FILM 1240: ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS
TRIVIA: Richard Barthelmess had
deep scars that resulted from an infection due to plastic surgery. The only way
to cover them up was with heavy make-up, but Howard Hawks convinced him
to leave them the way they were because "those scars tell the story and
are important to your character." Hawks also removed planks to make
Barthelmess appear smaller, to reflect his character's inferiority among his
fellow pilots.
Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get
along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational
style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way
(not unlike his other "Hawksian women"), Arthur flatly said, "I
can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot,
"You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've
helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do
this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find
Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not
(1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you
ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you
want to do. If a kid [Lauren Bacall]
can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and
Arthur never collaborated again.
"Calling Baranca" later
became a recurring line in Looney Toons/Merrie Melodies cartoons.
Dutchy's statements about flying,
"Include me out," is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn. It is one
of many malapropisms attributed to him.
Howard Hawks had known a
real-life flier who once parachuted from a burning plane. His copilot died in
the ensuing crash and his fellow pilots shunned him for the rest of his life.
Howard Hawks remembered
that when the movie was released, "a certain critic said 'It's the only
picture Hawks ever made that didn't have any truth in it.' I wrote him a letter
and said, 'Every blooming thing in that movie was true.' I knew the men that
were in it and everything about it. But it was just where truth was stranger
than fiction."
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