MovieChat Forums > Hatari! (1962) Discussion > 'Only Angels Have Wings' in Africa

'Only Angels Have Wings' in Africa

posted 10 years ago by s007davis
2 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone else think that Howard Hawks' Hatari feels like an updated version of his own earlier film Only Angels Have Wings with John Wayne's Sean Mercer in the Cary Grant/Geoff Carter role, Elsa Martinelli's Dallas in the Jean Arthur/Bonnie Lee role and with wild game hunters in Africa replacing mail pilots in South America?

Not that it hurts the entertainment value. I enjoy both films but has anyone else noticed these similarities?

[–] joegerardi-1 10 years ago

There's an old saying in music:
"Vivaldi didn't write 300 concerti, he wrote one concerto 300 times."

Pretty much the same can be said for Howard Hawks: He was never afraid of re-doing his own movies. Thus this, and "To Have and Have Not," also considered a copy of OAHW, El Dorado and Rio Bravo, fundamentally the same movie twice, and others as well.

..Joe

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16225) 2 years ago

It's not a bad comparison.