Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks is one of America's great directors. His visual style is so clean that it’s almost invisible; and unlike many of his counterparts who worked in just one or two genres, Hawks worked in them all. Screwball comedies, westerns, war movies, mysteries, musicals, were all made better with his keen eye and direction.

His best films celebrate "the group": professionals bound together by camaraderie and their work. Take for example RED RIVER, where a group of cattlemen drive a herd of cattle through one challenge after another. Indians, rustlers, floods and self-doubt challenge "the group", and yet they make it through. Or HIS GIRL FRIDAY where a group of newsmen work hard to keep another member of "the group" from leaving. That group member (Rosalind Russell) represents another Hawks theme, the smart, tough, fast-talking woman. They're in most of his movies. Katharine Hepburn starts a battle of the sexes in BRINGING UP BABY, Lauren Bacall teaches Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and Joanne Dru joins the ranks of Hawks' women who invade a mans world in RED RIVER.

Hawks inherited a small fortune at an early age, which enabled him to move out to Hollywood and begin working in the business that mesmerized him, show business. He would be fortunate throughout his career when it came to finances. When he wanted to make a movie his way, and was receiving resistance from the studios, he would go out and get his own money for the film. This may be commonplace today, but back in the 30’s and 40’s this was almost unheard of. One of his big financial supporters was millionaire Howard Hughes, whom is sometimes mistaken for Hawks when films like THE OUTLAW are discussed (both Hawks and Hughes worked on the film).

One of the best things about Hawks is all of the stories about him (some true, some not). Hawks once told his friend Ernest Hemingway that he could make a great movie out of his worst book. He told Hemingway that he thought TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT was a bunch of junk. Today the movie is remembered as the film that brought Bogart and Bacall together, but that doesn’t change the fact that, with the help of Willaim Faulkner (he wrote the screen play), Hawks did make a great movie out of Hemingway’s book. Then there is the story about Jack Warner (Warner Bros.) giving Hawks $50,000 to buy the rights to the new Raymond Chandler book THE BIG SLEEP after seeing the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. Hawks paid Chandler $5,000 for the rights and kept the rest for himself.

Film Night salute Howard Hawks with 6 of his movies, HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Friday, July 14^th), THE THING (Saturday, July 15^th), THE BIG SLEEP (Friday, August 11^th) GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (Saturday, August 12^th), SCARFACE (Friday, August 18^th) and RED RIVER (Saturday, August 19^th).

Howard Hawks Salute sponsored by

Hawks on the RED RIVER set with John Ireland and Montgomery Clift.

Links to other Hawks pages

Howard Hawks at Rick's Cafe

Howard Hawks at Starlight News

Howard Hawks at Reel Classics

Schedule

Film Index

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