This improbable, irresistible adventure places Cary Grant, Richard Barthelmess, Jean Arthur, and Rita Hayworth among a small crew of Americans isolated in a south-of-the-border backwater, facing the perils of flying mail over the Andes and the even greater risks of caring about one another. As Robin Wood wrote, “Only Angels Have Wings is a completely achieved masterpiece . . . drawing together the main thematic threads of Hawks's work”-personal and professional allegiances, the meaning of responsibility, the very real presence of mortality. The film manages to be goofy, touching, and exhilarating at once: nobody was better than Hawks at making a story shadowed by death glint with vitality and verve.