Only Angels Have Wings

Geoff Carter runs a lean, risk hungry air freight outfit in a rough South American port, where every landing is a gamble and every contract counts. A traveling performer touches down in town and upends the already fragile balance of the operation. As Geoff and his seasoned pilots race against weather and hostile terrain to land a coveted contract, personal tensions flare and loyalties are tested. Bonnie Lee, the visitor, becomes entangled with the crew and with Geoff, while the other pilots bring courage, bravado, and a streak of humor that keeps the team from cracking. The result is a tense blend of romance and danger framed by Hawks's brisk, muscular direction.

Released in 1939, the movie was directed by Howard Hawks with a screenplay by Jules Furthman. Source material: original screenplay. Described as an original story rather than an adaptation, it pairs Hawks with a high profile cast and places Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in a tense blend of romance and frontier aviation.

Box office figures are not provided in the available data, so no reliable worldwide gross is stated here. Please consult archival sources for precise numbers.

This film is notable for Hawks's sharp ensemble and for launching Rita Hayworth into stardom while giving Cary Grant a confident roguish edge. Hayworth's screen presence and the aerial photography helped redefine how romance and danger could co exist on screen. The brisk pacing, authentic aviation detail, and a dry humor undercut the tension to keep the drama engaging.

Critics have noted the film's tight dialogue, moral tensions, and themes of duty versus desire. It foregrounds leadership under pressure, the cost of risk in frontier aviation, and the romance that blooms amid peril while keeping Hawks's trademark brisk humor. The result is a compact, adult adventure that blends love with professional ethics, a hallmark of Hawks's humanist style.