‘For ones moment of personal discovery” of wealthy Midwestern parents, later Pasadena) Howard Hawks discovers his Harvard led idiom thru his “Dawn Patrol” and “Only Angels have Wings” later to the Hollywood studio lots, Hawks original story.
II
If his memory serves him right of those Ivy League “Brookjlyn” memories, his directorial interpretations of the World War one reality “air” he grew up with, brings a experience that identifies his time being sensitive and alive to his crew of Cary Grant (“Arhie Leqach”) , the barnstorming pilot and “hiot shot”businessman of the ransacked bar and grill, which underscoredthe operations upstairs.flying mail thru the Andes Mountains, off the South American coast.
III
It is this ambiance, that the “Dawn Patrol” unfurls into “Angels with wings”. Two charistic bits of dialogue “Brooklyn” utteredin the downstairs clambake by Jean Arthur waiting for a ship to tke her from the bar and grill. ..Allan Joslyn…”Duitchy”SigRoman, Noah Beery, Jr.
Second, a memorable tossing of die,born fro m huis Hawks undergraduate memoiries at Harvard, playing “craps”. Throwing the dice…in this scenario a two headed coin,heads you win, tails you lose”, Jean Arthur catching the “heads” flip from Cary Grant as he leaves for a dare deviling flight to the hospital, carrying a bullet wound.
IV
If this be the birth of aviation in the aftermath of World War oe…cargo being nitrol, mail, and blustery radio calls from ground to air, the feats of fearlessness flying these Floyd Bennet(Brooklyn) two winged prop planes, to a vast uncharted hoirzon, comparable to the Empire State horizons leads to “Hells Angels”. The other Howard (Hughes) and “Hells Angels” and Jean Harlow.
V
So among this down to earth case..Thomas Mitchell, the bartender, “Doc” Rita Hayworth, Richaqrd Barthelmess living with his sin..parachuting while the pilot goes down with the mountainous crash.
To an English actor named Archie Leach, advertising hot dogs and sauerkraut and a keg of beer on Coney Island’s boardwalk,…doing it al on stilts…was but a “aplum” in Howard Hawks casting of Cary Grant as the gang buster hero of this raggedy flying business, where the inhabitants spoike “habla el Espanol”
English, and other tough macho tongues, ready to right a wrong.
VI
It was in this cosmos that Katherine Hepburn, Mary Astor, Jean Arthur, Rosalind Russel, Bogy, Jimmy Cagney, Paul Muni, George Raft flipping the “craps” , the “I wanted wings” idiom playing out in the skies above and the “ Only Angels haveWings” below. to “Brooklyn” Hawks living up to his name, the memorable scenes, foretasting the jet age and the “craps” that go with it.
December 28, 20915 The City that never sleeps
