Like all of Howard Hawks' best pictures, the story isn't its the most important aspect - it's about the characters. Like all of Howard Hawks' best pictures, this is about how a disparate bunch of people, trapped together cope with adversity.
Hawks' magic was to take a story, usually a macho action story like this (ideally about his first love, aeroplanes) and make it into a brilliantly sensitive study of how we interact with each other. There's no arty-farty pretentious in his films, but they delve as deeply into the nature of humanity as anything featuring a moody Frenchman staring at his cigarette burning for an hour and a half.
Not just because of the aeroplane connection, this has a very similar feel as another classic about friendship, loyalty and duty: TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH.
This is Howard Hawk's world - you can imagine him strutting through the airfield, cigar in mouth probably kicking chickens out of his path. Its no-nonsense script doesn't telegraph its message, what isn't spoken often says as much as what is said. This is best exemplified by the character Richard Bathelmess, one of Hawks' lading men from the early days who makes such an impression with only a handful of terse lines.
What makes this so intriguing is its peculiar miscasting. Besides bringing back Barthelmess, Cary Grant plays the typical ultra macho Clarke Gable type role - indeed, he's virtually playing Clark Gable's character from RED DUST. Surprisingly his charm works making his character completely genuine. It's often easy to forget that Cary Grant wasn't just Mr Suave - he was a superb actor.
Jean Arthur is the least likely person to play a Jean Harlow type role but she's virtually Vantine from RED DUST. Jean Arthur does not look like or sound like a sleazy showgirl yet you absolutely believe she is. OK, she might not be everyone's favourite actress but she's excellent here.
Back in the 30s and 40s there were things loosely called 'women's films' (usually with Kay Francis looking glum). They were sentimental emotionally charged melodramas providing an emotional outlet for women's feeling. Films for men were tough action stories since of course men didn't have feelings back then! What Hawks did was to surreptitiously show that men too, even the most hard-boiled macho alpha males also had feelings. In this, he doesn't just create perfectly that other reality, a reality which was one he himself felt at home in but immerses you into it.
Hawks' magic was to take a story, usually a macho action story like this (ideally about his first love, aeroplanes) and make it into a brilliantly sensitive study of how we interact with each other. There's no arty-farty pretentious in his films, but they delve as deeply into the nature of humanity as anything featuring a moody Frenchman staring at his cigarette burning for an hour and a half.
Not just because of the aeroplane connection, this has a very similar feel as another classic about friendship, loyalty and duty: TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH.
This is Howard Hawk's world - you can imagine him strutting through the airfield, cigar in mouth probably kicking chickens out of his path. Its no-nonsense script doesn't telegraph its message, what isn't spoken often says as much as what is said. This is best exemplified by the character Richard Bathelmess, one of Hawks' lading men from the early days who makes such an impression with only a handful of terse lines.
What makes this so intriguing is its peculiar miscasting. Besides bringing back Barthelmess, Cary Grant plays the typical ultra macho Clarke Gable type role - indeed, he's virtually playing Clark Gable's character from RED DUST. Surprisingly his charm works making his character completely genuine. It's often easy to forget that Cary Grant wasn't just Mr Suave - he was a superb actor.
Jean Arthur is the least likely person to play a Jean Harlow type role but she's virtually Vantine from RED DUST. Jean Arthur does not look like or sound like a sleazy showgirl yet you absolutely believe she is. OK, she might not be everyone's favourite actress but she's excellent here.
Back in the 30s and 40s there were things loosely called 'women's films' (usually with Kay Francis looking glum). They were sentimental emotionally charged melodramas providing an emotional outlet for women's feeling. Films for men were tough action stories since of course men didn't have feelings back then! What Hawks did was to surreptitiously show that men too, even the most hard-boiled macho alpha males also had feelings. In this, he doesn't just create perfectly that other reality, a reality which was one he himself felt at home in but immerses you into it.