Only Angels Have Wings is Howard Hawks's existential look at the human condition as found among the employees of a small airline serving the backwaters of South America. Cary Grant is the chief pilot trying to keep his men and machines operating on a regular schedule through weather conditions and terrain that take an impossibly high toll. Enter Jean Arthur as a stranded showgirl attempting to get to Panama, who falls for Grant but is nevertheless repelled by his evident denial and fatalism. A cast of recognizably Hawksian characters adds to the rich atmosphere of humor, adventure, and grim duty. The evidence of past emotional crashes-and the fear of future ones-lies just below the surface of scenes that are nicely balanced by the physical hazards of flying blind and dodging mountains in rickety airplanes.-Patrick LoughneyPreserved from original negative.