes are obviously miniature planes flying through papier mache mountains but for the most part, the flying scenes are rather well done leading to a first ever 'Best Special Effects' Oscar for Roy Davidson and C Hahn. Some critics have claimed Hawks stole the story for the movie from a movie called Test Pilot; Hawks never denied it - he was a 'borrower', when he liked a good story he didn't have a problem with stealing it.

For perhaps the first time we properly get to hear dialogue regularly overlapping; this would become his trademark and actors had to learn that this is what kept his movies the accurately paced masterpieces they became. Hawks demands that the audience is always concentrating on what is being said and seen. His sets were often 'cluttered' with furniture, props etc. This was also a deliberate technique to create a realism of scene and because he liked to see actors moving in scenes (just like real life!). His choices for the soundtrack of this movie is also very telling; the music is dramatic when needed; lighter for comedic dialogue.

His Girl Friday (1940)

Rosalind Russell is superb in this movie. She plays Hildy on the way to leaving journalism for marriage. Her choice of husband is a bit of a strange one, considering she is such a high-flyer but as usual with Hawks, we don't spend too long poking holes in his movies; everything will be resolved by the end.

Once again Hawks turns to a play by Hecht and McArthur, The Front Page but swaps over the gender of the main character and this works really well because Rosalind Russell is more than able to hold her own with Cary Grant (again).

The dialogue is amazing in this movie - enough words to fill a 3 hour movie squeezed into 92 minutes, it has pace, laughs, sarcasm, irony and satire and as always Hawks has characters interrupting one another, talking over one another, Russell's skirts sweeping past her desk, swinging chairs, movement, movement, movement.

It was a huge hit at the box office, no holds barred ensemble cinema.

Ball of Fire (1941)

Rottentomatoes has described Ball of Fire as 'Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (for grown-ups)' and its theme has been much copied since in one form or another.

The script in the hands of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett is an absolute triumph and in the hands of a great actress, Barbara Stanwych and an articulate, thoughtful actor, Gary Cooper Hawks cannot really go wrong. Ably supported by Oscar Homolka and Dana Andrews ,it cracks along at a wonderful pace.

Stanwych has a character with one of the greatest names ever, Sugarpuss O'Shea and she's on the run from her mobster boyfriend who she knows in a bad 'un. She is going to be called to give evidence against him and is hiding out with seven clever guys studying her speech patterns.

Wilder and Brackett take full advantage of word-play in a movie as much about 1940s street-talk as about the mob, dolly-birds and academia versus populism.

The New York Times review of the movie, just after its release in 1942 describe Cooper's performance as 'homespun in a way only he can be', he is, afterall, not known for his comedic talents but his performance is offset by the talented Stanwych as a smart-mouthed but sweet-hearted girl who is as influenced by Cooper and his cronies' attentive care as they are by her sexyness and sassyness.

The Times critic gives praise to Hawks for 2 hours of amazing, fast-paced dialogue and some criminally inspired comedy in the form of Dana Andrew's as a mob boss who is also Sugarpuss' estranged boyfriend. Two separate stories interweave and the ending, of course, sees the good guy get the girl.

To Have And Have Not (1944)

"You know how to whistle don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and...blow."

To Have And Have Not was an Ernest Hemingway book for which Howard Hughes had bought the film rights. Howard Hawks bought them from him and decided to direct the movie himself but not before telling Hemingway that the book was not very good. Hemingway, to his credit accepted the criticism and worked alongside Hawks to change the storyline so that it fitted better with the time in which it was made. The original setting of Cuba was changed to the island of Martinique, under Vichy rule and so created a wartime backstory which Hawks could exploit in this action-adventure movie.

William Faulkner and Jules Furthman worked on the Hemingway rework and transformed the original story. To Have And Have Not was also given a Casablanca flavour; we have Hoagy Carmichael at the piano this time, the same local bar but this time the guy gets the girl.

Lauren Bacall is a perfect partner for Humphrey Bogart in this movie because it is obvious from the first scene in which they appear that they have chemistry (part-way through the movie it had turned into a full blown affair against Hawks wishes). It is Bacall's first role. Hawk's wife had seen a photograph of Lauren Bacall on the front cover of Harper's Bazaar and suggested her for his movie. He took an enormous chance but it certainly paid off. The original dialogue for Bacall was originally limited but greatly extended when it was clear the on-screen chemistry gave the movie a sexy edge. It also made Bacall a star.

Her character's nickname, Slim, was Hawk's wife's name - his way of saying thanks. By all accounts Slim Hawks was actually quite like Slim on screen; he pinched some of his wife's mannerisms for the movie and it worked well.

Bogart is, as always, at home in his role, more or less a reprise of Casablanca's Rick.

To Have And Have Not underlined Hawk's talents as a director of adventure movies. This one has a wartime timeframe and an excellent script and score. Critics were wondering when Howard Hawks would put a foot wrong. He could do it all!

I Was A Male War Bride (1949)

I almost chose The Big Sleep for my final movie but I have chosen one of my favourite Hawks movies instead.

I Was A Male War Bride may have one of the thinnest plots in movie history - it is basically man v bureacracy but it works because Cary Grant is really, really good in it!

Ann Sheridan works well as his romantic interest, mainly because in general she plays it straight. Grant is then allowed to shine in his role of drag queen (not quite!) forced into the submissive 'bride' role because the army has rules for men which don't translate when it is a foreign male marrying a female soldier.

Howard Hawks shines again with a rapid-fire script, Cary Grant is at his best when he is thoroughly disgruntled - fed up with being treated like a woman!

Henri Rochard, a French soldier is sent to work with Catherine Gates as they try to foil a German espionage ring. Initially, they dislike one another but it true Hawks' style and many sparkling pieces of dialogue later, guy falls for girl and it's then all systems go when Catherine is recalled to the USA and Henri can find no rule in the book allowing a man to follow a female soldier back to her homeland (but lots to allow a woman to follow a male soldier to his).

The plot sees Henri jump through every hoop to try to be with Catherine. Grant is at his most comedic when he is at his most undignified and his performance is a complete success and could well explain why Hawks chose him as a leading man on 5 separate occasions.

In this movie, Howard Hawks makes a comedy with a wartime sub-plot work with exactly the same technique and flair as in his other movies.

Howard Hawks - Great Director, Good At Every Genre

He directs comedies with the same care and attention as war movies, adventure movies and crime thrillers. He was certainly no one-trick pony.

If you paid him to be your director - he gave it his all.

It is to the disgrace on the American Academy that he was never honoured with an Oscar win until his win in 1974, a sort of lifetime achievement award, almost an afterthought for a career which was incredibly successful.

His movies still shine today as examples of all that was great and good in movie direction - great dialogue, great score, lighting, sets and most of all, an artlessness about everything.

His own take on what made a good movie, "Two good scenes and no bad ones."

When asked to define a good director he is supposed to have said, "Someone who doesn't annoy you."

He was a self-deprecating man, at home with himself and his way of doing things.

He started his career during the silent era and honed his skills there before directing for talkies. From the start he showed skills as a director or ANY kind of movie and that can't be said for many directors.

He is well-known, not for one of his movies, but for all of them.

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