MovieChat Forums > Only Angels Have Wings (1939) Discussion > Did Not Believe Hawks Women Characteriza...

Did Not Believe Hawks Women Characterizations...

posted 10 years ago by xerses13
8 replies | jump to latest

Howard Hawks seemed to have some peculiar views on Women. That they were a nuisance, eye candy and would not 'stick' when the going got tough. If that were really so then this Country would have never gotten any further West of the Appalachians.

Judy comes across as a weak whiner who does not know the score and Bonnie is just plain irritating. ALL THE TIME. Then again never really understood the appeal of Jean Arthur. Its voice sounded like finger nails on the blackboard. Only in SHANE, her last film did she make a positive impression on us.

[–] whiskeyTango-06 10 years ago

it's not all hawks -- there were three other writers on the project, including a woman.

(a lot of what is bothering you is in the writing, not the shooting, of the film.)

[–] xerses13 10 years ago

KevCarrico: HAWKS was at the top and as President Truman stated 'the buck stops here'. This type of Women characterization was also present in other of his films and more then once.

[–] Noir-It-All 8 years ago

I don't care for Grant pouring water over Rita Hayworth's hair. He was treating her like an abusive father treats a bad little girl.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

Women who ride banana boats to South America are bound to be an unusual bunch. They might not compare well to 'typical' females.

One woman who ran away from home and an unhappy marriage to a guy named 'Barnes.' She stowed away on a banana boat that was running guns to the Mexican revolutionaries in the 1920's. Her name was Florence Lowe and she was the granddaughter of Thaddeus Lowe, a civil engineer who inaugurated the army's balloon corps during the Civil War.

I am sort of off topic, but this is an aviation movie. Lowe jumped ship in Mexico and went cross-country dressed as a man. She picked up the nickname 'Pancho' before returning home to Palo Alto.

Then she got bit with the flying bug and learned to fly those cloth and wire contraptions. While being a barnstormer she bought some farmland on the plateau just north of Palmdale and east of Lancaster. Her farm was adjacent to the flight path for Muroc Army Airfield.

After World War II she opened up a 'dude ranch' on her farm that became known as the 'Happy Bottom Riding Club.' I forget the real name, but everybody remembers it better by the fake name. She met a number of people who came to visit her riding club, including Charles "Chuck" Yeager and I think Howard Hawks. Most men took to her even though she was far from great looking. After all, she could easily pass for a man.

Thank you for giving me an excuse to write about Pancho.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] xerses13 8 years ago

dannieboy20906; Not sure what type of reply your looking for, but believe you agree with our premise.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

I do not think that I seek a reply at all. I just throw my 'two cents' in. I was trying to make two points.

The first is that Howard Hawk's view, or perhaps his fantasy of women who are on the 'frontier,' that is in his westerns and in flying movies are not supposed to be 'girl next door' types. Of course he sees them as different. The men are also atypical.

The second point is that women of his vision really do exist and they are different. In some ways they are like men and in other ways they are even more feminine, perhaps making up for being a bit masculine.

I just watch them in the films as individual characters. They are who they are.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] liscarkat (16515) 2 months ago

My grandfather kept company with Pancho Barnes for a while when he was a contractor at Muroc in the early 1940s. I don't know how far the relationship went. She looks kind of like Randy Quaid to me; he must have been attracted to her personality.

[–] franzkabuki 8 years ago

Actually, I think the so-called "Hawks'ian woman" were generally understood to be unusually no-nonsense, tough and independent - quite the opposite of mere "eye candy". Thinking of Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, Russell in His Girl Friday and also Bacall both in The Big Sleep as well as To Have And Have Not, I can certainly see where this stereotype, if you will, is coming from.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan