Only Angels Have Wings

The flying scenes are action packed, the setting is exotic, and the characters are interesting. In my opinion, the romance element didn't make much sense, but it was still good.

Since it comes right inbetween Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday in Hawks/Grant-collabs you'd be forgiven to think it's a screwball comedy. It's not though. It's actually a drama with quite an unusually dark view of humanity that processes it's themes with fascinating clarity even though it uses some clichés to get there. If it was made these days I'd wish it was a miniseries so we could get to explore the characters fully.

Any movie with Rita Hayworth in it is likely to get my approval, but it's actually Cary Grant and Jean Arthur (and the strong script that supplies them with sharp, rapid-fire dialogue) who make this particular picture a delight.

Will the planes make it or not? These situations were surprisingly suspenseful (although people raised on current Hollywood fare, may not agree). I sort of wished the filmmakers developed the relationship between Jeff and Bonnie a little more (she's absent for a little too long). Also, the film almost never had a musical score, and while that worked well in the suspense scenes, it may have hurt the non-suspense ones.

This movie probably started as a list of piloting dilemmas and then a story was worked in around them. The story that was chosen appears to be how women find abusive men irresistible.