The Dawn Patrol

At a rural flight outpost during the First Great War, a pilot becomes everything he hates after being promoted to commander and is forced to send young, hard drinking pilots to their deaths, even including his closest friend. Howard Hawks' The Dawn Patrol, adapted from a short story by John Mark Saunders entitled Flight Commander (the title which it sometimes alternately bears) was remade only eight years later with Errol Flynn in an also acclaimed and likewise famously cliched version. Hawks' outing contains a rousing finale in addition to many great moments and individual shots even if it remains a little static and dated.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Ball of Fire

Seven stilted researchers compiling an encyclopedia in a New York townhouse find their benefactor growing increasingly more impatient at their laborious, unhurried pace. Meanwhile one of the compilers (Gary Cooper) finds he is hopelessly uninformed on his latest research subject, American slang, and hits the streets to learn firsthand about the topic. When he meets a sassy nightclub dancer (Barbara Stanwyck) on the run from her mobster boyfriend, he takes in the ideal study subject who transforms himself and the rest of the stodgy bachelors. Directed by Howard Hawks, Ball of Fire is a funny, amusing riff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with the type of quick, witty script that  Billy Wilder and writing partner Charles Brackett would perfect in later years. Stanwyck is irresistible here and the film glows in her presence.

*** out of ****

Red River

While dreaming of owning a booming cattle ranch with his cantankerous right hand man (Walter Brennan), a seasoned and insistent cowherder (John Wayne) takes in a young boy (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift) whose wagon party has been slaughtered by Indians. As time passes and the cowboy's dream has been fulfilled, he sees to drive his massive heard on an onerous trek through South Texas to get top dollar for his stock and finds opposition from his protege when his methods are viewed as no less than dictatorial. Howard Hawks' dark and ambitious western features excellent performances from Wayne (extremely brooding) and Clift and two extraordinary montage sequences in his study of commanding respect versus demanding it. The Joanne Dru character, who is tackily introduced to resolve the central conflict, does not hamper an otherwise superiorly made classic.

The Big Sleep

Private investigator Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hurled into a complex maze of blackmail and murder when he is hired by a dying, wealthy businessman to resolve his daughter's (Martha Vickers) gambling debts, and ends up falling for her icy, older sister (Lauren Bacall). Howard Hawks' classic noir mystery, from Raymond Chandler' novel and a serpentine screenplay which features partial credit attributed to William Faulkner, is a lot of fun when you focus on the characters and dialogue and abandon all hope on keeping up with the convoluted plot (this is the movie where Chandler reportedly couldn't determine who committed one of the killings). This was the second film which Bogart and Bacall appeared in together, their first as a married couple, and a make or break film for her and their scenes together prove to be the highlight of an entertaining, shambolic picture.

Sergeant York

A rowdy backwoods yokel (Gary Cooper), notorious for his raucous ways, sees a vision from God, vows a life of pacifism, and seeks to fulfill his dream of marrying a radiant local (Joan Leslie) and farming a small plot of land in Daniel Boone country, Tennessee. Then World War I arrives and after failed attempts to challenge his draft status as a a conscientious objector and subsequent mockery from his fellow servicemen, he goes on to become one of the most decorated soldiers in American history. Howard Hawks' Sergeant York is an awfully sluggish and corny (although the second half is a marked improvement),  purportedly undoctored biopic which earned an Oscar for Cooper and his aww shucks hillbilly approach. My biggest problem with the film is evident in the contradiction of York's historic siege when the great, gentle pacifist, with big, glazed over eyes, seems to be taking great delight ("just like turkeys") in picking off vulnerable enemy combatants. 

The Thing from Another World

(8/21/11) At an Arctic outpost comprised of scientists and Air Force officials, a large spacecraft is discovered in the frost at a nearby location. A team goes to check it out and realizes that it is a flying saucer that has been there for a long time. Their efforts to extract the craft result in its destruction but inside they find a giant, still preserved spaceman. Taking him back to base, he is accidentally thawed and begins to wreak havoc on the members of the crew who must quickly devise a way to destroy the seemingly indestructible being. "The Thing from Another World" is one of the foremost monster movies of the 1950s. From the often adapted story Who Goes There? by  John W. Campbell, which was the basis for Alien and the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell remake of this film, which is credited to director Christian Nyby, is often thought to be the work of producer Howard Hawks, whose reputation was too high to have his name on a B picture. Blending science fiction and horror, the movie contains cheesy effects (with the monster being nothing more than a man in high heels dressed in a plastic suit) and character types (the doctor who spews vegetable metaphors and insists on reasoning with the creature for science's sake as well as the know-it-all wisecracking reporter are both particularly annoying) but ends up being pretty entertaining fare. I think the secret to this film, as well as Carpenter's and Ridley Scott's film is the location and atmosphere. The coldness and remoteness are played particularly well here and the result is a highly entertaining popcorn flick.

(4/4/13) I watched the movie again, thinking I would like it more, but wound up enjoying it about the same. I find it bogged down by technical detail and jargon and am not sure I understood the central moral conflict from the point of view of the crackpot scientist or whether or not that was supposed to be taken seriously. I did really like the self-assured performance by Margaret Sheridan (who says feminism was nonexistent in the 50s?) and the scenes with the monster, cheesy as it is, are genuinely scary and exciting.

His Girl Friday

Ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) has quit her job at the paper in preparation for her impending nuptials, but her incorrigible editor and ex-husband (Cary Grant) entices her to stay with a juicy news story, pulling out every other trick in the book along the way in an effort to win her back. "His Girl Friday" is a frenetically paced classic from Hollywood legend Howard Hawks who reworked Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's already once filmed play "The Front Page" into this manic masterpiece. Grant and Russell are on the top of their respective games and a sheer delight to watch in a picture that is endless fun which never stops to take a breath.

Twentieth Century

Oscar Jaffe is a Broadway producer with a penchant for the dramatic and egotism so steeped that his name appears on the billboard for his new play no less than five times. When the director wants to can the hayseed he has personally chosen to star in his production, Jaffe takes the reins and transforms her into a huge success. After a string of hits though his jealousy gets the best of him and she leaves for Hollywood, leaving him with a string of bad luck though. Fortuitously, the two end up together on a New York bound train from Chicago and the maniacal director will do anything in his power to get her back. "Twentieth Century" is one of the earliest screwball comedies and one of the best. Versatile director Howard Hawks' film, written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur from their stage play, is a madcap romp, replete with many belly laughs, thanks to the performances of John Barrymore and Carol Lombard. In a performance that surely inspired Mel Brooks' Max Bialystock in "The Producers", Barrymore gives a wickedly funny performance as the delusional and self-aggrandizing Jaffe. Lombard is just as adept as well, and their onscreen chemistry is marvelous. Hawks' was a maverick director who crossed genres as well as any other colleague. In his early career, his screwball comedies including this, "Bringing Up Baby", and "His Girl Friday" set the standard for madcap movies and remain some of the most riotous ever filmed.

Scarface

A ruthless Italian immigrant gangster with a fixation on his sister wipes out his mobster boss, and goes to work for a higher up, eventually muscling him out of his racket, taking his girl in the process, and spreading him campaign of violence across the entire city. "Scarface" was a work born of three larger than life individuals, producer Howard Hughes, director Howard Hawks, and writer Ben Hecht, and the result is a stark, stylish, brutal, and even xenophobic early gangster film. Paul Muni gives a towering performance as the brutish and heartless Tony Camonte, making the character utterly despicable and leaving all likable traits at the door. Despite its relentless violence and perverse scenes involving Camonte and his sister (Ann Dvorak), there are some lighter scenes played to wondrous comic effect such as when Muni's secretary (Vince Barnett) fumbles with the telephone or when Muni returns to the theater after a hit to see how it ended. Having recently watched Ken Burns' "Prohibition" I was surprised how closely this film mirrored Al Capone's life, and I was also surprised how much of a rehash the overpraised 1983 Brian De Palma film is. Hawks' "Scarface" is a harsh film and a curious one in how it generates sympathy for a truly detestable character.

The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks is one of those directors whose resume is so hard to recall because it is so versatile. Consider these classics and their genres: "Bringing Up Baby" and "His Girl Friday" (screwball comedy), "Sergeant York" (war), "To Have and Have Not" (romance/adventure), "Red River" and "Rio Bravo" (western), and "The Big Sleep" (noir). In this documentary, as Sydney Pollack narrates, Time's Richard Schickel takes us through Hawks' incredible films as the great director himself is interviewed. Listening to him, Hawks really is a compelling, authoritative figure. A hard, tough man he also comes off as intelligent and modest, rejecting claims of greatness from adoring French auteurs and asserting that he only filmed what he thought worked. "The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks" is a fascinating and insightful look into a legendary director's career.

Rio Bravo

After shooting an unarmed man during a melee at the saloon, the brother of a wealthy rancher is taken into custody by the local sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne). Having only his drunk deputy (Dean Martin), a crippled old codger (Walter Brennan), and a talented young sharpshooter (Ricky Nelson) on his side, Chance must fend off the mounting threat set to spring the rancher's brother from the jail before the U.S. Marshals arrive to haul him away. With its leisurely pace, character development, and leisurely asides, Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" plays more like a good play than it does a typical Western. The film contains a great performance from The Duke, who shows a really surprising and endearing softer side here (don't get me wrong, his character his still tougher n hell). His supporters are very fine as well. Dean Martin is excellent as the self-hating drunk and has many of the films best scenes. Walter Brennan is a hoot as the cantankerous trigger happy old coot who watches the jail. Angie Dickinson is extremely sultry and appealing as the card cheat who wins Wayne's heart. Hawks' approach to the material is really brave and what makes it work. The film is long, about 2 hours 20, but that gives his characters room to breathe, as we get to know them, and allows for wonderful scenes that you wouldn't think would work, such as well Dino and Nelson sing a duet in the jailhouse. "Rio Bravo" is a great film that offers a little bit of everything we love about the movies.